Diamond Comic Distributors’ professionals submitted their final compensation requests for work done during the nearly one-year Chapter 11 bankruptcy period, and the grand total is nearly $18 million, all money that won’t be available to pay publishers and other creditors. The last bills were filed with the court in January for work done in December, which totaled $434,305. Once again, the largest bill was from Diamond attorneys Saul Ewing LLP, which was handling the litigation in the litigation between Diamond and publishers and Alliance Entertainment as well as preparing the filing to convert to Chapter 7. Saul Ewing billed $208,828, followed by restructuring consultants Getzler Henrich, who billed $156,096.
The third largest bill was from investment bank Raymond James & Associates, Inc., which billed $42,033 for fees “for indemnification,” which sounds like it was related to the litigation with Alliance Entertainment, in which Raymond James was also named.
Smaller amounts were billed by attorneys for the Unsecured Creditor Committee to make up the rest of the total. Amounts have generally been declining over the past few months, as activity slowed and it became apparent that Diamond was running out of money (see “Another $800K in Diamond Fees”).
The biggest remaining issue that will determine the outcome for creditors is the fate of the nearly $50 million at Diamond cost in consignment inventory that Diamond is attempting to seize and sell. While the litigation around that issue is automatically stayed by the Chapter 7 case, it could be allowed to resume if necessary to resolve the issue; last we heard it was in mediation (see “Diamond Holds Nearly $50 Million”).
Source: ICv2
