oBike under police investigation following fund misappropriation claims

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) has started investigating oBike Singapore following claims of misappropriation of funds, said Law and Home Affairs minister K Shanmugam, as quoted on Channel News Asia. According to a Channel News Asia article, oBike's liquidators, FTI Consulting’s senior managing director Joshua Taylor said that given oBike’s financial state, some of the transactions were deemed “inappropriate”. He added that oBike owes an estimated SG$8.9 million to its Singapore users. Meanwhile, liquidators have issued a letter to oBike's founder Shi Yi, demanding the money to be returned.Marketing has reached out to Ministry of Home Affairs and FTI Consulting for comment.The furore around oBike first erupted when oBike made an abrupt exit from the Singapore market in June. This was following difficulties foreseen in fulfilling new requirements and guidelines released by the Land Transport Authority towards dock-less bicycle sharing locally, the company said at the time.Soon after, oBike got called out by CASE oBike for being “unethical” in using customer deposits to purchase bicycles and fund operations. Under the initial agreements, oBike stated that the deposit was refundable when requested by consumers. As such, CASE took the stand that the deposit should not have been used as prepayment for future service. It added that the money should have been placed in a separate account to allow oBike to refund consumers when required. Read also: Netizens start #refundmydeposit after oBike stops ops oBike’s communications on exit deemed lacklustre by PR professionals oBike finally publicly apologises for exit, addresses deposit and data matters