employment agreements, in March 2022, the Board authorized the severance payments to our former CEO and the remaining severance payments to our former General Counsel to be made through the issuance of shares of common stock.
During the six months ended November 30, 2022, the Company issued to our former General Counsel a total of 79,391 shares of common stock to satisfy in full its obligation under the terms of the employment agreement. During the same period, consistent with the terms of our former CEO’s employment agreement, the Company also issued 380,704 shares of common stock as severance. The numbers of shares issued were based on the closing price of the common stock on the applicable date.
In order to preserve cash resources, in April 2022, the Board approved the issuance to then executive officers of shares of common stock with a value equal to 25 percent of salary in lieu of cash, net of payroll deductions and withholding taxes. During the six months ended November 30, 2022, a total of 522,382 shares of common stock were issued pursuant to this cash preservation program. The number of shares issued was based on the closing price of the common stock on each payroll date.
Private Placement of Warrants under Surety Bond Backstop Agreement
On February 14, 2022, the Company entered into a Surety Bond Backstop Agreement (as amended, the “Backstop Agreement”) with an accredited investor, Dr. David Welch, in his individual capacity and as trustee of a revocable trust, as well as certain other related parties (collectively, the “Indemnitors”). Pursuant to the original terms of the Backstop Agreement, the Indemnitors agreed to assist the Company in obtaining a surety bond (the “Surety Bond”) for posting in connection with the Company’s ongoing litigation with Amarex Clinical Research, LLC ("Amarex”) by, among other things, agreeing to indemnify the issuer of the Surety Bond (the “Surety”) with respect to the Company’s obligations under the Surety Bond through August 13, 2022. As consideration for the Indemnitors’ agreement to indemnify the Surety, the Company agreed (i) to issue to 4-Good Ventures LLC, an affiliate of the Indemnitors (“4-Good”), a warrant for the purchase of 15,000,000 shares of common stock as a backstop fee (the “Initial Warrant”), (ii) to issue to 4-Good a warrant for the purchase of an additional 15,000,000 shares, to be exercisable only if the Indemnitors were required to make any payment to the Surety (the “Make-Whole Warrant” and, together with the Initial Warrant, the “4-Good Warrants”), and (iii) if the Indemnitors are required to make a payment to the Surety, (A) within 90 days of such payment, to reimburse the Indemnitors for any amount paid to the Surety and (B) to pay to the Indemnitors an indemnification fee in an amount equal to 1.5 times the amount paid by the Indemnitors to the Surety. The payment obligations of the Company to the Indemnitors will bear interest at 10% per annum and are secured by substantially all of the patents held by the Company. The Company recognized a finance charge of approximately $6.6 million related to the warrant issuance for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2022.
Pursuant to amendments to the Backstop Agreement executed in July and December of 2022 (the “Backstop Amendment”), among other matters: (i) each of the 4-Good Warrants has a five-year term from the date of issuance and a reduced exercise price of $0.10 per share; (ii) the Make-Whole Warrant became fully exercisable in July 2022; (iii) the Indemnitors were issued, in December 2022, a fully exercisable warrant to purchase 7,500,000 shares of common stock at an exercise price of $0.10 per share; (iv) the Indemnitors were issued a second warrant in December 2022 covering up to 7,500,000 shares of common stock with an exercise price of $0.10 per share, with the ultimate number of shares to be covered by the second warrant to be calculated on or before February 14, 2023, based on a formula relating to how quickly the Company relieves the balance of cash collateral pledged by the Indemnitors; and (v) the obligation of the Indemnitors to indemnify the Surety was extended to January 31, 2023; provided that the Company will relieve the Indemnitors of a minimum of $1,500,000 of cash collateral currently pledged by the Indemnitors in support of the Surety Bond by January 5, 2023, with the balance of the cash collateral ($5,000,000) to be relieved by January 31, 2023; and provided further that, if the balance of the cash collateral on January 31, 2023, has been reduced to $1,000,000 or less, the Company, in its sole discretion, may elect to require the Indemnitors to accept shares of common stock or warrants to purchase shares of common stock in exchange for the remaining balance. In January 2023, the Indemnitors agreed to extend the relief of the $1,500,000 of cash collateral to January 13, 2023. See Liability Classified Warrants above for the accounting treatment of the July 2022 amendment to the Backstop Agreement.
Except as described above, the terms of the additional warrants issued in December 2022 are similar to the warrants issued under the original Backstop Agreement, filed as Exhibit 4.1 to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed on February 17, 2022. The shares covered by the additional warrants are entitled to registration rights.