Item 1. Legal Proceedings
ITEM
1. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
As
of the date of this Quarterly Report, to our knowledge, there are no legal proceedings or regulatory actions material to us to which
we are a party, or have been a party to, or of which any of our property is or was the subject matter of, and no such proceedings or
actions are known by us to be contemplated except as provided below:
Due
to the misrepresentations and omissions of SuperGreen, Calvin C. Cao and Michael H. Cao, among other reasons, the Company filed a complaint
in the U.S. District Court, Central District of California on February 2, 2023 against SuperGreen, Michael H. Cao, Linh T. Dao, Calvin
C. Cao and entities affiliated with them alleging fraud-concealment, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty-duty of good faith,
breach of fiduciary duty-undivided loyalty, conversion and violation of California Penal Code Sec. 496 (the “Cao Lawsuit”).
This lawsuit seeks compensatory damages of at least $33.6 million, treble and punitive damages, imposition of a constructive trust over
the defendants assets, pre-judgment and post-judgment interest, attorney’s fees and such other relief as determined by the court.
Effective
February 20, 2023, the Company, together with its wholly owned subsidiary Bitech Mining Corporation entered into a Confidential Settlement,
Mutual Release, and Share Transfer Agreement (the “C. Cao Settlement Agreement”) with Calvin Cao (“C. Cao”) and
SuperGreen Energy Corporation (“SuperGreen,” together with C. Cao, the “C. Cao Parties”). The C. Cao Settlement
Agreement settles as to the C. Cao Parties, the Cao Lawsuit. Pursuant to the C. Cao Settlement Agreement, the C. Cao Parties terminated
the Patent & Technology Exclusive and Non-Exclusive License Agreement between Bitech Mining Corporation and SuperGreen dated January
15, 2021 as amended on January 15, 2021 and on March 26, 2022 (the “License Agreement”) and SuperGreen canceled 51,507,749
shares of the Company’s common stock, par value $0.001 per share issued by the Company to SuperGreen pursuant to the License Agreement.
In addition, the parties to the Settlement Agreement agreed to a mutual general release of liabilities against each other, refrain from
making any disparaging remarks about each other and the Company’s filing a dismissal with prejudice of the Cao Lawsuit as to the
C. Cao Parties. The Settlement Agreement also contains additional covenants, representations and warranties that are customary of litigation
settlement agreements.
On
March 6, 2023, Michael Cao and Linh Dao filed, without an attorney, a pro se Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction.
On
April 17, 2023, the court dismissed the Cao Lawsuit without prejudice due to a lack of subject matter jurisdiction. On April 18, 2023, we
filed a complaint against Michael H. Cao, Linh T. Dao, B & B Investment Holding, LLC and Cory Thomason in the Orange County California
Superior Court containing substantially the same allegations included in the Cao Lawsuit filed in federal court (the “Cao State
Court Lawsuit”). We served Mr. Cao, Ms. Dao and B & B Investment Holding, LLC on April
26, 2023 and are in the process of serving Mr. Thomason. As of the date of this report, no motions
or pleadings have been filed by the defendants in this lawsuit.
The
Company intends to vigorously prosecute the Cao State Court Lawsuit. We cannot predict the outcome of this lawsuit, however.
Litigation
Assessment
We
have evaluated the foregoing Cao Lawsuit to assess the likelihood of any unfavorable outcome and to estimate, if possible, the amount
of potential loss as it relates to the litigation. Based on this assessment and estimate, which includes an understanding of our intention
to vigorously prosecute the Cao State Court Lawsuit, we believe that the potential defenses of any of the remaining defendants lack merit,
however, and we cannot predict the likelihood of any recoveries by any of our claims against the defendants in this case. This assessment
and estimate is based on the information available to management as of the date of this Quarterly Report and involves a significant amount
of management judgment, including the inherent difficulty associated with assessing litigation matters in their early stages. As a result,
the actual outcome or loss may differ materially from those envisioned by the current assessment and estimate. Our failure to successfully
prosecute, defend or settle the Cao State Court Lawsuit could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, revenue and
profitability and could cause the market value of our common stock to decline.
ITEM
1A. RISK FACTORS
Smaller
reporting companies are not required to provide the information required by this item.
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