In addition, on April 29, 2021, the SEC’s Division of Enforcement advised that it has opened an investigation related to, among other things, HCAC’s initial public offering and merger with the Company, the Company’s operations, business model, revenues, revenue strategy, customer agreements, earnings and other related topics, along with the recent departures of certain of the Company’s officers. The SEC has informed the Company that its current investigation is a fact-finding inquiry. The SEC has also informed the Company that the investigation does not mean that it has concluded that anyone has violated the law, and does not mean that it has a negative opinion of any person, entity or security. We intend to provide the requested information and cooperate fully with the SEC investigation.
At this time, the Company does not consider any such claims, lawsuits or proceedings that are currently pending, individually or in the aggregate, including the matters referenced above, to be material to the Company’s business or likely to result in a material adverse effect on its future operating results, financial condition or cash flows should such proceedings be resolved unfavorably.
Indemnifications
In the ordinary course of business, the Company may provide indemnifications of varying scope and terms to vendors, lessors, investors, directors, officers, employees and other parties with respect to certain matters, including, but not limited to, losses arising out of the Company’s breach of such agreements, services to be provided by the Company, or from intellectual property infringement claims made by third-parties. These indemnifications may survive termination of the underlying agreement and the maximum potential amount of future payments the Company could be required to make under these indemnification provisions may not be subject to maximum loss clauses. The Company provided indemnifications to certain of its officers and employees with respect to claims filed by a former employer.
8. Related Party Transactions
On February 28, 2018, Legacy Canoo, via a wholly owned subsidiary, entered into a lease for an office facility in Torrance, California (“Torrance lease”) with an entity controlled by certain investors of Legacy Canoo, which was assigned to another entity controlled by certain investors of Legacy Canoo, on April 30, 2018. The original lease term is 15 years and commenced on April 30, 2018. In Q1 2021, the Company entered into a separate lease for an office facility in Justin, Texas (“Justin lease”) with an entity controlled by the Executive Chaiman (as of April 22, 2021, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer) of the Company. The original lease term is 5 years 3 months, commencing on January 1, 2021. The Torrance and Justin leases (“collectively referred to herein as the “leases”) contain a 3% per annum escalation clause.
The Torrance and Justin leases contain the option to extend the terms of the leases for two additional 60-month periods and one additional 60-month period, respectively, commencing when the prior term expires. At lease inception, it was not reasonably certain we would exercise any of the options to extend the term of the leases. There were no changes to that assessment as of March 31, 2021.
The Company has determined that the leases do not effectively transfer control of the underlying facilities to the Company based on the lease terms and, accordingly, the Company has classified the leases as operating leases. As such, the rent and property taxes are expensed on a straight-line basis in the condensed consolidated statements of operations.
Related party lease expense related to these operating leases was $0.5 million and $0.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively.