Education

FTX loses $53K every hour on ‘bankruptcy fees’ — latest filings show

Published on December 18, 2023

Crypto exchange FTX has been burning through approximately $53,000 every hour over the three months ending Oct. 31 — just on bankruptcy lawyers and advisers, the latest round of compensation filings show.

Court filings from Dec. 5 to Dec. 16 have shown that the bankruptcy lawyers have charged an accumulated total of at least $118.1 million between Aug. 1 and Oct. 31. Over the 92 days, this equates to $1.3 million per day or $53,300 per hour.

The largest bill came from the management consulting firm Alvarez and Marshall, which charged $35.8 million for its services for the three months.

*Alvarez and Marshall charged a total of $35.8 million in fees to the FTX estate. Source: CourtListener*

Coming in second place was global law firm Sullivan and Cromwell, which charged $31.8 million for its services. The hourly rate for Sullivan’s and Cromwell’s services averaged $1,230 per hour.

*Sullivan and Cromwell’s services cost FTX creditors $1,230 per hour. Source: CourtListener*

Global consulting firm AlixPartners charged $13.3 million in the period for professional services relating to forensic investigations. Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan charged $10.4 million in the same period, while several other billings from smaller advisory firms added up to over $26.8 million.

Figures shared by a pseudonymous FTX creditor in a Dec. 17 post to X (formerly Twitter) suggest the total legal fees that have been fully paid since the FTX bankruptcy case began is approximately $350 million.

BTW @lopp this estimates $1.45B of remaining professional fees for a total of $1.8B. The Estate is currently charging $0.5B per year and bankruptcies are not short endeavors.

To date, here are the fees that have been petitioned in just under 1 year (~$350mm has been paid): https://t.co/fZhMyTE3B1 pic.twitter.com/5p6at5ZbWy

— Mr. Purple ️ (@MrPurple_DJ) December 17, 2023

Meanwhile, an earlier report filed on Dec. 5 by the court-appointed fee examiner, Katherine Stadler, identified “significant areas of concern” with the billings submitted by the larger advisory firms, including Sullivan and Cromwell, Alvarez and Marshall, and others between May 1 and June 31.

“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),” wrote the report regarding the billings submitted by Alvarez and Marshall.