AIRO Group Holdings, Inc. 10-Q

Item 4. Controls and Procedures Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures Our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) or 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in the reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the rules and forms of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and to ensure that information required to be disclosed is accumulated and communicated to management, including our principal executive and financial officers, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, with assistance from other members of management, have evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of March 31, 2026, and based on their evaluation, have concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as of such date due to material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting, described below. 29 Background and Remediation of Material Weaknesses In connection with the preparation of our consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, material weaknesses were identified in the design and operating effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. In 2024, we identified material weaknesses due to ineffective and information and communication controls, resulting in lack of timely identification and accounting for certain key debt and other agreements. Since fiscal year 2023, there have been misstatements that, individually and in the aggregate, were material to the consolidated financial statements that were identified due to deficiencies related to technical accounting. More specifically, the review controls over the transactions that gave rise to these misstatements lacked sufficient precision and the Company lacked a sufficient complement of personnel with an appropriate level of accounting knowledge, training and experience to appropriately analyze, record and disclose accounting matters timely and accurately. Due to the delays we experienced in securing funding during 2024 and 2025, we were not able to hire and train sufficient staff to remediate the previously identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. As such, these material weaknesses were not remediated and continued to be present as of March 31, 2026. We have initiated, and continue to implement, measures intended to remediate the material weaknesses described above and to strengthen our internal control over financial reporting. These measures include: (i) hiring additional experienced accounting and SEC reporting personnel at the corporate and subsidiary levels and enhancing segregation of duties; (ii) engaging an independent internal auditor and establishing an internal audit plan focused on revenue recognition, complex financing arrangements, and acquisition accounting, with periodic reporting to the Audit Committee; (iii) implementing formal contract-review controls including documented technical accounting reviews for new or amended agreements; (iv) standardizing and documenting our monthly and quarterly close processes, including review and approval controls, checklists, and enhanced management review controls over significant estimates and judgments; and (v) deploying certain technology solutions, including a cloud-based planning and reporting system to reduce manual processes and improve data integrity and transparency. While we believe these actions represent important steps toward remediation, the material weaknesses will not be considered remediated until the applicable controls are designed, implemented, and operate effectively for a sufficient period of time and management has concluded, through testing, that they are operating effectively. We can provide no assurance that the measures described above will fully remediate the identified material weaknesses. We also may incur significant costs to execute various aspects of our remediation plan. Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting Except for the material weakness remediation efforts described above, there were no other changes in our internal control over financial reporting identified in connection with the evaluation required by paragraph (d) of Rules 13a-15 or 15d-15 under the Exchange Act that occurred during the quarter ended March 31, 2026 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting. Inherent Limitations on the Effectiveness of Disclosure Controls and Procedures Our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, does not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures or our internal control over financial reporting will prevent all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, have been detected. These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision-making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of a simple error or mistake. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people or by management override of the controls. The design of any system of controls is also based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions; over time, controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or the degree of compliance with policies or procedures may deteriorate. Due to inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected. 30 PART II. OTHER INFORMATION