- These are the costs for 90 days from the date of application
- They make up 10% of the total cash resources of the company
- The most expensive crypto exchange costs the services of lawyers
Within 90 days from the date of bankruptcy, the FTX exchange spent $ 200 million. This money went to the fees of hundreds of lawyers, financial consultants, tax experts and other specialists. The data comes from a study conducted by a forensic appraiser.
Fees expert Katherine Stadler believes the amounts are quite reasonable:
“These litigations seem very expensive by any measure. But it should be taken into account that by the end of January lawyers and other specialists had worked almost 35,000 paid hours. This is the equivalent of a year’s work of four people.”
She added that the amount spent is 2% of all property assets of the crypto exchange. And 10% of the declared funds.
FTX involved 242 lawyers in bankruptcy proceedings. There are 46 of them – these are high-class specialists who require more than $ 2,000 per hour of work.
Most of the funds went to pay for the services of Sullivan & Cromwell. This law firm received about $42 million in commissions and awards in its first period of doing business. Alvarez & Marsal North America, a restructuring company, made $28 million from the bankruptcy.
The other day it became known that from February to April, FTX spent $122 million on advisors. Of these, $4 million went to employee bonuses.
FTX is currently going through a restructuring and plans to relaunch under the working title FTX 2.0.