TelexFree LLC’s bankruptcy advisers will forgo more than $1 million in fees they charged during the short time they worked for the company, which has since been accused of operating a massive pyramid scheme, the Wall Street Journal reported today. To head off objections from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, one of the many that have sued over the alleged fraud, attorneys at Greenberg Traurig and turnaround advisers at Alvarez & Marsal will dramatically slash the amount they charged TelexFree in the early days of its chapter 11 case. Court papers show that Greenberg will cut its request for $969,000 in fees to just $320,000, while its requested expenses of about $76,000 will remain the same. A&M’s roughly $876,000 in fees and expenses, meanwhile, will be cut to $435,000. In return for these agreed-to reductions — which together total $1.09 million — TelexFree’s court-appointed trustee and the SEC won’t object as the firms seek bankruptcy court approval for the fees. The SEC will also ask a district judge to lift the order freezing TelexFree’s assets so the firms can collect their fees.
