One of the biggest mysteries that I could never understand as a mentee of LIG between 2013 and 2018 and to this day is the lack of paperwork. Never did I receive a contract, invoice or receipt for monies paid and based on the Reddit comments over the last year this appears to remain the case.
A good friend of mine also mentored by Kris Deichler for a brief period between 2018 and 2019 asked for invoices/receipts for the mentoring sessions that he was paying for. He advised me Kris would “look into it” but he never received a response nor any paperwork…
Zero Paperwork
The LIG website continually refers to working with all kinds of companies. Not just small firms but large corporates. A new campaign announced in late 2021 allegedly attracted 126 corporate sponsors (below) from their network (none have been named) yet as ANYBODY who works with a large corporation knows they demand invoices, receipts, contracts before paying for anything.
This is for their accounts, sometimes they need approval to make the payment and for arse covering and practical reasons too. They can confirm they paid the right company for x products or services. So I have severe doubts that their approach of “we don’t do paperwork, we do business on trust” actually flies with many businesses of any size. I’m sure most say: no paperwork, no pay.
However the legitimacy of the above claim (made in late December 2021) has already been brought into question. In this post in late January 2022 users were baffled although likely not surprised to hear that none of the names of the 126 corporate sponsors who had publicly agreed to put their name to the campaign had been announced. Nor the details for the “Parents Against Trolls & Trolling Global Summit” which was scheduled for March 2022.
Details were due to be released “in the first week of January” (source >) we are now mid-March 2022 and have all heard nothing.
No Paperwork in South African Companies
Whilst I cannot comment on the accuracy of the information someone who claimed to have dug into Lighthouse International Group CEO Paul Waughs’ past in South Africa stated he found…
“3 failed companies, Coastal Promotions, Success Media and PSW Consulting, but as per UK all struck off or shutdown for record keeping violations and zero $$ returns.” You can read the full post here >
Mysterious Accounts
One popular theme of concern is the accounts for Lighthouse International Group (Companies House profile here >) and the Lighthouse Kidz Community Interest Company (here >) have year on year out (since 2013) filed accounts with HMRC and Companies House showing a balance sheet full of £0’s each and every year. Feel free to view the accounts for yourself on Gov.uk here >
This has been a heavily discussed topic on Reddit (details >) over the last year or so and something that Lighthouse has become aware of. As Lighthouse is an LLP partnership and not a Ltd company it does not necessarily mean that there is anything against the rules with the above filings. Also to be clear what is being filed is JUST the balance sheet not the profit and loss accounts.
Assets & Liabilities
What these books show is that the LLP partnership which mentees of LIG are being asked to “invest” £25,000 into (details >) owns nothing. The Lighthouse brand, website, domain name, any contracts, license fee’s and anything else of value is owned by one or more of the individuals behind the LLP. Effectively these books show that the partnership itself is worthless. Not even worth £1.
That also means that liabilities (basically bills) such as website hosting fees, the domain name, costs for their video conferencing Zoom account. the money spent on advertising, any business cards, their Virtual office address ++ are paid by the individuals behind the partnership and not the LLP.
There is nothing against the law running a LLP partnership this way however it may raise red flags for some in the sense that if you do business with LIG and there a dispute i.e. you want a refund, damages have been incurred ++ then there is little point suing the LLP as its worthless.
Even if you secured judgement and applied to the court to wind up the partnership you still wouldn’t get the LIG website, name or any other assets as they are all the personal property of the individuals.
So this is the perfect structure and deterrent if you anticipate you may have issues with unhappy clients or suppliers chasing you for money… and the likely reason why the Claimant found here > who has judgement against Lighthouse International Group LLP has not bothered to enforce it.
Lighthouse Kidz Company
However the above does NOT explain the mystery surrounding Lighthouse Kids Community Interest Company. That is because its a company & so different rules apply. Find that article here >
VAT Mystery
Furthermore as a quick Google search will confirm any business whether a sole trader, limited company or LLP partnership is required to register and pay VAT once it’s sales hit £85,000 (details >) it is also mandatory for them to issue FULL VAT invoices on transactions over £250 (details >).
Being that LIG claims to have “50 to 60 partners” (stated here >) selling £50 per hour mentoring sessions, £5k and £10k courses and the £25,000 “Associate Partner” package to buy-in to the business it’s obvious the organization surpasses this. To clarify this is £85,000 of SALES not profit.
The full article on this VAT mystery can be found here >