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New York-based law firm McDermott Will & Emery has filed a $5.1 million settlement lawsuit from creditors of bankrupt cryptocurrency brokerage Voyager Digital. The bill concerns legal services offered between March 1 and May 13, 2023.
In a July 3 lawsuit, the law firm billed the “Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors” for legal fees. Court documents showed that the law firm charged an hourly rate of $1,026.76 for its services during the period.
The firm listed several legal services it offered to Voyager, including advising the committee in connection with its powers and responsibilities under bankruptcy rules, attending meetings and negotiating with representatives of debtors and other interested parties, preparing on behalf of the committee all necessary motions, statements, responses, orders, reports, responses, responses and documents, among other things.
This was the third and final bill from the law firm, resulting in a total settlement of $16.48 million between July 5, 2022 and May 19, 2023, of which $8.97 million has already been paid by creditors. However, McDermott Will & Emery is not the only legal service provider offering its services to Voyager. On June 28, Kirkland & Ellis legal counsel also billed Voyager $1.1 million in April legal fees.
McDermott Will & Emery did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
Related: The Voyager app will reopen for customer withdrawals as early as June 20th.
Voyager filed for bankruptcy in July 2022 amid a cryptocurrency lending crisis that led to market contagion and the collapse of several well-known crypto companies such as Celsius, BlockFi and others. At the time of filing for bankruptcy, Voyager disclosed liabilities ranging from $1 billion to $10 billion.
In addition to Voyager, several other crypto firms, including Celsius and FTX, have suffered huge legal fees due to lengthy bankruptcy proceedings. For example, from February 1 to April 30, 2023, FTX was billed for over $120 million in financial and legal advice.