John J. Ray III: How much is the new FTX CEO paid and what is his net worth?

JOHN J RAY III was rapidly drafted in as FTX’s new CEO on November 11 after the resignation of Sam Bankman Fried.

The highly regarded attorney and insolvency expert, who has admitted being “drawn to crisis”, took over the reins with the crypto exchange owing creditors over $3billion.

But how much is John J. Ray III paid at FTX and what is his total net worth?

How much is John J. Ray III paid at FTX?

Court filings indicate that John J. Ray III earns a staggering $1,300 an hour for his work overseeing the bankruptcy of FTX.

The amount would work out at approximately $2.6million a year. He is allowed to claim “reasonable expenses” on top.

Ray is not employed directly by FTX but rather hired as a contractor, meaning that his money is paid immediately and his income is protected from the firm’s financial uncertainty.

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It also means that the insolvency professional’s money gets paid before FTX investors receive compensation frothier losses.

On top of his hourly billing, the cryptocurrency exchange is also paying Ray a $200,000 retainer fee.

What is John J. Ray III’s net worth?

John J. Ray III is thought to have a net worth of as much as $10million.

The attorney has worked on a number of high profile insolvency cases over a 40 year period, netting him a series of big figure payments.

What has John J. Ray III said about Sam Bankman Fried?

John J. Ray III has been highly critical of the way Sam Bankman Fried ran FTX before he stood down as CEO.

Appearing before a US Congressional committee in December 2022, Ray said he had “never seen such an utter lack of record keeping” at a company before, adding there were “absolutely no internal controls whatsoever”.

He said: “The collapse of FTX appears to stem from absolute concentration of control in the hands of a small group of grossly inexperienced and unsophisticated individuals who failed to implement virtually any of the systems or controls that are necessary for a company entrusted with other people’s money or assets.”

He warned it would take “weeks and perhaps months to secure all the assets” of FTX’s creditors.

Despite decades of experience overseeing bankruptcies, Ray described the situation of what he had found at the crypto exchange as “unprecedented”.

Sam Bankman Fried has admitted he “f***ed up” at FTX but has rejected Ray’s claims of poor record keeping.

He said there were “statements that have been made, that have been put on legal record that I knew to be false”.

“There have been cases where it’s been said XYZ did not exist and I am staring at a copy of XYZ,” he added.

“I would dispute the claim that there were zero financial controls.

“I completely agree that there were places in which there were very poor controls and that those places were critical, and that that was really bad.”