Following her voluntary undertaking of disqualification to the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority (IoMFSA), Lynn Keig is unable to act as a director, secretary or registered agent of any company until 28 June 2023, reports local newspaper IOM Today.
Keig was a director of a number of Louis Group entities between 2007 and 2011. She has admitted unfit conduct for failing to exercise proper financial control and allowing mismanagement of investments in Louis Group funds.
She also failed to make adequate assessments of the risks associated with lending between Louis Group entities and failed to challenge information.
Her disqualification follows a similar move by fellow Louis Group director Rousseau Moss, a pastor at the Living Hope church on the island.
According to the company’s website; Louis Group’s parent company, the House of Louis, was founded on the principles of Christian and family values.
High Court proceedings are continuing against five other Louis Group directors: including chief executive Alan Louis, John McCauley, Dirk Mudge, Lukas Nakos and Andrew Rouse.
Winding up order
The Isle of Man High Court ordered that six IoM-based Louis Group companies be wound up in January 2013, with PwC appointed joint liquidators.
In August 2014, the accountancy firm wrote in its report that there was a “taint of illegality” across the vast majority of the business carried out by the Louis Group on the Isle of Man.
In its assessment of the group, PwC said it had uncovered evidence of :
- Widespread conflicts of interest;
- Hidden fees and commission;
- Highly questionable transactions involving the use of funds belonging to property structures; and,
- Highly questionable retrospective and missing dosumentation and evidence of false accounting.
The accountancy firm also revealed that, in 2014, it was liquidators to over 30 Louis Group cmpanies, including the six IoM companies, and had received over 800 claims totalling nearly £300m.
PwC’s April 2017 report reiterated earlier concerns about the extent to which Alan Louis seemingly personally benefitted from the transfer of millions of pounds of investors funds to his own accounts.
Investors
Around a quarter of the 700 investors are from the Isle of Man, with the remainder mainly from South Africa and the UK.
The largest single investment was £5m, with the majority of investors having put between £10,000 to £30,000 into the funds.
Feedback to PwC found that many people decided to invest in the belief that the Louis family was co-invested with them and that their money was safe in property-backed investments.
“Significantly, we do not believe that there is any Louis Family money invested in any structure,” PwC added.
South African roots
The House of Louis was founded in South Africa in 1914 as general wholesale merchants and property investors, according to the company’s website.
Its expansion to the Isle of Man in around 2002 was led by Alan Louis, who among the third generation of the Louis family to be involved in the company.
The group bought a licensed trust and corporate services provider company, which became Louis Group Isle of Man (LGIOM), one of the six companies in liquidation.
The business focused on creating, promoting and managing investment opportunities in Isle of Man companies for third-party investors.
Ownership of the companies was typically shared between A shareholders, who held voting control, and B shareholders, who had the right of participation but no votes.
Alan Louise ultimately controlled the A voting shares, according to PwC.
Blind eye
On its website, the company said an investigator wrote a false report about its suspended European Property fund in October 2012, with regard to its workings and the Louis enterprise involvement in it.
The company claims it was later vindicated by a forensic audit by accountancy firm Mazars; however, “the Isle of Man authorities turn a blind eye to the Mazars report and their actions exclude Alan’s extensive experience in recovering value for investors”.
In its August 2014 report, PwC wrote that Alan Louis was “vociferously protesting against our involvement, representing to investors that he alone was the man to be trusted to get them their money back and repeating painting himself as the victim in all of this”.
