The collapsed crypto exchange FTX racked up more than $19.6 million in fees from its advisers just for 2022 alone, according to a Tuesday court filing. Half of those fees were for work done last November.
CNBC reported that the bankruptcy reached such urgency that the courts had to mandate an interim compensation plan. The firms will be paid 80% of the value of the work, which translates to roughly $15.5 million.
The law firms Landis Rath & Cobb, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, and Sullivan & Cromwell are working on the case, as are professional adviser Alvarez & Marsal and financial adviser AlixPartners.
Other companies are billing FTX for correspondence with executives. This includes Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, Sam Bankman-Fried's hedge fund.
FTX's two main legal firms, Landis Rath & Cobb and Sullivan & Cromwell, billed $10.7 million for over 8,400 hours of combined work, according to CNBC.
Landis Rath & Cobb billed $1.16 million for the time between Nov. 11 and Nov. 30.
Per CNBC, Sullivan & Cromwell billed $9.5 million for over 6,500 hours of work between Nov. 12 and Nov. 30, with almost half of those hours at the highest hourly rate totaling $4.8 million. The firm has also done other work for FTX.
According to the court filings, Sullivan & Cromwell assigned 24 partners to the case. Jim Bromley, a lead attorney, billed nearly 200 hours for work between Nov. 12 and Nov. 30. For FTX's first bankruptcy hearing on Nov. 22, attorneys from the firm billed $40,000.
FTX is believed to have weaved a tremendously entangled web for its advisers to maneuver around, from its connected accounts to its shoddy accounting standards, as the accusations filed with the courts now allege.
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