Plenty of Singaporeans lost deposits ranging from S$19 to S$49 thanks to oBike shutting down here and not making refunds.

However, at least one or some disgruntled people have dug up publicly available information on oBike's founder, Shi Yi (石一), a multi-millionaire Chinese based in China.

One post put up on the site, obikerefund.livejournal.com, has dug up more information on Shi Yi, including private communications, and pieced them into a narrative.

Here are some of the highlights:

1. More than just regulatory pressure that caused oBike to fold in Singapore

oBike said that their exit was due to the foreseen pressures from the new regulations by Singapore's Land Transport Authority.

While this might have been partly true, it seems oBike might have other reasons for its exit.

As this March 2018 article in Chinese already alleged, Shi Yi never intended to put investment money into oBike.

Here's the summary of it:

1. oBike raised one of the biggest investments in Southeast Asia (US$45 million) in August 2017.
2. However, by end 2017, oBike was becoming financially unsustainable.
3. A move was made to crowdfund using cryptocurrency, using Initial Coin Offering (ICO), which can bypass regulations required by banks.
4. Shi Yi launches the cryptocurrency OCN on Jan. 25, 2018. Within six days, it raised 50,000 Ethereum -- the equivalent of S$82 million at that time, according to obikerefund.
5. Shi Yi allegedly withdrew the money from the OCN pool.
6. After that, Shi Yi allegedly ran the same trick twice using two more new cryptocurrencies in China, Content Neutrality Network (CNN) and DatX.

The trick used was to hype up the cryptocurrency in the media and set up a "board' of consultants to attract investors.

Then as more investors come on board and jack up the value of the cryptocurrency, those that came in early cashes out.

According to post, Shi Yi tried the same method in early 2018, this time with two more colleagues -- Sun Guofeng and Chen En Yong (alias Joseph Chen).

The returns was to be divided between them as such: Shi Yi (54 percent), Sun Guofeng (23 percent), and Chen En Yong (23 percent), according to a screenshot of the group chat reproduced below:

This time, they were going to use the a Spherepay cryptocurrency SAY.

However, it allegedly did not work out, forcing the men to fall out.

As a result, Sun Guofeng went to unleash this exposé on Shi Yi.

According to the same Chinese article, Shi Yi's mode of operation via the four cryptocurrencies (OCN, CNN, DATx, and SAY) raised about 200,000 Ethereum.

Calculated then at the price of 3,640 yuan per coin, that's the equivalent of 728 million yuan.

This amounts to S$149.5 million.

2. Avazu Holdings is supposedly owned by Shi Yi's grandparents

Avazu is a mobile advertising platform, from which Shi Yi allegedly made his first millions. The directors are apparently Shi Yi's maternal grandmother and maternal grandfather.

This information comes from a Beijing legal document produced by the post.

3. Shi Yi is involved in a lot of companies at one time

There is a list of at least 10 companies that Shi Yi acts as the legal representative, with his maternal grandmother somehow named, as provided by the post:

1. 艾维邑动(北京)信息技术有限公司 (Aiwei Dynamic (Beijing) Information Technology Co., Ltd. also reported to be known as DotC United). Formed on 2014-03-06 and has RMB100,000 registered capital. Likewise Shi Yi owns 99% of this company and is its executive director, and Jin Peifang 金佩芳 holds remaining 1% share, although the supervisor is Zong Jun.
2. 浙江艾维邑动信息技术有限公司 (Zhejiang Aiwei Dynamic Information Technology Co., Ltd.) Formed on 2014-06-04 and has RMB10million registered capital. Shi Yi is its executive director and 99% shareholder. A Jin Peifang 金佩芳 is its supervisor and holder of the remaining 1% share.
3. 安徽橙致信息技术有限公司 (Anhui Chengzhi Information Technology Co., Ltd. ) Formed on 2014-09-25 and has RMB1million registered capital. Zhejiang Aiwei Dynamic Information Technology Co., Ltd. is its 100% shareholder, Shi Yi is its executive director and Jin Peifang its supervisor.
4. 上海奔威信息技术有限公司 (Shanghai Benwei Information Technology Co., Ltd.) Formed on 2014-09-25 and has RMB 500,000 registered capital. Zhejiang Aiwei Dynamic Information Technology Co., Ltd. is its 100% shareholder, Shi Yi is its executive director and Jin Peifang its supervisor.
5. 西安麦橙信息科技有限公司 (Xi'an Maicheng Information Technology Co., Ltd.) (deregistered) Formed on 2015-04-03 and has RMB 500,000 registered capital. 上海麦橙网络科技有限公司 (Shanghai Maicheng Network Technology Co., Ltd. is its 100% shareholder, Shi Yi is its executive director and Li Wenjing 李文进 its supervisor.
6. 北京橙动信息技术有限公司 (Beijing Chengdong Information Technology Co., Ltd., also known as Teebik). Formed on 2016-03-09 and has RMB100,000 registered capital. 上海橙致信息技术有限公司 (Shanghai Chengdong Information Technology Co., Ltd., ) is its 100% shareholder, Shi Yi is its executive director and Zong Jun its supervisor.
7. 上海麦橙网络科技有限公司北京分公司 (Shanghai Maicheng Network Technology Co., Ltd. Beijing Branch) Formed on 2016-03-23. Shi Yi is the person-in-charge.
8. 南通艾维投资合伙企业(有限合伙) (Nantong Aiwei Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) (deregistered). Formed on 2016-06-14 and has RMB 2 billion registered capital. Shi Yi is its 99.95% shareholder and the person-in-charge, while Sha Ye 沙烨 held the remaining 0.05%.
9. 上海奥梵信息技术有限公司 (Shanghai Ao Fan Information Technology Co., Ltd.). Formed on 2017-10-20 and has RMB100,000 registered capital. Shi Yi owns 80% of shares and 上海麦致信息技术有限公司 (Shanghai Maizhi Information Technology Co., Ltd.) owns 20%. Shi Yi is the executive director and Jin Peifang the supervisor.
10. 上海橙墨信息技术有限公司 (Shanghai Cheng Mo Information Technology Co., Ltd.). Formed on 2017-11-13 and has RMB100,000 registered capital. Anhui Chengzhi Information Technology Co., Ltd. is its 100% shareholder, Shi Yi is its executive director and Jin Peifang its supervisor.

According to the post, the purpose of such a network of information technology companies is to "support the facilitation of sizable payments quickly, across national borders and seemingly in legitimate manner".

No refunds yet in Singapore

Singaporeans still don't know if and when they will be able to get their deposits back.

According to the Consumers Association of Singapore, assets seized by oBike's liquidators have to be distributed to its creditors and contributors first. Consumers feature very low on the ladder.

At this rate, Shi Yi will probably have gone elsewhere in China, having "turned air into real money", according to another post written n Chinese.

You can read more about Shi Yi's activities via the original Sohu Mandarin article here, and a summarised English version here.

Shi Yi responds to allegations

In a LinkedIn post on July 2, Shi Yi has responded to the allegations.

He refuted claims that his grandparents are involved in the companies he is in, and even disavowed the fact that he was named the founder of oBike.

He also wrote that oBike is working to refund users and reiterated that closure of the bike-sharing platform was the result of regulation.

Top image via SoHu