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Contingencies
3 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2023
Commitments and Contingencies  
Contingencies

14. Contingencies

 

Legal

 

The Company, from time to time, is involved in various legal actions arising in the normal course of business. Management, after reviewing with legal counsel all of these actions and proceedings, believes that the aggregate losses, if any, will not have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial position or results of operations.

 

In April 2021, we terminated several employees of our China subsidiaries, LPOIZ and LPOI, including the General Manager, the Sales Manager, and the Engineering Manager, after determining that they had engaged in malfeasance and conduct adverse to our interests, including efforts to misappropriate certain of our proprietary technology, diverting sales to entities owned or controlled by these former employees and other suspected acts of fraud, theft and embezzlement. In connection with such terminations, our China subsidiaries have engaged in certain legal proceedings with the terminated employees.

 

We have incurred various expenses associated with the investigation into these matters prior and subsequent to the termination of the employees and the associated legal proceedings. These expenses, which include legal, consulting and other transitional management fees, totaled $718,000 and $400,000 during the years ended June 30, 2021 and 2022, respectively. During the three months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, respectively, expenses incurred related to the legal proceedings were immaterial.

 

Knowing that employee transitions in international subsidiaries can lead to lengthy legal proceedings that can interrupt the subsidiary’s ability to operate, compounded by the fact that our officers could not travel to China to oversee the transitions because of the travel restrictions imposed by COVID-19, we chose to enter into severance agreements with certain of the employees at the time of termination. Pursuant to the severance agreements, LPOIZ and LPOI agreed to pay such employees severance of approximately $485,000 in the aggregate, to be paid over a six-month period following the terminations in April 2021. After the execution of the severance agreements, we discovered additional wrongdoing by the terminated employees. As a result, LPOIZ and LPOI have disputed the employees’ rights to such payments and did not immediately begin making the severance payments. However, based on the likelihood that the courts in China will determine that our subsidiaries would ultimately be obligated to pay these amounts, we accrued for these payments as of June 30, 2021 and they remained accrued as of June 30, 2022. Such expenses were recorded as SG&A expenses in the Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income (Loss) for the year ended June 30, 2021. In October 2022, the severance amounts were paid to the court in accordance with a court order.

We have transitioned the management of LPOI and LPOIZ to a new management team without any significant detrimental effects on the ability of those subsidiaries to operate. We have not experienced any material adverse impact to the business operations of LPOI or LPOIZ as a result of the transition. We expect to incur minimal additional legal fees and consulting expenses in future periods as we have exhausted nearly all of our legal options and remedies.

 

Although we have taken steps to minimize the business impacts from the termination of the management employees and transition to new management personnel, we have experienced some short-term adverse impacts on LPOIZ’s and LPOI’s domestic sales in China and results of operations in the three-month period ended June 30, 2021 and the fiscal year ended June 30, 2022. The Company has not experienced, nor does management anticipate, any material adverse impact on LPOIZ’s or LPOI’s production and supply of products to its other subsidiaries for their customers.

 

COVID-19

 

Our business, results of operations financial condition, cash flows, and the stock price of our Class A common stock can be adversely affected by pandemics, epidemics, or other public health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and its lasting impacts.

 

To date, we have not experienced any significant direct financial impact of COVID-19 to our business. However, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact economic conditions, particularly in China, which has impacted the short-term and long-term demand from customers and, therefore, has negatively impacted our results of operations, cash flows, and financial position in that region. Additionally, some areas have had travel restrictions in place, including China until recently. Even though China’s travel restrictions are no longer in place, we are required to re-apply for travel visas and approvals which will continue to affect our ability to travel in China. As a result, some aspects of our operations that depend on travel, such as recruitment of senior positions, and travel of service providers to maintain our production equipment have been, and will continue to be, adversely impacted. Management is actively monitoring this situation and taking steps to mitigate the impact on our financial condition, liquidity, and results of operations globally. However, we are not able to precisely estimate the effects of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic on our future results of operations, financial, or liquidity for the remainder of fiscal 2024 or beyond.

 

Potential Impact of Economic Conditions in China

 

Due to our operations in China, our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects may be influenced to a significant degree by economic, political, legal and social conditions in China. China’s economy differs from the economies of other countries in many respects, including with respect to the level of development, growth rate, amount of government involvement, control of foreign exchange and allocation of resources. While China’s economy has experienced significant growth over the past several decades, its growth rate has declined in recent years and may continue to decline. Deteriorating economic conditions in China generally and as a remnant of China’s zero-COVID strategy, have led to lower demand for our products in China and thus lower revenues and net income for our subsidiaries in China and the Company overall. A continuation of China’s current economic conditions or a further slowdown in the economic growth, an economic downturn, a recession, or other adverse economic conditions in China is likely to have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations in future quarters.

 

Impact of Russian-Ukraine Conflict

 

In February 2022, Russian military forces invaded Ukraine. This conflict has resulted in significant economic disruption and continues to adversely impact the broader global economy, including certain of our customers and suppliers. Given the dynamic nature of this situation, we cannot reasonably estimate the impact of the Russian-Ukraine conflict on our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows into the foreseeable future.