FTX Bankruptcy Legal Expenses Reportedly Climbs Over $350 Million

• Professional services related to forensic investigations were charged $13.3 million.
• The bankruptcy attorneys have charged a minimum of $118.1 million for 3 months.

New pay documentation reveals that in the three months ending October 31, the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX spent around $53,000 per hour on bankruptcy attorneys and advisors.

The bankruptcy attorneys have charged a minimum of $118.1 million from August 1st to October 31st, according to court documents filed between December 5th and 16th. The total for all 92 days is $1.3 million, or $53,300 an hour. 

Alvarez and Marshall, a management consulting company, racked up the most expenses at $35.8 million over the duration of the above-mentioned time frame. Furthermore, Sullivan & Cromwell, an international law firm, came in second, with fees of $31.8 million. On average, Sullivan & Cromwell charged $1,230 per hour for their services.

Moreover, professional services related to forensic investigations were charged $13.3 million over the year by global consulting company AlixPartners. During the same time period, a number of smaller advising firms racked up over $26.8 million in billings, with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan accounting for $10.4 million.

Discrepancies Reported

Sullivan & Cromwell, Alvarez & Marshall, and other bigger advising firms submitted billings between May 1 and June 31. And an earlier report issued on Dec. 5 by court-appointed fee examiner Katherine Stadler highlighted “significant areas of concern” with these billings.

The report mentioned:

“The Fee Examiner identified apparently top-heavy staffing, apparently excessive meeting attendance, fees related to non-working travel time, and various technical and procedural deficiencies with respect to some time entries (including vague and lumped entries).”

The entire amount of legal expenses that have been paid since the bankruptcy lawsuit against FTX started is over $350 million, according to figures given by an anonymous FTX creditor in a post on Twitter on December 17th.

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