[News Figures] FTX's New CEO Earning 1.7 Million Won Per Hour

John J. Ray III Appointed to Oversee Restructuring of Bankrupt World's 3rd Largest Cryptocurrency Exchange FTX
FTX New CEO Takes Office... Hourly Salary $1,300 (KRW 1.7 Million)

John J. Ray III, the newly appointed CEO in charge of FTX's restructuring
[Image source: Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Juhyung] Attention is focused on John J. Ray III, the new CEO of FTX, the world's third-largest cryptocurrency exchange currently undergoing bankruptcy protection proceedings. Despite numerous investors losing all their invested funds due to the FTX incident, Ray, who is in charge of restructuring, is overseeing the restructuring process and receiving compensation of up to $1,300 per hour.

Earlier, on November 11th (local time), FTX filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in a Delaware court. Subsequently, founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried stepped down from management, and John Ray III was appointed as the new CEO. Ray, as an independent contractor rather than a company employee, is paid by the company and will supervise the bankruptcy proceedings and lead the restructuring of FTX.

CEO Ray is widely known as a legal expert and bankruptcy management specialist. Born in 1959, he graduated from Harvard Law School. He once served as editor of the university's legal journal, the Harvard Law Review. He established a law firm bearing his name in Chicago, a major city known as the mecca of the U.S. legal industry, and has provided corporate legal advisory services for over 30 years. His specialty is restructuring bankrupt companies, gaining fame in 2001 when he handled the restructuring of the U.S. energy company Enron.

Enron, which started in 1985 as an oil and gas energy business, expanded into various sectors such as renewable energy, paper, telecommunications, finance, information technology (IT), and infrastructure, becoming a multinational conglomerate with annual sales of $110 billion (approximately 143 trillion KRW) and tens of thousands of employees at its peak. However, despite suffering significant losses in its natural gas-based futures trading business, it concealed these losses and engaged in accounting fraud, ultimately filing for bankruptcy in December 2001.

FTX, which filed for bankruptcy protection due to a 'bank run' just 10 days after allegations of insolvency arose, is being compared to the 'Enron scandal,' once one of the largest energy companies in the United States. / Photo by Yonhap News

Appointed as bankruptcy trustee, CEO Ray successfully recovered about half of the bad debts through restructuring. As a result, he returned over $20 billion (approximately 26 trillion KRW) to creditors. Additionally, CEO Ray handled bankruptcy-related work for Canadian telecommunications operator Nortel and Minnesota-based mortgage lender Residential Capital in the U.S.

The CEO reportedly also harshly criticized FTX's financial management. According to local media such as The New York Times (NYT) and The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), he described FTX's bankruptcy in documents submitted to the court as "an unprecedented case, worse than Enron." Ray's Chicago-based "restructuring specialist team" consults on organizational restructuring for companies in crisis while receiving substantial compensation. Ray's team operates with three bankruptcy officers. Each officer reportedly earns $975 per hour (approximately 1.26 million KRW) or $5.85 million annually (approximately 7.6 billion KRW).

In FTX's case, CEO Ray receives $1,300 per hour (approximately 1.7 million KRW) along with "reasonable expenses." The amount paid to him is a contractual fee for overseeing the restructuring process and takes precedence over the debts FTX must repay to creditors in the future. Currently, the total debt owed by the top 50 creditors of FTX is estimated to be at least $3.1 billion (approximately 4.03 trillion KRW), and the number of affected victims is expected to exceed one million.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.