During the three months leading up to October 31, the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX was spending roughly $53,000 every hour on bankruptcy lawyers and consultants, as revealed by the most recent compensation filings.
Records from December 5 to December 16 indicate that bankruptcy attorneys billed at least $118.1 million from August 1 to October 31. This equates to about $1.3 million daily, or $53,300 hourly, over a span of 92 days.
The highest invoice was from Alvarez and Marshall, a management consulting firm, which billed $35.8 million for its three-month service. Following closely was the international law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, billing $31.8 million. Sullivan & Cromwell’s average hourly rate was $1,230. AlixPartners, a global consulting firm, charged $13.3 million during this period for professional services, including forensic investigations. Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan billed $10.4 million in the same timeframe, with additional charges from smaller advisory firms totaling over $26.8 million.
A Dec. 17 post on X (previously known as Twitter) by an anonymous FTX creditor suggests that the total legal fees fully paid since the start of the FTX bankruptcy case are around $350 million. Earlier, on Dec. 5, court-appointed fee examiner Katherine Stadler filed a report highlighting “significant areas of concern” in the billings from major advisory firms like Sullivan & Cromwell, Alvarez & Marshall, and others, covering the period from May 1 to June 31.
Stadler’s report pointed out issues such as seemingly excessive staffing, unnecessary meeting attendance, charges for non-working travel time, and various technical and procedural issues in some time entries (including vague and aggregated entries), particularly in the billings from Alvarez & Marshall.
Get $200 Free Bitcoins every hour! No Deposit No Credit Card required. Sign Up