A round of legal fees for bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX in February has been revealed, and it remains a dire figure for debtors.
A series of court documents dated April 4 to April 10 detail the February monthly fee statements of law firms involved in FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings, totaling approximately $32.5 million. That figure does not include compensation for restructuring chief and chief executive John J. Ray III, who received $305,000 in February, according to a court filing in March.
Ray's compensation for March was similar, with an April 10 filing showing his total fees and expenses as $329,173. The FTX chief, who charges $1,300 an hour, reported working 255.9 hours between March 1 and March 31. That brought his expenses to a whopping $327,470, with the remaining $1,703 for airfare, lodging, transportation, meals and other expenses.
The law firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart and Sullivan is seeking reimbursements totaling more than $2.7 million for February. Partners at the firm make $1,246 to $1,917 an hour, and employees make $747 to $1,183 an hour. The company's total billed hours were nearly 2,610 hours. Documents filed April 4 by law firm Alvarez and Marsal and forensic investigative consultant Alix Partners detail their February expense statements, totaling more than $11.9 million and about $3.6 million, respectively.
The largest sum sought came from the law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell, which in February collected fees totaling more than $13.4 million for its burgeoning team of attorneys and partners for work on FTX. Meanwhile, at the lower end of the scale, investment banking firm Perella Weinberg Partners billed $77,891, while bankruptcy joint committee Landis Rath and Cobb billed $582,604 in February. Advisers and lawyers for the bankrupt exchange charged similar fees in January, when FTX paid $34.18 million for their combined services, according to earlier court documents.
The fees, reimbursements, and expenses paid by FTX to its many attorneys, partners, paralegals, accountants, investigators, directors, and officers remain unacceptable to clients still awaiting payment. The bankruptcy is far from over, and the Sullivan and Cromwell families alone are reportedly set to reap hundreds of millions of dollars until the company's bankruptcy investigation is concluded.
