Jbassidji

BACKGROUND

The First Amended Complaint

This appeal arises from the district court’s denial of the defendant’s motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). We therefore assume true the fol- lowing facts, alleged in the First Amended Complaint.2 See Libas Ltd. v. Carillo, 329 F.3d 1128, 1130 (9th Cir. 2003).

“In or around” November 1999, an Iranian company, Seyd Sayyad Ltd. (“SSL”), and a Hong Kong company, Kingdom Enterprises Ltd. (“KEL”), entered into a business arrangement for the purpose of harvesting Artemia cysts (brine shrimp 1 Executive Order 13,059 is appended to this opinion in its entirety. 2 All quotations in this account are from the complaint or the guarantees. BASSIDJI v. GOE 7093 eggs) from a lake in Iran.3 The Iranian government required sizeable payments for licenses and other fees to authorize the shrimp egg harvesting project, and SSL undertook related “fi- nancial commitments.” Karim Arshian, an Iranian citizen affiliated with SSL, “was required to execute several guaran- tee checks related to the proposed operations.”

Simon Goe, a U.S. citizen affiliated with KEL, guaranteed repayment of Arshian’s costs by…