RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS |
12 Months Ended |
|---|---|
Dec. 31, 2025 | |
| Related Party Transactions [Abstract] | |
| RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS | NOTE 20 — RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS
As part of the employment agreement with its CEO, the Company provided a $1,000,000 signing bonus in 2012, which has not been paid and is recorded in accrued compensation on the consolidated balance sheets, along with unpaid base salary of $1,625,000 in aggregate attributable for the period from 2012 through 2018. Any unpaid and accrued compensation due to the CEO under his employment agreement will accrue interest on the principal amount at a rate of 10% per annum from the date of his employment agreement until it is paid. Even though the employment agreement expired and has not been renewed, the Company has an obligation under the agreement to continue to accrue interest on the unpaid balance.
As of December 31, 2025 and 2024, the Company had accrued $2,625,000 of compensation as accrued compensation and had balances of $1,366,305 and $1,503,805, respectively, in accrued interest in current liabilities on its consolidated balance sheets, related to the CEO’s employment agreement. Amounts owed under this arrangement are payable on demand. The Company recorded interest expense related to the accrued compensation in the consolidated statements of operations amounting to $262,500 and $263,219, respectively, for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024. The Company paid interest amounting to $400,000 and $200,000 in connection with the accrued compensation to the CEO during years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively.
On May 13, 2025, the Company entered into a one-year consulting agreement with Hilarie Bass, a director, with an effective date of January 1, 2025, pursuant to which Ms. Bass will provide commercial litigation advice and litigation consulting services to the Company. As compensation for these services the Company will pay Ms. Bass $100,000 payable in four quarterly installments of $25,000 each. Payments in the amount of $25,000 each were made on May 15, 2025, July 10, 2025, November 1, 2025 and January 30, 2026 related to this consulting agreement with Ms. Bass. The Company has entered into the DE New Note with an entity wholly owned by our CEO and the Mock Notes with our CEO’s brother. See Note 14 for further discussion.
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