A recent Law 360 story by Craig Clough, “Paul Hastings’ $12M Kwok Chapter 11 Fee Bill ‘Only The Beginning’,” reports that, calling it one of the most "complex and challenging" individual Chapter 11 cases ever filed, Paul Hastings LLP asked a Connecticut bankruptcy judge for $12.3 million in attorney fees covering eight months of work on exiled Chinese billionaire Ho Wan Kwok's case, adding the request is "only the beginning."

An interim fee application covering fees from July 8 through Feb. 28 done on behalf of the bankruptcy trustee in Kwok's case also includes nearly $349,000 in expenses for the firm, which said it took the case on a contingency basis and waited until the trustee recovered enough to pay the amount requested in the application, including two luxury yachts and $33 million held in escrow.  Kwok, also known as Guo Wengui, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2022, citing $100 million to $500 million in liabilities, and he was arrested in March on allegations that he operated a multifaceted $1 billion fraud scheme.

"These Chapter 11 cases likely rank among the most complex and challenging Chapter 11 cases ever filed by an individual debtor," Paul Hastings said.  "The lead debtor — Mr. Ho Wan Kwok — is at the center of a vast maze of companies and assets purportedly owned by the individual debtor's family members or close business associates, but who, in reality, have no financial interest in, or control over, the companies and assets they purport to own because, in reality, the individual debtor owns and controls these companies and assets."

Trustee Luc A. Despins of Paul Hastings and the firm have faced a number of challenges in the case outside its complexity, including street protests of the firm orchestrated by Kwok and death threats against Despins, according to the filing.  "While the trustee and Paul Hastings will not be intimidated by these actions, they did require Paul Hastings to incur, among other expenses, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cyber security measures," Paul Hastings said.  "To be clear, Paul Hastings is not seeking reimbursement of these expenses in this application."