The following e-filed documents, listed by NYSCEF document number (Motion 008) 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 88, 97, 98, 99, 117 were read on this motion to/for DISMISS. DECISION + ORDER ON MOTION In Motion Seq. No. 08, Defendant Younseok Choi a/k/a Titus Cho i (“Defendant” or “Choi”) moves, pursuant to CPLR 3211(a)(7), to dismiss the complaint’s causes of action for conversion, trespass to chattels, and conspiracy against him. For the following reasons, Defendant’s motion to dismiss in this action, NW Media Holdings Corp., et al. v. IBT Media Inc., et al., is granted in part and denied in part.1 FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND This action is one of a series of cases between the former and current owners of the magazine and media business Newsweek. The complaint in this case alleges that after Plaintiff NW Media Holdings Corp. (“NW Media”) purchased Newsweek from Defendant IBT Media Inc. (“IBT”), the Defendants conspired to destroy millions of pages of Newsweek data on a Google Workspace (“Workspace”) in contravention of a litigation hold. In particular, the complaint alleges that following the separation of IBT and Newsweek, Newsweek continued to maintain data for both companies in the “Newsweek Google Workspace” that is “exclusively owned by Newsweek” (Complaint, 141 n 9 [NYSCEF Doc. No. 68]). Plaintiffs allege that “[a]t all relevant times, Plaintiffs had a possessory right and interest in the electronic data, including all user accounts, emails, and documents stored in the Newsweek Google Workspace” (Complaint, 200). Nevertheless, Plaintiffs allege that current IBT chief executive officer Jonathan Davis (“Davis”) and IBT employee Choi continued to have access to the Workspace following the sale of Newsweek, despite NW Media not employing them (see Complaint,
145, 151). Plaintiffs further allege that after Newsweek issued a litigation hold in August 2020, Defendant David Jang (“Jang”)2 directed Defendant Etienne Uzac (“Uzac”) — the former chief executive officer of IBT — to “orchestrate the deletion of [problematic] documents and information from IBT accounts located in Newsweek’s Google Workspace” (Complaint,
