FTX seeks approval to pay bankruptcy lawyers between $825 and $2,165 an hour

FTX filed applications Wednesday seeking "nunc pro tunc" approval for hiring and retaining legal counsel, forensic investigation consultants and accountants, revealing details about the rates the cryptocurrency exchange could pay.

In applications filed Wednesday, FTX asked the Delaware bankruptcy court to retroactively authorize its hiring of law firms Sullivan & Cromwell and Landis Rath & Cobb as counsel and co-counsel, respectively, for its Chapter 11 proceedings. FTX also sought approval for retaining Ernst & Young as a tax services provider and AlixPartners as a forensic investigation consultant, according to other filings from the same date.

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For FTX, Sullivan & Cromwell’s hourly billing rates – which the filing said were "determined with reference to the rates charged by other leading law firms for similar work during Chapter 11 cases" – will be in the $1,575-2,165 range for partners and special counsel, if approved. For associates, the rate will be $810-1,475 on an hourly basis, the filing said, while it will cost FTX between $425 and $595 per hour for legal assistant work.

"These rates for the more senior timekeepers in each class represent a discount from the rates currently used by S&C when preparing estimates of fees under its normal billing procedures for non-bankruptcy engagements," the filing stated, noting they could change "from time to time" in-line with the firm’s "established billing practices and procedures, including yearly rate increases."

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For the Delaware-based Landis Rath & Cobb, FTX sought court approval for hourly rates of $750-1,075 for partners, $410-550 for associates, $295 for paralegals and $145-180 for legal assistants, according to a filing. 

In a separate filing seeking authorization for retaining Ernst & Young, FTX laid out the rates the accounting firm would charge it. The filing put the rate FTX would potentially pay for an Ernst & Young national partner/principal at $990 per hour, while partner/principal and managing director were identified as $825 and $775, respectively. It also listed the proposed hourly rates the crypto exchange would be subject to for work from other levels of staff members at the firm, like a senior-level employee for $395.

FTX also asked the court to approve its retaining of AlixPartners and the hourly rates it would compensate the firm for services, such as a range of $1,140-1,400 for a managing director, $1,115 for a partner, a range of $880-1,070 for a director. Other rates FTX sought permission to pay AlixPartners included those for senior vice president and vice president. For an AlixPartners consultant, for example, FTX asked to compensate $215-565 an hour, according to the filing.

The cryptocurrency exchange, formerly one of the largest in the world, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Nov. 11, the same day founder Sam Bankman-Fried ceded the role of CEO to former Enron liquidator John J. Ray III. Along with FTX, cryptocurrency hedge fund Alameda Research, West Realm Series and 130 affiliated companies did so. 

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Bankman-Fried, who faces numerous charges from the Southern District of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission, was extradited back to the U.S. from the Bahamas late Wednesday. On Thursday, a judge in New York released him on a $250 million bond.

He is slated to appear in court next in early January.

FOX Business' Greg Norman contributed to this report.