Here's an update for anyone curious about the plans that YouTuber Rishi Kz has for the money he raised for his legal wrangle with education/eCommerce start-up Leap Vista.

Rishi announced in a video on Nov. 23 that he raised over S$20,000 after putting up a public appeal for funds.

However, he has now offered to refund the money of anyone who donated if he does not get sued.

Who's involved?

Leap Vista offers courses on how one could potentially make money from eCommerce, such as dropshipping.

You may be aware of the company from its advertisements on YouTube.

Rishi made a few videos decrying LeapVista's ads, including one on Oct. 13 titled "Exposing Singapore's Marketing Gurus".

In it, he criticises the ads, saying that the things the company's chief trainer Benjamin Tan teaches could easily be found elsewhere, according to AsiaOne.

Lawyer's letter

On Nov. 12, Rishi stated that he received a letter from lawyers acting on behalf of LeapVista.

The letter from Trident Law Corporation claimed that Rishi's video infringed Leap Vista's intellectual property and damaged its reputation.

Rishi then decided to start a public appeal on GoGetFunding to raise funds. In the appeal, Rishi said he would "fight" the case:

"This isn’t the first-time established companies in this space are sending individual creators lawyer letters for bringing up any sort of discussion based on the happenings.

However, I am no "internet millionaire" & so I’m requesting help from you guys to assist me with the legal fees for this entire case because I believe such courses will be put under the spotlight & that’ll be beneficial to many Singaporeans."

Within 48 hours, about 1,000 people contributed to Rishi's appeal, and he ended up with over S$20,000 before stopping his campaign.

In response to queries from Mothership about Rishi, Leap Vista said that the allegations are based on hearsay as he was never a participant of their seminars and courses, and added that he did not contact them to verify his claims before making his videos.

"After our law firm sent him a Cease and Desist letter, he went on to falsely claim on social media he was being sued by us. Using this false pretext he has raised over $20,000 from the public."

Rishi's video update

In the Nov. 23 video, Rishi said that he had not used any of the money that was donated to him so far.

He also addressed the discrepancy over the Cease and Desist letter.

"I genuinely didn't know there's a difference between a Cease and Desist letter versus getting sued. I was under the impression that [both] things are the same, and that's why in the video I said 'I am being sued.'"

Rishi clarified that he started the crowdfunding appeal in order to fight a lawsuit. If he were to be sued, that's what he would use the money for, and he would be transparent about its use.

However, if that doesn't pan out, Rishi pledged to return the money to every single person who donated to the appeal.

"Legal discussions are actually ongoing right now, and if they decide not to sue me and not to take this matter up to the courts, I will make a specific video showing me refunding every single one of the 1,108 people through the Stripe dashboard that I showed you all just now."

He also confirmed that he has engaged a law firm of his own, and is taking their advice for this matter.

Family and health are his priorities

Rishi explained that he had made some of his videos private for the time being.

He said that the matter no longer just concerns him, but also the people around him.

He added that "family and health" are his biggest priorities.

However, if any of his backers wish to have their money back, he invited them to send him an email and he would get in touch with them.

You can watch the full video below:

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Top image from Go Get Funding.