15. 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 incurred various expenses associated with the investigation into these matters prior and subsequent to the termination of the employees and the associated legal proceedings. In December 2023, we recovered approximately $190,000 in funds that had been recovered by the Chinese authorities, which is included in Other Income for the nine months ended March 31, 2024. 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.

Potential Impact of Economic Conditions in and Trade Relations with 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, as well as geo-political drivers such as sanctions on Chinese companies, generally 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 further adverse effect on our business and results of operations in future quarters.

In addition, China’s export limitations on Germanium and Gallium, two materials that are commonly used in infrared optical components, are becoming increasingly disruptive to our business with adverse impacts. The initial restrictions imposed in July 2023 required all international customers to provide an end user statement for approval before receiving an export license. Following that announcement, supply of Germanium was disrupted, though not completely stopped. This also resulted in significant price increases in the cost of Germanium material. Following these restrictions we had proactively canceled a number of customer orders for Germanium, to reduce our exposure in case of a supply disruption.

Then, in December 2024, China escalated trade tensions with the U.S. by imposing more stringent export restrictions on critical minerals, including Germanium. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce cited national security concerns as the rationale for these measures, which effectively banned shipments of these minerals to the U.S., and significantly limited shipments of those minerals for dual-use applications in many other countries.

As a purchaser of Germanium, we cannot provide any assurance that we will be able to obtain adequate supplies of Germanium, or that the timing or costs of obtaining such raw materials will be acceptable to us. As a precaution against disruptions in the Germanium supply chain and in anticipation of increased demand for optics produced from other materials, particularly our proprietary BlackDiamond materials, we have, in agreement with a key customer, canceled sales orders for optics made of Germanium and are actively working with our customers to redesign their systems to use our BlackDiamond materials instead of Germanium-based materials. Additionally, we are actively collaborating with our customers to ensure those redesigned systems are tested and qualified as replacements for legacy Germanium-based systems. In some cases, such as complex defense and airborne systems, the re-qualification of such redesigned systems is a lengthy process that can take up to two years. In other systems such as commercial systems and also some specific defense systems, this is a faster process, that takes several months.

In February 2025 , the U.S. announced additional tariffs on goods imported from China, effective immediately, and China announced its intent to follow suit and implement additional tariffs on goods imported to China from the U.S. We have in place a number of strategies to mitigate the impact of tariffs, which we will adjust in response to these additional tariffs. However, given the uncertainty regarding the potential for additional trade actions by the U.S. or other countries, any future impact on our operations and financial results is uncertain and these impacts could be more significant than in the past. Further, we can provide no assurance that the strategies we implemented to mitigate the impact of such tariffs or other trade actions will continue to be successful. To the extent that our supply chain, costs, sales, or profitability are negatively affected by the tariffs or other trade actions, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely affected.

Impact of Recent Wars

In February 2022, Russian military forces invaded Ukraine. This war has led to ongoing sanctions on Russia, which have had continuing impacts on our supply chain of raw materials, particularly Germanium. Separately, Israel declared war on Hamas in October 2023. Initially, this resulted in a temporary increase in our sales, as Israel worked to replace electro-optical systems that in some cases use our materials. Our sales to customers in this region have since stabilized, however, it is still possible that this war could have a negative impact on our business as a result of the overall economic impact in Israel. In addition to the significant defense related market in Israel, we also serve many commercial related applications and work with commercial companies in Israel, and the business of those customers may be negatively impacted by the war over time. Given the dynamic nature of this situation, we cannot reasonably estimate the impact of either the Russian-Ukraine conflict or the Israel-Hamas war on our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows into the foreseeable future.[NK2]