FTX’s bankruptcy lawyers and advisors pocket $32.5M in February

The February round of legal expenses for bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has been released and it remains a scary figure for debtors.

A series of cut filings Detailed February 4-10 monthly fee statements from law firms involved in the FTX bankruptcy proceeding totaling a combined total of about $32.5 million.

The figure did not include the reward for the restructuring of the boss and CEO John J. Ray III who pocketed $305,000 in February according to a March court filing.

Ray's compensation for March came in at a similar figure, with an April 10 filing showing his total fees and expenses were $329,173.

The FTX boss billed $1,300 per hour and reported that he worked 255.9 hours during the period of March 1-31. This brings his fee to $327,470, with the remaining $1,703 for airfare, lodging, transportation, meals, and other expenses.

The law firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart and Sullivan sought a total of more than $2.7 million in refunds for February. The firm's partners billed between $1,246 and $1,917 per hour and associates billed between $747 and $1,183 per hour. The total number of hours billed by the company was almost 2,610.

Documents filed April 4 for the Alvarez and Marsal law firm and forensic investigative consultancy Alix Partners detailed that their February fee statements totaled more than $11.9 million and about $3.6 million, respectively.

The largest amount requested was from the law firm Sullivan and Cromwell which billed a total of more than $13.4 million for work performed for FTX in February by its growing team of attorneys and associates.

Meanwhile, at the lower end of the scale, investment banking firm Perella Weinberg Partners billed $77,891 while bankruptcy co-counsel Landis Rath and Cobb billed $582,604 in February.

Related: FTX's financial controls were a 'hodgepodge' of apps, court documents say

Advisors and lawyers for the bankrupt exchange house invoiced a similar amount in January, with FTX shelling out $34.18 million for their combined services in January according to previous court documents.

The fees, reimbursements and expenses that FTX has shelled out its phalanx of attorneys, associates, paralegals, accountants, investigators, directors, and executives remain hard to swallow for clients still waiting for a payoff.

The bankruptcy is far from over and it is reported that only Sullivan and Cromwell will reap hundreds of millions of dollars before the company's bankruptcy investigation is concluded.

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