FTX paid over $120 million in advisor fees between February 1 and April 30

Between February 1 and April 30, the collapsed exchange FTX spent $121.8 million on consulting and financial services. The Block reports.

FTX’s lawyers from Sullivan & Cromwell issued the largest invoice — $37.6 million. The smallest payment, $730,000, went to the venture firm Jefferies.

Restructuring advisers at Alvarez and Marsel sought $37 million, including $51,225 for meals, $149,155 for lodging, and $1,995 for other expenses.

As restructuring consultants, their demands and compensation stand above others and are ‘super-priority’ relative to unsecured claims, which include customer deposits,” said The Block analysts.

According to the documents, FTI Consulting spent around 686 hours and billed $761,997 for a workstream titled “relaunch of the exchange”.

In January, FTX chief John Ray first disclosed that a dedicated task force was examining the possibility of reviving the company.

In April, Sullivan & Cromwell’s lawyers allowed the exchange to reorganize with a restart rather than liquidation or sale. The timeline they presented anticipated that a detailed plan would be filed in Q3.

At the same time, the idea of reviving FTX was voiced by Zane Tackett, the former head of institutional sales. In his view, the platform should resume offering all products that existed before the collapse, adding a market for tokenized claims.

Earlier, on November 11, 2022, FTX Group filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

U.S. prosecutors charged former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried with 13 criminal offenses, including bribery of at least $40 million to at least one Chinese official. He has not pleaded guilty to any of the counts.

In May it emerged that Bankman-Fried’s lawyers are seeking to dismiss many charges before the start of the trial. They are asking to dismiss almost all counts, except for the conspiracy to commit fraud involving securities, commodities and money laundering.