FTX’s Bankruptcy: AZA Finance Denounces Listing of Its Entities in Filing

AZA Finance, a global financial services firm, has denounced FTX’s listing of 23 of its subsidiaries in its bankruptcy protection filing made public on Friday. The foreign exchange fintech noted that “our entities are not part of the FTX bankruptcy.”

Beleaguered Bahamas-based crypto exchange FTX on Friday disclosed that the bankruptcy proceeding includes FTX.com, FTX.US, Alameda Research and and “approximately 130 additional affiliated companies.”

However, AZA Finance in a statement released late Friday noted that “in its disorganized haste, FTX erroneously listed our entities in their bankruptcy filing.”

Notice: AZA Finance & our entities are not affected by the @FTX_Official bankruptcy, nor by the events of this week. FTX are not shareholders in@aza_africa, E4F or other entities of ours - the circulating list/org chart is incorrect. We remain stable, open, & running normally. https://t.co/uvHtXn09pu

— AZA Finance (@aza_africa) November 11, 2022

“I was shocked and disappointed to see that FTX named BTC Africa S.A. and other AZA Finance entities in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing today. To be clear: AZA Finance entities are not affected by the FTX bankruptcy, and we are taking steps to correct the erroneous court filings," explained Elizabeth Rossiello, CEO and Founder of AZA Finance.

@FTX_Official did NOT acquire @aza_africa or E4F - this list is incorrect. We were partners ONLY and there was no shareholding. We are licensed in multiple jurisdictions and our shareholding is public. Clearly FTX org chart is as messy as the rest of it

— Elizabeth Rossiello (@e_rossiello) November 11, 2022

However, AZA Finance pointed out that FTX Africa is just one of its customers as the latter uses its payment infrastructure to pay out to a small number of customers in Africa.

The fintech company further explained that it entered into a commercial partnership with FTX Africa to help expand web3 in Africa by building "regulated, safe and low-cost payment rails" for FTX.

"However, neither FTX nor any of its associated entities own or control AZA Finance or our entities, including BTC Africa SA. Our entities are not part of the FTX bankruptcy," AZA Finance noted.

The Entities

According to AZA Finance, its entities listed in the bankruptcy filing and that are not part of FTX include B Transfer Services Limited UK, Exchange4Free Limited UK, BTC Africa SA, BT Payment Services Ghana Limited, BT Payment Services Nigeria Limited, BT Payment Services Uganda Limited and BT Payment Services South Africa.

Others are TransferZero, B For Transfer Egypt, B Transfer Services Limited UAE, BitPesa Kenya Limited, BitPesa Senegal Limited, BitPesa South Africa, BitPesa Tanzania Limited, BitPesa Uganda Limited, BitPesa RDC SARL and BTPesa Nigeria Limited.

Additionally, BTSL Limited Tanzania, Exchange4Free Seychelles, Exchange4Free Australia Br., Exchange4Free Swiss Br., Exchange4Free South Africa Br. and FinFax Company Limited, were also erroneously included, AZA Finance said.

FTX was forced to apply for bankruptcy protection following a liquidity crisis fueled by rival Binance’s decision to withdraw its $530 million FTX Tokens (FTT) from FTX, also the revelation that FTT constituted the largest single entry on FTX corporate sibling Alameda Research's balance sheet.

The struggling crypto exchange made efforts to raise funds after Binance pulled out of a proposed deal to fully acquire its non-US operations before opting for bankruptcy protection in the United States.