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A local YouTuber who has been criticizing so-called business gurus who promise financial success has found himself in a legal mess.
LeapVista, a startup that offers training in the art of e-commerce and online marketing, sent a legal letter to Rishi, accusing the YouTuber of defamation and violation of his copyrights. But it seems like people are firmly on the YouTuber’s side in this case.
Rishi is known to be a vocal critic of the internet marketing and wealth coaching gurus who have made his online presence very prominent through aggressive internet advertisements. These folks offer courses on ecommerce entrepreneurship and charge substantial fees for the training, although the actual success rate for wealth-seeking attendees remains unclear.
In various videos, Rishi does not hesitate to call these scam companies. One that was published on October 13 called “Exposing Singapore’s Marketing Gurus” showed him tearing up a LeapVista ad, in which the company’s head coach Benjamin Tan promises to share his marketing knowledge, knowledge that Rishi says it can be easily found on the Internet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVuDOf5ITiQ
But it was almost a month later, on November 12, that the YouTuber revealed that he received a letter from LeapVista’s Cease and Desist.
“With the video ‘Exposing Singapore Marketing Gurus’ I recently made, LeapVista’s attorney not only tried to send a copyright takedown notice to my channel, but also sent me a legal cease and desist letter with demands, ”Rishi pointed out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0O1Qkfijmk
Since then, he has started a crowdfunding campaign to raise the money for legal representation to challenge the letter, and so far it has been successful. Rishi has stopped accepting further donations after raising $ 20,251 from 1,108 backers through the campaign, surpassing the initial goal of $ 15,000.
According to an Instagram Stories update, Rishi has appointed prominent human rights lawyer M Ravi to represent him. He assured that the funds raised will be used for legal fees and not to resolve the claims of LeapVista, which did not declare a certain amount of cash, he said.
Campaign sponsors have also voiced their support for Rishi’s cause, criticizing internet marketing coaches in general.
Earlier this year, Instagram influencer Carrine Low had also sought to expose so-called internet millionaires who offer such seminars, also drawing widespread criticism for these wealth gurus.
‘We will stand up to online bullies and abusers’: LeapVista
In response to inquiries from AsiaOne, the team behind LeapVista stated that the company intends to “fight bullies” and will not “allow online bullies to destroy the reputation of our community.”
“During the last few weeks we have noticed that an individual made an effort to tarnish our image and damage our reputation. This person never participated in our seminars or courses, ”LeapVista said in a statement.
“His accusations were based purely on hearsay. He never contacted us regarding any of the claims to verify and learn our point of view before making his videos. After our law firm sent him a cease and desist letter, he went on to falsely state on social media that we were suing him. Under this false pretense, he has raised more than $ 20,000 from the public. “
The company has also assured that it will follow all the necessary legal processes to protect what they have built and that they look forward to their day in court where the individual would have to “back up their allegations with evidence.”
“We know that we are far from perfect, there are hundreds of areas where we can do a better job,” admitted LeapVista.
Maybe our seminars could be better, maybe we shouldn’t have had so many repetitive advertising videos with Benjamin. All fair reviews. Where we draw a red line is when it comes to attacks on our integrity and reputation. We will defend it to our last dollar. “
