Commitments and Contingencies

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2019

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Commitments and Contingencies

Note 5

Commitments and Contingencies:

Litigation

Suneet Singal

On September 21, 2018, Suneet Singal, the Company’s former Chief Executive Officer filed a suit against the Company and its transfer agent, Broadridge Corporate Issuer Solutions Inc., in the Supreme Court of New York for the County of New York. The suit alleges breach of contract, breach of good faith and, with regard to Broadridge, a violation of UCC Article 8-401, and demands the issuance and release to Mr. Singal of 1,000,000 shares of the Company’s Common stock, as well as other unspecified damages.

The Company entered into a Severance Agreement with Mr. Singal on December 22, 2017, as a result of which Mr. Singal resigned as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer effective January 2, 2018. Pursuant to the Severance Agreement, the Company agreed to issue 1,000,000 shares of common stock to Mr. Singal.

Under the Contribution Agreement, FCOP was to contribute certain properties to the Company. Mr. Singal was, at the time the Contribution Agreement was signed, a principal in FCOP and FCREIT, and continued to the Company’s knowledge to be a principal throughout his tenure as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer.

In January 2018, the Company learned of a suit filed in November 2017 by the holder of the majority interest in Avalon Jubilee, LLC. The suit was filed against the previous holders of the two interests and alleged that the right of first refusal contained in the operating agreement for Avalon Jubilee, LLC had not been honored, thereby not allowing the majority holder its option to purchase those interests. While the Company was not named in the suit, the suit did name several ‘John Does’ as defendants and cast doubt upon the legitimacy of the transfer of the interest in Avalon Jubilee, LLC to the Company. As a result of this discovery, the Company was required under accounting rules to write down its investment in Avalon Jubilee, LLC by about $1.4 million, and expended additional funds to enter into negotiations with the majority interest holder to resolve the Company’s ownership of its interest in Avalon Jubilee, LLC. On April 27, 2018, the Company and certain of its subsidiaries entered into an agreement with Alpha Alpha LLC and Presidential Realty Corporation and certain of its subsidiaries, under which the Company’s subsidiary, First Capital Avalon Jubilee LLC, was recognized as a 17.9133% member in Avalon Jubilee, LLC, and the operating agreement and other documents were so amended to reflect that acknowledgement.

Shortly after the Avalon matter was resolved, the Company discovered that one of the other properties transferred to it by FCOP, known as Greensands II, was not the property described in the documents underlying the transaction, including a draft appraisal used as part of the valuation determination for the stock issued to FCOP for the transaction. The property valued in that appraisal was actually a neighboring property once owned by FCOP and known as Greensands I; however the appraisal referred to it as Greensands II. The actual property transferred was significantly smaller than the property which the Company believed it was purchasing. A subsequent re-appraisal and re-valuation of the actual property received resulted in a write-down of the property’s value by $1.4 million. That adjustment required the Company to restate its 2017 financials as reported in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, and delayed by several days the filing of its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2018, resulting in the Company incurring significant additional accounting and legal fees for those filings.

The Company’s Board of Directors reviewed these matters, as well as the fact that:

● there were unpaid real estate taxes, of $51, associated with the transferred properties which were not paid by FCOP prior to the transaction, and which were not, under the terms of the Contribution Agreement, to be assumed by the Company, resulting in the Company being forced to pay those taxes rather than lose those properties to foreclosure by the taxing authorities;

● a loan made by the Company to a company in FCREIT’s corporate group, for $145, which was guaranteed by Mr. Singal, was never repaid;

● Mr. Singal, despite being required by his employment agreement with the Company to work for the Company full-time, never achieved that status; and

● certain properties transferred by FCOP to the Company were not in the condition expected by the Company as a result of the discussions before the transaction.

Upon completing its review, the Board determined that the award of shares to Mr. Singal under his Severance Agreement should be rescinded, noting that the Company had incurred significant and meaningful damages as a result of the various write-downs, non-payment of debts and taxes and other factors identified above. On December 18, 2018, the Company filed a counterclaim regarding such matters that included such damages. The Company has also filed a Motion to Dismiss the suit, and is awaiting the Court’s ruling on that Motion.

Possible Litigation

As previously reported, on April 5, 2019, the Company and Gadsden Growth Properties, Inc. closed the transaction described in the Stock Purchase Agreement dated March 13, 2019, as amended, pursuant to which Gadsden agreed to transfer and assign to the Company all of its general partnership interests and Class A limited partnership interests in Gadsden Growth Properties, L.P., a Delaware limited partnership (“OPCO”), the operating partnership of Gadsden that holds all of its assets and liabilities, in exchange for shares of the Company’s common stock (the “Common Stock”), 7% Series A Cumulative Convertible Perpetual Preferred Stock (the “Series A Preferred Stock”), Series B Non-Voting Convertible Preferred Stock (the “Series B Preferred Stock”) and 10% Series C Cumulative Convertible Preferred Stock (the “Series C Preferred Stock”).

One of the properties acquired by the Company as a result of this transaction is the Mission Hills property, described elsewhere in this filing.

On October 18, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) commenced a civil action (the “Civil Action”) against Jean Danhong Chen, Tony Jianyun Ye, Kai Hao Robinson, Kuansheng Chen, the Law offices of Jean D. Chen, A Professional Corporation, Tree Lined Holdings, LLC, and Golden State Regional Center, LLC in a complaint that was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

The complaint states that “[T]his case involves fraud, self-dealing, and unregistered brokerage activity in violation of the federal securities laws. Defendants Attorney Jean Chen (‘Chen’), her law firm, Law Offices of Jean D. Chen (the ‘Law Offices’), and her husband, Tony Ye (‘Ye’), were paid over $12 million in undisclosed commissions to sell securities to their legal clients in offerings under the federal EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. They attempted to conceal their unlawful activity with the help of Defendant Kuansheng Chen (‘Kuansheng Chen’), who provided an off-shore bank account to receive the transaction-based compensation and posed as the head of a Beijing immigration agency that was actually co-owned and controlled by Chen and Ye.” The complaint also alleges that the named defendants used Fremont during 2014 - 2016 in their activities giving rise to the complaint.

Neither the Company, Gadsden, nor any of their respective subsidiaries are named as defendants in the Civil Action, and no legal claim has been asserted in the Civil Action against the Mission Hills Square property or Fremont. Additionally, the Seller is also not a defendant in the Civil Action. None of the defendants in the Civil Action are directors, officers, or affiliates of the Company, or any owner of 5% or more of the Company’s voting securities or, based upon current knowledge, any associate of any director, officer or affiliate of the Company. Although the individual defendants in the Civil Action are alleged by the SEC to have used Fremont in connection with the actions described in the Civil Action, there are no claims in the Civil Action that Gadsden, Fremont, or the Seller participated in the actions described since the Seller acquired Fremont in 2018.

On March 7, 2019, Jean Danhong Chen and Tony Jianyun Ye were indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for Visa Fraud, Obstruction of Justice, Identity and Aggravated Identity Theft and Criminal Forfeiture.  This indictment was unsealed on March 25, 2019. Gadsden has informed the Company that it was not aware of any possible claims against Fremont or the Mission Hills Square property when Gadsden acquired Fremont in February, 2019. On March 25, 2019 Gadsden was informed it was a subject of a criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice.

In the acquisition of Fremont by Gadsden from the Seller, Gadsden escrowed part of the purchase consideration, in the form of Gadsden securities, that was issued to the Seller, which had at that time an estimated value of approximately $55 million. The Civil Action alleges that at least $40 million was loaned by Bay Area Investment Fund I to Fremont. This loan has been assumed by the Seller, is currently being paid by the Seller and is not in default. Gadsden has not reserved any amounts in its financial statements, and may use the escrowed securities for any undisclosed liabilities, including any liabilities related to the Civil Action. Gadsden is not able to determine if there is any liability of Fremont in the Civil Action, of Gadsden in the criminal investigation, or related matters, or if any such liability will be in excess of the escrowed amount. Gadsden believes that, if there is any liability to the Company, it is not in excess of the escrowed amount, and intends to vigorously defend itself against any such allegations if made, although such defenses can be expensive and there can be no guarantee that such defenses will be successful.

Nevertheless, as described above, Gadsden agreed to indemnity and hold the Company harmless from all losses of the Company or any of its subsidiaries arising from or related to the Civil Action, the facts described therein and all civil or other actions arising from or related to such Civil Action.

The Company does not believe that there will be any negative consequences to its ownership of Mission Hills as a result of this action, and therefore cannot at this time make any provision for any contingency in this matter. Nevertheless, the Company will continue to monitor this matter and intends to defend its rights in this matter to the fullest extent possible.

Other litigation

The Company and certain subsidiaries are, have been and may be, involved in other miscellaneous litigation and legal actions, including product liability, consumer, commercial, tax and governmental matters, which can arise from time to time in the ordinary course of the Company’s business. The Company believes that these other litigation and claims will likely be resolved without a material effect on the Company’s consolidated financial position, results of operations or liquidity. However, litigation and legal actions are inherently unpredictable, and excessive verdicts can result in such situations. Although the Company believes it has or will have substantial defenses in these matters, it may, in the future, incur judgments or enter into settlements of claims that could have a material adverse effect on results of operations in a particular period.

Registration Rights Agreement under Remediation Plan

On September 24, 2018, in connection with the Remediation Agreement (as described in Note 5), the Company entered into a Registration Rights Agreement with OFI and Dr. Dolev Rafaeli, Dennis M. McGrath and Dr. Yoav Ben-Dror (the “Note Holders”), pursuant to which the Company agreed to register all shares of common stock that may be issued upon conversion of the Series C Preferred Stock and Series D Preferred Stock, as well as all other shares of the Company’s capital stock held by OFI (the “Registrable securities”) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”). The Company agreed to file a registration statement covering the resale of such Registrable Securities within 30 days of the date of the Registration Rights Agreement and cause such registration statement to be declared effective under the Securities Act as soon as possible but, in any event, no later than 120 days following the filing date if such registration statement is filed on Form S-3 or 150 days if such registration statement is filed on Form S-1. If such registration statement was not filed or declared effective by the SEC on or prior to such dates, or if after such registration statement is declared effective, without regard for the reason thereunder or efforts therefor, such registration statement ceases for any reason to be effective for more than an aggregate of 30 trading days during any 12-month period, which need not be consecutive, then in addition to any other rights the holders of Registrable Securities may have under the Registration Rights Agreement or under applicable law, the Company shall pay to each holder an amount in cash, as partial liquidated damages and not as a penalty, equal to 1.0% of the product obtained by multiplying (x) $1.00 by (y) the number of shares of Registrable Securities held by the holder (the “Investment Amount”), provided that, in no event will the Company be liable for liquidated damages in excess of 1.0% of the Investment Amount in any single month and that the maximum aggregate liquidated damages payable to the holders under the Registration Rights Agreement shall be 10% of the Investment Amount. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the filing and effective date deadlines above shall be extended during such time as the Company is actively pursuing a business combination involving the Company that is approved by each of OFI and the Note Holders. The Company did not file a registration statement to cover the shares under the Remediation Agreement, but instead, as result of the potential merger transaction (as described in Note 1 and Note 8) under which, inter alia, the Company intended to register all Registrable Securities through a registration statement on a Form S-4, and the subsequent Gadsden Purchase Agreement (as described in Note 1) the filing and effective date deadlines above are currently under extension. As the accounting for any obligations due under the Registration Rights Agreement falls under ASC 450 “Contingencies”, the Company will make provisions for any liabilities and record related expense, at which time the amount to be paid is probable and reasonably estimable. As of March 31, 2019, management believes the amount to be paid, if any, is not probable and reasonably estimable.

The new Registration Rights Agreement replaced previous Registration Rights Agreements with OFI and the Note Holders. Consequently, OFI and the Note Holders waived their rights to liquidated damages in connection with the late filing and in connection with the effectiveness deadline for previous registration statements.

Amended and Restated Separation Agreement

On February 12, 2018, the Company entered into an Amended and Restated Separation Agreement with Mr. Stephen Johnson, its former Chief Finance Officer, pursuant to which the Company has agreed to pay Mr. Johnson an amount of $123 in 11 installments as follows: the first six installments of $10 each, and the following five installments of $12.5 each. The first payment was made on February 15, 2018, and subsequent payments are to be made on or before the 15th day of each succeeding month, with the final installment to be paid on or before December 15, 2018. The Company also agreed to provide a health (medical, dental and/or vision) insurance reimbursement payment for Mr. Johnson and his family, for a period of 11 months, in the agreed upon amount of $3 per month. The Company did not make all of the installment payments during 2018 and as such as of March 31, 2019, the balance payable of $78 to Mr. Johnson is included in accrued compensation and related expenses.

In addition, the Company agreed to issue to Mr. Johnson 271,000 shares of the Company’s common stock six months after the date of the agreement. In August 2018, the aforesaid shares were issued to Mr. Johnson in the amount of $87, representing a share price of approximately $0.32.