RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS |
9 Months Ended |
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Sep. 30, 2024 | |
Related Party Transactions [Abstract] | |
RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS |
NOTE 9 – RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS
In March 2024, the Company entered into a consulting agreement with Christian Okonsky, one of the Company’s founders, former Chairman of the Board and former Chief Technology Officer, pursuant to which he was entitled to a monthly fee of $5,000 and payment of 1% of the gross proceeds from any merger, sale or change of control transaction (“Change of Control Payment”) (as determined by the board of directors) entered into by the Company for a period of up to 6 months following the termination of the consulting agreement. The consulting agreement had a 24 month term and was cancelable by either party with 30 days notice. This consulting agreement terminates any remaining provisions of the Pink Possum agreement noted below other than the warrants remain outstanding. On September 9, 2024, Mr. Okonsky resigned from the board of directors of the Company. The consulting agreement was amended and the monthly fee was amended to $8,333 per month for twelve months and the Change of Control Payment was eliminated. Ms. Karin-Joyce Tjon, a current board member, was appointed by the board to be the chairman of the board.
During 2022, the Company issued purchase orders and made prepayments for prototype parts of $21,860 to a vendor that Pink Possum, LLC (“Pink Possum”), an entity controlled by Mr. Okonsky, holds an equity interest of 25% as of September 30, 2024. This vendor is not expected to provide additional prototype or production parts.
In December 2022, the Company entered into an employment agreement with Mr. Okonsky whereby Mr. Okonsky became an employee on January 2, 2023 with an annual salary of $170,000 and healthcare and other benefits that are also provided to all Company employees. The consulting agreement with Pink Possum, discussed below, was terminated upon execution of the employment agreement. Mr. Okonsky informed the Company on January 27, 2024 that he would resign his employment and forfeit his salary and benefits effective February 1, 2024.
In November 2020 and February 2021, the Company entered into an operating lease with an entity controlled by the Company’s two founders for its future headquarters and production facility in Liberty Hill, Texas. In October 2021, the Company began discussions for an additional amendment to the lease, in anticipation of manufacturing vehicles at this location, which would have resulted in the monthly payment of $100,000 for the first year of the lease and increasing annually throughout the term of the lease to $107,000 in the final year. Monthly payments for the initial lease and the amended agreement would have begun at the time a certificate of occupancy was received by the landlord. No monthly rent payments were made on these leases.
On April 27, 2022, the Company informed the landlord that it would be terminating the lease. On May 27, 2022, the landlord notified the Company that the landlord would refund $85,756 of the prepaid rent and security deposit balance of $601,818 paid by the Company and the Company recognized a loss on the unrefunded prepaid rent and security deposit amount in 2022. In October 2023, the landlord notified the Company that there were additional costs that exceeded the amount of the refund, and the landlord released the Company from paying any amounts in excess of the original expected refund. The landlord also released the Company from any remaining obligations under the lease and amendments. The Company recognized a loss on the termination of this lease of $85,756 in the year ended December 31, 2023.
On August 28, 2020, the Company entered into consulting agreements with Pink Possum, an entity controlled by Mr. Okonsky, and Highbridge Consultants, LLC (“Highbridge”), an entity controlled by Mr. Adrian James, a co-founder of the Company, pursuant to which Messrs. Okonsky and James provide the Company with services in exchange for warrants. On March 26, 2021 and March 25, 2021, respectively, Pink Possum and Highbridge entered into amendments to the consulting agreements agreeing to exchange the original warrants for new ten-year warrants to purchase 27 and 35 shares, respectively, of common stock at an exercise price of $176,400.00. The Highbridge warrants were fully exercised on a cashless basis in 2021 and the Pink Possum warrants remain outstanding as of September 30, 2024.
In addition, pursuant to the consulting agreements, upon the occurrence of a Fundamental Transaction (as defined below) for an aggregate gross sales price of $100.0 million or more, each entity will receive a cash payment equal to 1% of such gross sales price. For the purposes of the consulting agreements, “Fundamental Transaction” means any of the following: (i) a consolidation or merger involving the Company if the holders of the voting securities of the Company that are outstanding immediately prior to the consummation of such consolidation or merger do not, immediately after the consummation of such consolidation or merger, hold voting securities that collectively possess at least a majority of the voting power of all the outstanding securities of the surviving entity of such consolidation or merger or such surviving entity’s parent entity; (ii) a transfer or issuance (in a single transaction or series of related transactions) by one or more of the Company and its stockholders to one person or to any group of persons acting in concert, of shares of the Company’s capital stock then collectively possessing 50% or more of the voting power of all then outstanding shares of the Company’s capital stock (computed on an as-converted to common stock basis); or (iii) any sale, license, lease, assignment or other disposition of all or substantially all of the assets of the Company. Furthermore, commencing upon the completion of the Company’s initial public offering of the shares of our common stock, if the Company’s market capitalization exceeds $300.0 million for a period of 21 consecutive trading days, each of the entities will receive an additional cash payment equal to $15.0 million; provided that the Company will have the right, in its sole discretion, to make the foregoing $15.0 million payment by the issuance of shares of the Company’s common stock. The foregoing amounts will be payable to the entities if the above milestones occur any time prior to the ten-year anniversary of the original consulting agreements, or August 28, 2030. The foregoing provision was terminated as to Pink Possum in connection with the consulting agreement between the Company and Mr. Okonsky described above.
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