Creditors for bankrupt Voyager Digital billed $5.1M in legal fees

Voyager is not the only crypto firm incurring hefty legal fees; FTX, for example, has been billed over $120 million in fees.

New York-based law firm McDermott Will & Emery filed for compensation of $5.1 million from the creditors of bankrupt crypto brokerage firm Voyager Digital. The bill is for legal services offered between March 1 and May 13, 2023.

In a July 3 court filing, the law firm billed the legal fees to the “Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors.” The court documents revealed that the law firm charged an hourly rate of $1,026.76 for its services during the period.

The firm listed several legal services it offered Voyager, including advising the committee in connection with its powers and duties under the bankruptcy rules, attending meetings and negotiating with the representatives of the debtors and other parties in interest, preparing on behalf of the committee all necessary motions, applications, answers, orders, reports, replies, responses and papers, among others.

This was the third and final bill from the law firm, taking its total compensation to $16.48 million between July 5, 2022, and May 19, 2023, of which $8.97 million has already been paid by the creditors. However, McDermott Will & Emery is not the only legal service provider to offer its services to Voyager. On June 28, legal adviser Kirkland & Ellis also billed Voyager for $1.1 million in legal fees for the month of April.

McDermott Will & Emery didn’t immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comments.

Voyager filed for bankruptcy in July 2022 amid a crypto lending crisis that led to market contagion and the collapse of multiple established crypto firms such as Celsius, BlockFi, and others. At the time of its bankruptcy filing, Voyager disclosed liabilities from $1 billion to $10 billion.

Apart from Voyager, multiple other crypto firms, including Celsius and FTX, have incurred hefty legal fees due to lengthy bankruptcy proceedings. FTX, for example, was billed over $120 million in financial and legal advisory fees between Feb. 1 and April 30, 2023.

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