Nathan Howard / Stringer
- FTX’s new CEO John J. Ray III charged the crypto exchange $690,000 last year.
- Ray is a long-time Wall Street restructuring exec who oversaw Enron’s bankruptcy process.
- Ray said in a congressional testimony that FTX was running an “old-fashioned embezzlement.”
FTX’s new CEO John J. Ray III charged the failed crypto exchange $690,000 for just under two months of work steering the collapsed exchange through bankruptcy, he told a Delaware judge on Monday.
From November 11 through the end of December, Ray racked up $690,000 in hourly fees after disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried resigned as chief executive officer and filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. He has been tasked with overseeing FTX’s bankruptcy process in an attempt to recover billions of dollar worth of funds to pay back customers and creditors.
Ray previously told the court he charges $1,300 an hour, indicating that he worked 75 hours per week during his nearly two months untangling the company’s chaotic finances.
The Wall Street restructuring vet, who oversaw Enron’s bankruptcy process, made roughly $1.2 million on an annualized basis as chairman and CEO of the defunct energy giant almost two decades ago. He reportedly also netted $120,582 after billing 156 hours in a two-month span during another bankruptcy case, according to CNBC.
“I’ve just never seen anything like it in all 40 years of doing restructuring work and corporate legal work,” Ray said of FTX during a congressional testimony in December, accusing the company’s former management of “old-fashioned embezzlement.”
The exchange was run by “very small group of grossly inexperienced and unsophisticated individuals who failed to implement virtually any of the systems or controls necessary for a company that is entrusted with other people’s money or assets.”
Recovering assets may take longer than usual because of FTX’s “utter lack of record keeping” since its inception, according to Ray.
“We’re dealing with literally a sort of a paperless bankruptcy in terms of how they created this company,” he said.
This content was originally published here.
