Cointime June 21 news: According to a court-appointed examiner in a document filed on Tuesday, the liquidation of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX is "very expensive from any perspective", and professional fees have exceeded $200 million. Katherine Stadler, a bankruptcy lawyer who was appointed to examine the fees in March, said that lawyers and other professionals had accumulated nearly 35,000 billable hours by the end of January, equivalent to four man-years of work.
“These proceedings appear to be very expensive in any case,” Stadler said, noting that fees have been incurred equal to 2% of estate assets and 10% of reported cash, with 46 of 242 attorneys charging more than $2,000 per hour. “What makes these cases so unique…is the largely unregulated financial system in which the debtors (and other fintech companies like them) operate,” Stadler said, citing Sam Bankman-Fried’s description of the exchange as lacking “most basic corporate governance,” similar to criticisms by new CEO John J Ray III.
