SeaStar Medical Holding Corp 10-Q

Item 4. Controls and Procedures (a) Evaluation of disclosure controls and procedures. Disclosure controls are procedures that are designed with the objective of ensuring that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed under the Exchange Act, such as this Report, is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time period specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls are also designed with the objective of ensuring that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including the chief executive officer and chief financial officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Our management evaluated, with the participation of our chief executive officer and chief financial officer (our “Certifying Officers”), the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of September 30, 2022, pursuant to Rule 13a-15(b) under the Exchange Act. Based upon that evaluation, our Certifying Officers concluded that, as of September 30, 2022, our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective. Specifically, management’s determination was based solely on the following material weaknesses which existed as of September 30, 2022. Since inception in 2020 to the present, the Company did not effectively segregate certain accounting duties due to the small size of its accounting staff. In addition, we did not have sufficient controls in place surrounding the accounting of complex financial instruments. This lack of control led to improper accounting classification of warrants we issued in January 2021 which, due to its impact on our financial statements. This lack of control led to improper accounting classification of warrants we issued in January 2021 which we determined to be a material weakness. This mistake in classification was brought to our attention only when the SEC issued a Staff Statement on Accounting and Reporting Considerations for Warrants Issued by Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (“SPACs”) dated April 12, 2021 (the “SEC Statement”). The SEC Statement addresses certain accounting and reporting considerations related to warrants of a kind similar to those we issued at the time of our initial public offering in January 2021. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of control deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. A material weakness is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the Company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. In connection with the evaluation of the SEC Statement and management’s subsequent re-evaluation of its Prior Financials, the Company determined that there were errors in its accounting for its warrants and shares as temporary equity. Management concluded that a deficiency in internal control over financial reporting existed relating to the accounting treatment for complex financial instruments and that the failure to properly account for such instruments constituted a material weakness. This material weakness resulted in the need to restate the Prior Financials. Notwithstanding the determination that our internal control over financial reporting was not effective, as of September 30, 2022, and that there was a material weakness as identified in this Quarterly Report, we believe that our financial statements contained in this Quarterly Report fairly present our financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the periods covered hereby in all material respects. We do not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures will prevent all errors and all instances of fraud. Disclosure controls and procedures, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the disclosure controls and procedures are met. Further, the design of disclosure controls and procedures must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all disclosure controls and procedures, no evaluation of disclosure controls and procedures can provide absolute assurance that we have detected all our control deficiencies and instances of fraud, if any. The design of disclosure controls and procedures also is based partly on 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. (b) Changes in internal control over financial reporting. There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the quarter ended September 30, 2022 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting. 25 Table of Contents PART II. OTHER INFORMATION Item 1. Legal Proceedings We are not currently a party to material litigation proceedings, nor, to our knowledge, is any material legal proceeding threatened against us or any of our officers or directors in their corporate capacity.