Mobasser

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

I. The Business Dispute

Haim Moyal (Moyal) is the director of NKS Laboratories LTD (NKS). NKS manufactures hair care products, including a line of products marketed as the “Nanokeritan System.” Both Moyal and NKS are based in Israel. Hooshmand Mobasser (Mobasser) is a United States citizen. In August 2014, Moyal (for NKS) and Mobasser (for a Nevada corporation called Nanokeritan CA, Inc. (NanoCA)) entered into an Exclusive Distribution Agreement (the agreement). Under the agreement, NKS authorized NanoCA to be the exclusive distributor of Nanokeritan System products in California. The agreement had an initial term of three months, and would automatically renew for three-month terms. The parties provide widely varying accounts of what happened next.

2 According to Moyal, he and Mobasser terminated the agreement in late 2014 (after Mobasser failed to purchase the required minimum amount of Nanokeritan System products for distribution) and orally formed a new joint venture granting Mobasser the right to market NKS’s products in California for a 10 percent share of any sales profits. In 2020, Mobasser sold some of the product meant for California…