Leshi picks new board without its founder, as picketing debtors disrupt shareholders’ meeting

Leshi Internet Information & Technology Corp.’s shareholders installed new members to their company’s management board on Monday, trying to sever founder Jia Yueting’s management involvement or boardroom control of the cash-starved video streaming service.

Sun Hongbin, the Shanxi tycoon who poured 15 billion yuan (US$2.2 billion) to bail out Jia’s LeEco group of companies, is very likely to appoint as chairman of Leshi’s board, according to a shareholder who attended the company’s shareholder meeting on Monday in Beijing.

The new board marks the end of the road for Jia, an entrepreneur who expanded his video streaming business into what he called an ecosystem of seemingly unrelated businesses built around mobile internet, comprising smartphones, television sets, movie production and even a self-driving electric sports car.

Jia’s companies under the LeEco Group chalked up a large amount of debt, forcing the companies to fight back talk of cash crunch, and money owed to myriad vendors and suppliers, for the better part of a year. In January, Sun -- he hails from Shanxi province, just like Jia -- swooped in with a cash injection, in the process taking control of stakes in three of LeEco’s subsidiaries in movies, smart TVs and internet businesses.

Still, the cash injection hadn’t been the salve to all of LeEco’s cash woes. At its shareholders meeting, two dozen debtors held a demonstration demanding collection on money owed to them.

Chanting “Jia, giving our money back, LeEco giving our money back”, LeEco suppliers who’re seeking to recover 60 million yuan from LeEco stormed the shareholders’ meeting, only to be informed that the founder was out of China.

“Jia is in the United States, working to get more financing,” said Zhao Lei, a general manager at LeEco, who was sent at the meeting venue to calm down the angry suppliers. “We don’t know when he will return.” Zhao pointed out that the money was owed by LeEco, and that the protestors had crashed a LeShi meeting, as he sought to distinguish between the two.