- Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The cost of the Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. bankruptcy investigation has topped $40 million and is still climbing.
- Marc Dozier/Corbis
The cost of the Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. bankruptcy investigation that dug up as much as $5.1 billion in potential legal claims has topped $40 million and is still climbing.
New bankruptcy-court filings show examiner Richard J. Davis and his team charged nearly $25 million for work performed as the probe into CEOC's dealings with its parent company heated up. The new round of bills brings the total cost of the investigation, launched in March 2015, up to $41.8 million.
The cost of the court-ordered probe, borne by CEOC, is expected to climb further, as the latest bills only cover work performed between Oct. 1 and Jan. 31. A report on the investigation's findings was released on March 15.
That report concluded[1] that Caesars Entertainment Corp. and its private-equity owners engineered a series of deals that hurt the company's now-bankrupt operating unit and its creditors, resulting in potential damages of $3.6 billion to $5.1 billion. The report identified potential legal claims—"of varying strength"—against Caesars and its private-equity backers, Apollo Global Management and TPG (each of whom dispute the findings).
Mr. Davis's report has been widely hoped to serve as a catalyst[2] in efforts to bring junior creditors on board with CEOC's restructuring plan. CEOC has lined up a federal judge to serve as mediator in such talks, and it has also said it will file an updated restructuring plan by Monday.
Mr. Davis, a lawyer who was once part of the Watergate prosecution team, reviewed roughly nine million pages of documents and data and interviewed more than 90 people to complete his report, which totaled 1,787 pages.
Working with Mr. Davis[3] are lawyers at Winston & Strawn[4] and Luskin, Stern & Eisler[5] . Rounding out his team is Alvarez & Marsal[6] Global Forensic and Dispute Services as financial adviser. (Links to each of the latest fee requests, which are subject to a Chicago judge's approval, can be found in each biller's name in this paragraph.)
Mr. Davis agreed to discount his normal $950 hourly rate to $850 for his work as the examiner, according to court papers. Each of the firms working for him is taking a 10% discount on their fees.
Write to Jacqueline Palank at jacqueline.palank@wsj.com. Follow her on Twitter at @PalankJ[7][8]
References
- ^ concluded (www.wsj.com)
- ^ catalyst (blogs.wsj.com)
- ^ Mr. Davis (www.documentcloud.org) < li>^ Winston & Strawn (www.documentcloud.org)
- ^ Luskin, Stern & Eisler (www.documentcloud.org)
- ^ Alvarez & Marsal (www.documentcloud.org)
- ^ jacqueline.palank@wsj.com (blogs.wsj.com)
- ^ @PalankJ (twitter.com)
