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20. LOSS CONTINGENCIES | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2019
Subsequent Events [Abstract] |
LOSS CONTINGENCIES | On or about August 3, 2018, written decisions of administration penalty captioned Shou Guo Tu Zi Fa Gao Zi [2018] No. 291, Shou Guo Tu Zi Fa Gao Zi [2018] No. 292, Shou Guo Tu Zi Fa Gao Zi [2018] No. 293, Shou Guo Tu Zi Fa Gao Zi [2018] No. 294, Shou Guo Tu Zi Fa Gao Zi [2018] No. 295 and Shou Guo Tu Zi Fa Gao Zi [2018] No. 296 (together, the “Written Decisions”) were served on Shouguang City Haoyuan Chemical Company Limited ("SCHC") by the Shouguang City Natural Resources and Planning Bureau (the “Bureau”), naming SCHC as respondent. The Written Decisions challenged the land use of Factory nos. 2, 9, 7, 4, 8 and 10, respectively, and alleged, among other things, that SCHC had illegally occupied and used the land in the total area of approximately 52,674 square meter, on which Factory nos. 2, 9, 7, 4, 8 and 10 were built. The Written Decisions ordered SCHC, among other things, to return the land subject to the Written Decisions to its respective legal owner, restore the land to its original state, and demolish or confiscate all the buildings and facilities thereon and pay monetary penalty of approximately RMB 1.3 million ($184,000) in the aggregate. Each of the Written Decisions were to be executed within 15 days upon serving SCHC. Additional interest penalties would be imposed at a daily rate of 3% in the event that SCHC did not make the monetary penalty payment in a timely manner. As discussed below, the Company did not believe the local government would enforce the penalties so it did not make the payment. Subsequently, the Bureau filed enforcement actions to the People’s Court of Shouguang City, Shandong Province (the “Court”), naming SCHC as enforcement respondent and alleged, among other things, that SCHC failed to perform its obligations under each of the Written Decisions within the specified timeframe. The enforcement proceedings sought court orders to enforce the Written Decisions. On May 5, 2019, written decisions of administrative ruling captioned (2019) Lu 0783 Xing Shen No. 384, (2019) Lu 0783 Xing Shen No. 385, (2019) Lu 0783 Xing Shen No. 389, (2019) Lu 0783 Xing Shen No. 390, (2019) Lu 0783 Xing Shen No. 393, and (2019) Lu 0783 Xing Shen No. 394, respectively (together, the “Court Rulings”) were made by the Court in favor of the Bureau. The Court ordered, among other relief, to enforce each of the Written Decisions, to return each subject land to its legal owner and demolish or confiscate the buildings and facilities thereon and restore the land to its original state within 10 days from the service of the Court Rulings on SCHC. The Court Rulings became enforceable immediately upon service on SCHC on May 5, 2019. In the last twenty years, there were no government regulations requiring bromine manufacturers to obtain land use and planning approval documents. As such, we believe most of the bromine manufacturers in Shouguang City do not have land use and planning approval documents and lease their land parcels from the village associations and are facing the same issues in connection with land use and planning as the Company. The Company has been in the process of resolving the issues in connection with SCHC’s land use and planning diligently. The Company has been in close discussion with the local government authorities with the help from Shouguang City Bromine Association to seek relief and, based on verbal confirmation by local government authorities, believes the administrative penalties imposed by the Bureau according to the Written Decisions are being re-assessed by local government authorities and may be revoked. The Company has obtained verbal confirmation from local government authorities that the administrative penalty imposed on Factory No. 7 and Factory No. 8 are being revoked, and production at Factory No. 7 was allowed to resume in April 2019. In addition, on August 28, 2019, the People's Government of Shandong Province, issued a regulation titled "Investment Project Management Requirements of Chemical Companies in Shandong Province" permitting the construction of facilities on existing sites or infrastructure of bromine manufacturing and other chemical industry-related types of projects (clause 11 of section 3). The Company believes that the goal of the government is to standardize and regulate the industry and not to demolish the facilities or penalize the manufacturers. As of the date of this report, the Company has not been notified by the local government that it will take any measure to enforce the administrative penalties or implement the Court Rulings. Based on information known to date, the Company believes that it is remote that the Written Decisions or Court Rulings will be enforced within the expected timeframe, and a material penalty or costs and expenses against the Company will result. However, there can be no assurance that there will not be any further enforcement action, the occurrence of which may result in further liabilities, penalties and operational disruption. In view of the above facts and circumstances, the Company believes that it is not necessary to accrue for any estimated losses or impairment as of September 30, 2019.

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- Definition The entire disclosure for significant events or transactions that occurred after the balance sheet date through the date the financial statements were issued or the date the financial statements were available to be issued. Examples include: the sale of a capital stock issue, purchase of a business, settlement of litigation, catastrophic loss, significant foreign exchange rate changes, loans to insiders or affiliates, and transactions not in the ordinary course of business. + References Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 855 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/topic&trid=2122774 + Details
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