FTX logo on laptop screen.
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FTX’s top financial, legal and bankruptcy advisers billed the company more than $19.6 million in fees for work done in 2022, according to bankruptcy court filings Tuesday. . More than $10 million of that is for work done in November 2022, as Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire bankruptcy security in Delaware.
Initially, companies will be paid just over $15.5 million, or 80% of the value of their work, under the court-ordered interim compensation plan.
The law firms that billed FTX were Sullivan & Cromwell, Landis Rath & Cobb and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Professional advisors Alvarez & Marsal and financial advisor AlixPartners also bill the company.
Some of the work that companies invoicing involves meetings with other companies that are also invoicing FTX on their own or involves correspondence with former executives. and current, including Caroline Ellison, former CEO of hedge fund Bankman-Fried, Research Alameda.
Landis Rath & Cobb and Sullivan & Cromwell, FTX’s principal legal firms, billed the company a total of $10.7 million for more than 8,400 hours of work. Landis Rath & Cobb billed $1.16 million for work done between November 11 and November 30.
Sullivan & Cromwell, a target for both legislators and Bankman-fried of their pre-suit work with FTX, sought compensation of more than $9.5 million for more than 6,500 chargeable hours, between November 12 and November 30.Read More one-third of those chargeable hours, totaling more than $4.8 million, are for the work of partners, who typically charge the highest hourly rates.
According to the filing, Sullivan & Cromwell appointed more than two dozen partners in FTX’s case. Jim Bromley, a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell and lead attorney on the case, billed more than 178 hours for the weeks of November 12 through November 30.
Legal filings provide a glimpse of the intense work done by advisors to debunk FTX complex network of accounts And Poor accounting standards. Sullivan & Cromwell’s attorneys spent more than 1,900 hours in November alone on work related to analysis and restore FTX’s global asset baseaccording to profile.
Alvarez & Marsal, a consulting firm, paid $1.9 million for more than 2,300 hours of “business operations”, met with attorneys, FTX executives, analyzed holdings of FTX using the blockchain explorer and looking at “network security scenario.” Those activities include hours in November corresponding to and calling Ellison, 5.3 hours in a day to take pictures of iPad files and other electronic devices, and a conference call bare in the first day lasted 2.5 hours.
Quinn Emanuel, who paid more than $1.5 million for work done between November and December, has appointed more than a dozen attorneys to join the case, nine of them as partners. One of those partners, Sascha Rand, billed more than $13,000 for a business day in November, respectively, and reviewed the first day’s issues. Another Quinn attorney filed a claim for more than $17,000 for a “business trip” day trip starting November 21, returning November 22.
AlixPartners, a financial consulting firm, billed $1.1 million for work done over a little over a month, from November 28 to December 31.
FTX advisors are not yet entitled to their full fees. Under the interim injunction, professional advisors are paid 80% of their fees paid, provided that no objections are filed. Full compensation for legal and advisory fees will not occur until the final fee application is filed, whenever the FTX bankruptcy story is over.
However, that doesn’t mean the advisors won’t come due. ONE Federal Reserve Study 2019 said consulting and professional fees in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy were more than $2.56 billion.
Sullivan & Cromwell’s Attorney Did $40,000 Work Just To Appear In FTX First bankruptcy hearing on November 22, based on court records for billed hours and hourly rates.
