FTX approved to pay legal fees of non-U.S. creditor group

FTX received court approval on Wednesday to reimburse more than $2 million in legal fees to a group of non-U.S. creditors who helped negotiate a competing settlement among FTX's customer groups. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey granted FTX's request at a hearing in Wilmington, Delaware, to pay an ad hoc group of non-U.S. customers up to $2 million to reimburse its legal fees. The group represents 66 large account holders with more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency deposits on the FTX international cryptocurrency exchange as part of a settlement of a customer dispute. This amount will cover the period from May 1st to October 31st. FTX also agreed to pay them up to $650,000 per month for the remainder of its bankruptcy, subject to future court review. The judge initially questioned why creditor groups needed to be paid for negotiations that were in their own interests, saying he did not want to open a "Pandora's box" of similar requests. But he accepted FTX's explanation that the creditor group helped streamline negotiations for the deal that will affect FTX's 9 million customers. (Reuters)