Opinion ID: 693405
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: 3 This case was dismissed for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). We therefore are bound to evaluate whether the complaint states causes of action on the assumption that appellants could prove the averments. Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro v. Lerner, 31 F.3d 924, 928 (9th Cir.1994). 4 Appellants claim to represent depositors of funds in what they call the constellation of banks known as Bank of Credit & Commerce International (BCCI). They do not sue the constellation of banks. They sue seventy-seven people, firms, and a foreign country. 5 The complaint alleges that the seventy-seven defendants illegally acquired various banks in the United States, caused deposits to be misused and misappropriated, and, by misrepresenting facts about BCCI, delayed the day when regulators would shut it down. By making the bank appear to be in better financial condition than it really was, some defendants are alleged to have enabled it to attract deposits which it otherwise would have been unable to obtain. Most of the complaint consists of elaborating the egregiousness of the misuse and misappropriation of funds, including allegations of financing international terrorism, narcotics, and arms dealing, and using bribery and fraud to keep governments from interfering with BCCI's and the defendants' activities, along with extensive polemical elaborations such as pointing out that the BCCI pirates were men in business suits. The looting which allegedly caused the bank to be unable to pay the depositors included loans to insiders which were intended never to be repaid. 6 The district court dismissed depositors' RICO claims without leave to amend after they filed their third amended complaint. Appellants' arguments go to whether their claims were such that relief could be granted, not whether they could have stated valid claims had they been given another chance to amend. 7 Facts dealing with particular issues are explicated more fully below, in the discussions of the issues.