Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure

As previously reported on the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed October 30, 2024, on October 24, 2024, EY sent the members of the Audit Committee a letter of resignation as the Company’s registered public accounting firm (the “Resignation Letter”).

EY was engaged on March 15, 2023 to perform an audit for the Company’s fiscal year 2024, and did not issue any report on the Company’s financial statements or the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. EY resigned while conducting the audit for the Company’s fiscal year 2024, EY’s first audit on the Company’s behalf.

In late July 2024, EY communicated to the Audit Committee concerns about several matters relating to governance, transparency and completeness of communications to EY, and other matters pertaining to the Company’s internal control over financial reporting, and that the timely filing of the Company’s annual report was at significant risk. In response, the Board appointed the Special Committee to conduct the Review, discussed in the Explanatory Note. The Special Committee engaged Cooley LLP, and forensic accounting firm Secretariat Advisors, LLC, to perform an investigation on behalf of and at the direction of the Special Committee. EY and the Board received updates with preliminary information relating to the Review.

After receiving additional information through the Review process, EY informed the Special Committee that the additional information EY received raised questions, including about whether the Company demonstrated a commitment to integrity and ethical values consistent with Principle 1 of the COSO Framework, about the ability and willingness of the Audit Committee and overall Board to demonstrate and act as an oversight body that is independent of the CEO and other members of management in accordance with Principle 2 of the COSO Framework, and whether EY could rely on representations from certain members of management and from the Audit Committee. In the Resignation Letter, EY stated, in part: “we are resigning due to information that has recently come to our attention which has led us to no longer be able to rely on management's and the Audit Committee’s representations and to be unwilling to be associated with the financial statements prepared by management, and after concluding we can no longer provide the Audit Services in accordance with applicable law or professional obligations.”

Other than as described above, during fiscal years 2024 and 2023, and the subsequent interim period preceding EY’s resignation, (1) there were no “disagreements,” as defined in Item 304(a)(1)(iv) of Regulation S-K, with EY on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure or auditing scope or procedure, which if not resolved to EY’s satisfaction to our knowledge would have caused it to make reference to the subject matter thereof in connection with its report, and (2) there were no “reportable events” as described in Item 304(a)(1)(v) of Regulation S-K.

The points raised by EY as set forth in this Item 9 did not have any effect on the Company’s financial statements.