restructuring team

FTX bankruptcy will be ‘very expensive’ but there’s a reason: Auditor

Fees charged by the lawyers and the restructuring team working on the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX have topped $200 million in just over seven months, but an independent auditor argues it makes sense, given the mammoth task.

On June 20 the court-appointed fee examiner, Katherine Stadler, filed a 47-page report on the fees charged by the law firms in the roughly three months following FTX’s Nov. 11 bankruptcy and concluded they were not “wholly unreasonable in the moment.”

She remarked on the “largely unregulated financial system” in which FTX operates, adding the case was “remarkable” for the exchange’s “global scope, the complete absence of corporate records, and the non-existence of even the most basic corporate governance.”

Stadler confirmed the team working on FTX had “requested more than $200 million in fees” since its November bankruptcy, adding:

“Notwithstanding the relative scope of the known asset pool, these proceedings appear on

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Texas, California, and New Jersey Join Call for Independent Examiner

A growing chorus of regulators wants an independent examiner appointed to review the financial statements, or lack thereof, in the FTX bankruptcy proceedings.

“Texas, among several other state and federal regulators, is currently investigating the Debtors and their related entities for violations in connection with their transaction of business in Texas and with Texas account holders,” wrote attorney Roma Desai on behalf of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The statement from the Texas attorney’s office follows similar motions from Wisconsin and Vermont regulators. The new court filing on Wednesday included letters of support from banking and securities officials in a handful of other states: Alaska; Arkansas; California; Florida; Hawaii; Idaho; Illinois; Kentucky; Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and D.C..

If an examiner is appointed in the FTX case, it won’t be without some precedent.

Earlier this week the independent examiner who dug through bankrupt crypto lender Celsius released their 689-page report, concluding that problems at the company “dated back to at least 2020.”

The downfall of FTX

FTX and its related entities, including trading desk Alameda Research, filed for bankruptcy on November 11. Days later, newly appointed FTX CEO John Ray III,

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