Police probe finds no evidence of wrongdoing by oBike

The police have found no evidence of wrongdoing by one of the biggest bicycle-sharing firms set up here, three years after it exited Singapore and allegedly transferred millions in subscribers' deposits to Hong Kong.

In response to queries from The Straits Times, the police said they have completed investigations into the alleged misappropriation of funds by oBike Singapore.

"The investigation did not reveal any evidence of an offence," the police said without elaborating. "The police, in consultation with the Attorney-General's Chambers, have taken no further action against oBike Singapore."

oBike was founded by Chinese start-up multi-millionaire Shi Yi. It entered Singapore in January 2017 and quickly flooded the market with some 50,000 bicycles.

Soon after the authorities introduced licensing in March 2018 to encourage better management of a combined fleet which had ballooned to 200,000, several bike-sharing firms - including oBike - started pulling out or shutting down their operations.

In August that year, liquidators of oBike revealed that the firm had transferred about $10 million collected from users here to its Hong Kong office. FTI Consulting added that letters of demand will be issued to oBike Hong Kong and founder Shi Yi.

FTI did not respond when asked for an update on the liquidation process.

In September 2018, Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam told Parliament that the police were investigating oBike for misappropriation of funds.

In an update last week, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said oBike's commercial decision to close down its operations "was unfortunate".

"It underscored the need for a strong device-sharing operators regulatory framework to mitigate the impact of disorderly exits by operators," an LTA spokesman said.

Bike-sharing firms are now required to, among other things, pay a performance bond to LTA based on their fleet size.

But an oBike vendor said he had tipped LTA off in May 2018 about the firm's intended pull-out - a month before oBike closed shop.

Mr Henry Ong, whose logistics firm used lorries to redistribute bicycles across the island, said he first suspected something was amiss as early as March 2018 when the firm started being late in making payments.

He then found out from an oBike employee that the firm, which had operations in several other countries, was preparing to pull out of Singapore.

Mr Ong said LTA did not act on his tip-off. However, LTA said it takes public feedback "very seriously and all information provided is looked into".

Its spokesman said the tip-off, as well as "LTA's observations", had helped with police investigations and "in enabling MoT (Ministry of Transport) and LTA to prepare for oBike's exit". The spokesman did not elaborate.

oBike's exit left in its wake close to $2 million in debts and up to 50,000 abandoned bicycles. Some of its bicycles were bought by other operators, while others were sent to metal scrapyards.

The firm is also believed to have collected $8.9 million in deposits from users, who each paid $49. To date, no one is known to have received a refund.

Mr Ong said he wished there was a more structured system to record statements from whistle-blowers, and to update them on actions taken, if any.

He said oBike owes him some $80,000 in unpaid fees.

"While we want to encourage innovation, we can't allow companies to come here and leave a mess without consequences," he added. "My question is, could this have been prevented?"