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RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS
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12 Months Ended |
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Dec. 31, 2011
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| RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS [Abstract] | |
| RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS |
NOTE 18 - RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS
At December 31, 2011, and 2010, the Company had a liability to its former President and Chief Executive Officer of approximately $43,000 in accrued salary and termination benefits.
On November 30, 2010, the Company entered into a Letter of Intent and Agreement and Plan of Reorganization with STTC owned by Nicholas N. Carter, the President and CEO of the Company, pursuant to which SHTI, a Delaware corporation and an indirectly wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, acquired 100% of the common stock of STTC. The acquisition was completed on November 30, 2010, and the Company merged STTC into South Hampton, with South Hampton being the surviving corporation. Prior to the acquisition of STTC, South Hampton leased transportation related equipment from STTC pursuant to a Master Lease Agreement dated February 3, 2009, which was set to expire in May 2014. The purpose of the acquisition of STTC was the acquisition of various transportation related assets from STTC that are important to South Hampton's operations and termination of a related-party transaction and lease agreement. The Company acquired STTC in exchange for the payment to Mr. Carter of (i) cash of $250,000, (ii) a note payable in the amount of $300,000 and (iii) 232,170 shares of the Company's common stock having a fair value of $775,448.
South Hampton incurred product transportation and equipment costs of approximately $848,000 and $961,000 in 2010 and 2009, respectively, with STTC while STTC was owned by the President of the Company. As discussed in Note 1, in December 2010 the Company acquired STTC. At December 31, 2011, and 2010, no liability was outstanding.
Legal fees in the amount of $269,607, $326,545, and $241,054 were incurred during 2011, 2010, and 2009, respectively to the law firm of Germer Gertz, LLP of which Charles Goehringer is a minority partner. Mr. Goehringer acts as corporate counsel for the Company and in November 2007 was appointed to the Board of Directors. Mr. Goehringer chose not to stand for re-election at the 2011 Annual Meeting; therefore, his term expired in June 2011. At December 31, 2011, and 2010, we had an outstanding liability payable to Germer Gertz, LLP of approximately $24,000 and $20,000, respectively.
Ghazi Sultan, a Company director, was paid $110,000 and $18,000 during 2011 and 2010 for serving as the Company's Saudi branch representative.
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