CONTINGENCIES

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2023

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

CONTINGENCIES

CONTINGENCIES

Legal Proceedings

In July 2020, our former corporate general counsel (the “Plaintiff”) commenced an action against us in the Superior Court of the State of California, for the County of San Diego. The complaint alleges, among other things, that we breached the Plaintiff’s employment contract with us, as well as the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, by refusing to issue him the balance of stock options he claims we owe him. In September 2021, the Plaintiff served us and also named 10 individuals as defendants, consisting of current and former directors and employees. We do not believe that all of the defendants have yet been served. Furthermore, two individually named defendants have separately settled with the Plaintiff.

The Plaintiff alleges that such individuals agreed to knowingly and wrongfully withhold the stock options owed to him and are knowingly in receipt of stolen property. The Plaintiff seeks compensatory damages in excess of $500,000, treble damages, and reasonable attorneys’ fees. We do not believe the claims described above have merit and intend to aggressively defend against these accusations. The Plaintiff has agreed to mediation to resolve the issues. We do not believe that this litigation is likely to have a material effect on our operations.