Note 23 – Commitments and contingencies

On December 29, 2016, Mentor obtained a judgment in the amount of $1,921,534.62 against Bhang Corporation and its predecessor in interest, Bhang Chocolate Company, Inc., in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California related to an action filed by Mentor on August 11, 2014 seeking rescission of the February 28, 2014 co-operative funding agreement with Bhang Corporation (“Bhang Agreement”) and return of the $1,500,000 paid by the Company to Bhang. The judgment accrues interest at the rate of 10% from December 29, 2016 until such time as the judgment is satisfied. Mentor intends to enforce this judgment. As part of the judgment Bhang owners, Scott Van Rixel and Richard Sellers, who together purchased 117,000 shares pursuant to the Bhang Agreement have the option to return all or part of those shares in exchange for payment of the original purchase price of $1.95 per share plus a pro-rata amount of $58,568.92 in interest for such returned shares. Mentor will account for the return of the shares as a capital transaction if and when the shares are remitted back to the Company. See Note 4 to consolidated financial statements.

In July 2015, Mentor was served with a complaint in an action in the United States District Court for the District of Utah initiated by the wife and daughter of Bhang’s corporate counsel related to 75,000 shares of Mentor’s Common Stock purchased from Bhang Corporation’s CEO in a secondary sale. The shares purchased by plaintiffs are returnable to Mentor per the judgement awarded in the Bhang matter, above. Mentor was not a party to this transaction and intends to vigorously defend itself against all claims in this case. No trial date has currently been set in this action.

Mentor lawsuit seeking return of loan commitment fee

In March 2014, the Company paid $621,250, which represented 1.75% of a prospective loan amount, in refundable fees paid for credit default insurance to a third party as required by the lender on an international loan facility. The lender was unable to fund the loan and a cooperative exit from the loan commitment was agreed to by the parties on June 12, 2014. The lender released the requirement for credit default insurance and the insurance company and agreed to return the fee, however the refund was never received. On September 5, 2014, the Company filed suit in San Mateo County Superior Court against Wm. E. Fielding and Associates, Inc., the name of the account holder to whom the $621,250 was wired, for conversion and fraud seeking return of the $621,250 in credit insurance premiums that had been paid, had been promised to be returned, and which were not returned. Mentor obtained a judgment against Wm. E. Fielding and Associates, Inc. in the amount of $746,500.29 on March 1, 2016. The Company is assessing its ability to collect on the judgement and due to uncertainty surrounding collection, the Company has not reported a receivable on the balance sheets at December 31, 2016 and 2015. The $621,250 was expensed as loan costs in 2014.