FTX Bankruptcy CEO Makes $1,300 per Hour – Paid by Its Customers

John Ray, the new CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, will reportedly be paid $1,300 per hour, plus expenses for his work on the FTX bankruptcy case, which comes to $2.6 million annually.

Unlike a typical employee who works directly for a company, Ray and his top team are professional independent contractors and function more like bankers and lawyers who are working on bankruptcy affairs, according to a report by CNBC News.

Due to this, Ray and his team get paid immediately, before any FTX investors receive recompense for their losses, the report added.

Ray’s team has worked with him on three other bankruptcies over the last 30 years, which include restructuring Enron in the early 2000s, Nortel in 2009, and Overseas Shipbuilding Group in 2014.

Now, court filings show that Ray will collect $1,300 per hour, as well as “reasonable expenses” for straightening out the collapsed crypto exchange, previously led by its disgraced founder, Sam Bankman-Fried.

Assuming the new FTX CEO works the standard 40-hour work week for 50 weeks over a year, that amount comes to an annual $2.6 million. In a previous bankruptcy case, Ray reportedly billed around 156 hours in a two-month period.

FTX has reportedly tracked down about $1 billion worth of assets so far, but it could be months or years before creditors are made whole, CNBC noted, adding that Enron’s restructuring took more than a decade, and Nortel’s proceedings are still going on in 2022, more than 11 years later.

On Monday, Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas. The following day, the disgraced founder and former FTX CEO was hit with a host of fresh charges relating to possible financial crimes and campaign finance violations.

In total Bankman-Fried was charged with eight counts, ranging from wire fraud to money laundering to conspiracy to commit fraud on the United States. The former FTX CEO, who was Democrat megadonor, was also charged with violating campaign finance laws, as Breitbart News reported.

Bankman-Fried, who was once considered one of the richest people in the world, now says he is getting by on a single credit card and likely has less than $100,000 to his name.

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