Note 13 - Commitments and Contingencies

12 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2015

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Text Block]

13.     COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES:

Employment and consulting agreements: 

Smith has held the positions of Director, President and General Counsel of Company and its subsidiaries under various agreements and terms since March 2003. During July 2011, the Company entered into an extension agreement pursuant to which Smith continued to hold his current position in the Company through a date no later than December 31, 2012. Commencing January 1, 2012, Smith’s monthly salary was $20,000, which has been accrued and deferred. In addition, 90,000 shares of the Company’s common stock would be issued to Smith in two tranches of 45,000 shares on each of January 15, 2013 (issued) and 2014 (issued), respectively. The Company recorded expense of $240,300 for the year ended June 30, 2012, related to the future stock issuances as the bonus was fully vested at the grant date. Effective July 15, 2012, the Company entered into an extension agreement pursuant to which Smith will continue to hold his current positions in the Company through a date no later than June 30, 2014. Effective September 2012, Smith’s monthly salary became $21,000, until March 2014, at which time Smith agreed to a temporary reduction in monthly salary to $14,000 (which has been deferred). In addition, the extension provides that Smith will be issued 150,000 shares of the Company’s common stock in two tranches of 75,000 shares on each of January 15, 2014 (issued) and 2015 (issued), which shares vested immediately. The Company recorded expense of $292,500 for the year ended June 30, 2013, related to the future stock issuances as the bonus was fully vested at the grant date. As part of the extension agreement, Smith was also granted a bonus of $25,000 paid in warrants, which vested immediately, to purchase 250,000 shares of the Company’s common stock at a price of $2.10 per share and which warrants expire on December 31, 2018 and a contingent stock bonus of 100,000 shares payable on the date on which the Company’s stock price first reaches $10.00 per share (regardless of whether Smith is still providing services to the Company on such date). During September 2014, Smith agreed to continue his employment agreement through April 15, 2015 and also agreed to continue to defer his temporarily reduced salary of $14,000 per month until such date. On February 10, 2015, the Company executed an Extension Agreement with Smith pursuant to which Smith extended his employment with the Company to December 31, 2015 (with the Company having an option to extend his employment an additional six months). As part of the Extension Agreement, the balance of Smith’s existing convertible note payable (Note 8) of $854,316 as of December 31, 2014, adjusted for conversions subsequent to that date, was replaced with a new convertible note with an initial principal amount of $760,520 with terms that i) materially reduce the interest rate by 50% (from 8% to 4%), ii) increases the conversion price by 11% (from $0.45 to $0.50), iii) sets the conversion price at a fixed price so there can be no further reductions, iv) reduces the number of warrants received on conversion by 75% (from 1 warrant per unit to ¼ per unit) and v) extends the maturity date to December 31, 2017. Additionally, pursuant to the Extension Agreement, Smith: i) will continue to defer his cash compensation ($18,000 per month) until the Board of Directors re-instates cash payments to all employees and consultants who are deferring their compensation, ii) cancelled 150,000 contingent stock bonuses previously granted to him by the Company, iii) has been granted 150,000 new options which vested immediately and iv) outstanding options and warrants owned by Smith (and his donees) have been extended and had the exercise prices reduced to $1.50.

Since March 31, 2005, the Company has had various agreements with Brightcap and/or Bassani, through which the services of Bassani are provided. The Board appointed Bassani as the Company's CEO effective May 13, 2011. On July 15, 2011, Bassani, Brightcap and the Company agreed to an extension/amendment of the existing agreement with Brightcap which provided that Bassani would continue to provide the services of CEO through June 30, 2013 and will continue to provide full-time services to the Company in other capacities through June 30, 2014 at a salary of $26,000 per month. In addition Bassani will be issued 300,000 shares of the Company’s common stock issuable in three tranches of 100,000 shares on each of January 15, 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively. During the year ended June 30, 2012 the Company recorded expense of $795,000 related to the future stock issuances as the bonus was fully vested at the grant date. Effective July 15, 2012, Bassani, Brightcap and the Company agreed to a further extension/amendment of the existing agreement with Brightcap which provides that Bassani will continue to provide the services of CEO through June 30, 2014. The extension provided that Bassani will continue to provide full-time services to the Company at a cash salary of $26,000 per month (which was deferred) and Bassani will be issued 300,000 shares of the Company’s common stock issuable in two tranches of 150,000 shares on each of January 15, 2015 and 2016, respectively, which were immediately vested. The Company recorded expense of $585,000 for the year ended June 30, 2013, related to the future stock issuances as the bonus was fully vested at the grant date. During September 2014, Bassani agreed to extend his employment agreement until April 15, 2015 and that previously issued and expensed share grants of 100,000 and 150,000 shares that were to be issued on January 15, 2015, would be deferred until January 15, 2016. On February 10, 2015, the Company executed an Extension Agreement with Bassani pursuant to which Bassani extended the term of his service to the Company to December 31, 2017, (with the Company having an option to extend the term an additional six months.) As part of the agreement, the Company’s existing loan payable, deferred compensation and convertible note payable to Bassani (Notes 4, 6 and 8), were restructured into two promissory notes as follows: a) The of sum of the cash loaned by Bassani to the Company of $279,000 together with $116,277 of unreimbursed expenses through December 31, 2014 were placed into a new promissory note with initial principal of $395,277 which is due and payable on December 31, 2015 (Note 5). In connection with these sums and the new promissory note, Bassani was issued warrants to purchase 592,916 shares of the Company’s common stock at a price of $1.00 until December 31, 2020; and b) the remaining balances of the Company’s accrued obligations to Bassani ($1,464,545) were replaced with a new convertible promissory note with terms that compared with the largest prior convertible note obligation to Bassani: i) materially reduce the interest rate by 50% (from 8% to 4%), ii) increase the conversion price by 11% (from $0.45 to $0.50), iii) sets the conversion price at a fixed price so there can be no further reductions, iv) reduces the number of warrants received on conversion by 75% (from 1 warrant per unit to 1/4 per unit) and v) extends the maturity date to December 31, 2017 (Note 8). Additionally, pursuant to the Extension Agreement, Bassani i) will continue to defer his cash compensation ($31,000 per month) until the Board of Directors re-instates cash payments to all employees and consultants who are deferring their compensation, ii) cancelled 250,000 contingent stock bonuses previously granted to him by the Company, iii) has been granted 450,000 new options which vested immediately and iv) outstanding options and warrants owned by Bassani (and his donees) have been extended and had the exercise prices reduced to $1.50 (if the exercise price exceeded $1.50).

On February 10, 2015, the Company entered into an agreement with Schafer pursuant to which Schafer will continue to provide services to the Company through December 31, 2015. As part of the agreement, unreimbursed expenses of $15,956 due to Schafer at December 31, 2014 were replaced with a new promissory note with initial principal of $15,956 which is due and payable on December 31, 2015 and Schafer was issued warrants to purchase 7,978 shares of the Company’s common stock at a price of $1.00 until December 31, 2020 (Note 5). Schafer’s deferred compensation for 2014 (and prior years) in the amount of $394,246 (including a sum of $120,000 for calendar year 2014) was placed in a convertible promissory note (Note 8). Additionally, pursuant to the agreement, i) the exercise period of outstanding options and warrants owned by Schafer have been extended, and ii) 25,000 contingent stock bonuses previously granted to Schafer have been cancelled by the Company.

Contingent stock bonuses:

The Company has declared contingent deferred stock bonuses to its key employees and consultants at various times throughout the years. The stock bonuses are contingent upon the Company’s stock price exceeding a certain target price per share, and the grantees still being employed by or providing services to the Company at the time the target prices are reached.

The Company’s outstanding contingent stock bonuses as of June 30, 2015 are as follows:

Target Price per share	$	5.00	$	10.00	$	20.00
Number of shares		50,000		40,000		27,500

Execution/exercise bonuses:

As part of the agreements the Company entered into with Bassani and Smith (Note 13) effective May 15, 2013, whereby they agreed to continue to defer their cash compensation up to April 30, 2014, they were each granted the following: a) a 50% execution/exercise bonus which shall be applied upon the effective date of the notice of intent to exercise (for options and warrants) or issuance event, as applicable, of any currently outstanding and/or subsequently acquired  options, warrants and/or  contingent stock bonuses owned by each as follows: i) in the case of exercise by payment of cash, the bonus shall take the form of reduction of the exercise price; ii) in the case of cashless exercise, the bonus shall be applied to reduce the exercise price prior to the cashless exercise calculations; and iii) with regard to contingent stock bonuses, issuance shall be triggered upon the Company’s common stock reaching a closing price equal to 50% of currently specified price; and b) the right to extend the exercise period of all or part of the applicable options and warrants for up to five years (one year at a time) by annual payments of $.05 per option or warrant to the Company on or before a date during the three months prior to expiration of the exercise period at least three business days before the end of the expiration period.

During the year ended June 30, 2014, the Company extended execution/exercise bonuses with the same terms as described above to Schafer and to Jon Northrup, the Company’s other board member.

As of June 30, 2015, the execution/exercise bonus was applicable to 2,945,000 of the Company’s outstanding options and 6,759,500 of the Company’s outstanding warrants.

Litigation:

In May 2014 Mr. Morris, the Company’s former Chief Technology Officer, initiated litigation against the Company (Morris v Bion Environmental Technologies, Inc., 14-cv-02732-ADS-GRB, United States District Court, Eastern District of New York) related to his termination effective November 30, 2013. Mr. Morris sought payment of severance pay (up to $90,000) plus certain previously accrued obligations totaling approximately $87,000 plus accrued interest (which sums had been accrued as of December 31, 2014, despite the fact that the Company was disputing the obligations) and attorney’s fees. The Company and Mr. Morris entered into a negotiated general release and waiver of all claims in March 2015, whereby the Company agreed to pay Mr. Morris and his attorney $20,000 and $10,000, respectively and issued Mr. Morris 10,000 shares of the Company’s common stock valued at $6,600. On April 9, 2015, the case was formally closed by the presiding judge. As a result of the general release, during the year ended June 30, 2015, the Company reversed approximately $271,000 of previously recorded expenses for deferred compensation and severance pay which it had accrued in relation to Mr. Morris’ employment with and termination by the Company.

On September 25, 2014, Pennvest exercised its right to declare the Pennvest Loan in default and has accelerated the Pennvest Loan and has demanded that PA-1 pay $8,137,117 (principal, interest plus late charges) on or before October 24, 2014. PA-1 did not make the payment and does not have the resources to make the payment demanded by Pennvest. During August 2012, the Company provided Pennvest (and the PADEP) with data demonstrating that the Kreider 1 system met the ‘technology guaranty’ standards which were incorporated in the Pennvest financing documents and, as a result, the Pennvest Loan is now solely an obligation of PA-1. No litigation has commenced related to this matter but such litigation is likely if negotiations do not produce a resolution (Note 1 and Note 7).

The Company currently is not involved in any other material litigation.