-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Youtuber 'The Completionist' accused of running a fake charity
EverythingsOverrated
Member
Yup, I was thinking the same while watching his response. The whole thing is sketchy. While I'm not ready to throw the guy in prison, the fact that he used a huge portion of his almost 20 minute video to deflect and bring up his family over and over has me more suspicious than before.
His actions have been suspicious as hell and anyone that can't admit that much completely lacks any form of critical thinking.
Dick Jones
Gold Member
Anyone do the math on interest and was that handed over?
Dacvak
No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
I host a charity event every year, and while it’s true that donations usually take months and months before they’re fully submitted to the charity, it never ever takes THIS long. It’s wild to me that they continued to have yearly events all without transferring funds to any charity.
This is a bad look and bad response from this dude.
This is a bad look and bad response from this dude.
Lokaum D+
Member
i did and only god knows.
Evil Calvin
Afraid of Boobs
I only donate to animal charities. As most other charities are scams and BS.
bender
What time is it?
I do think Jobst and Mutahar got over the skis with some of the accusations they made after their initials videos and that's mostly due to their lack of understanding of charities, tax and accounting practices. That said, Jirard looks like he got his hand caught in the cookie jar. Maybe it's okay to collect donations to pool them for a restricted donation, but if that's really the case then why donate now? His initial interview with Jobst/Mutahar came off incredibly poorly in asking them for suggestions of which organization to donate to. And according to Jirard, both his legal team and accounts said he did noting wrong. So again, why donate now? t's also incredibly poor form to repeatedly tout the charities that you've donated to when you've donated nothing monetarily. That's a lot worse than not just being "transparent" and probably is in the realm of fraud. At best, Jirard is a liar and lied to his audience to entice them to donate to his charity. It's a good thing he is stepping away from Open Hand. No one should trust him again, especially when it comes to charity. I can understand wanting to take legal action towards Jobst and Mutahar but I do wonder what it accomplishes. Jirard and has some well deserved egg on his face and I do wonder who would foot the bill for legal council. The Open Hand Foundation?
Why are the fans of him forgetting the part where he only donated now after 10 years only when this issue is raised?It seems that the money had finally been donated as promised. Now to see what happen in the next few weeks. Will this be enough?
Open Hand Foundation Provides AFTD $600K for FTD Research | AFTD
AFTD is pleased to announce that we have received a gift of $600,000 from the Open Hand Foundation to further its mission to hasten a cure for FTD and improvewww.theaftd.org
Its more of a "im sorry i got caught" move
bender
What time is it?
Bigger donations can come with restrictions to the organization being donated to (we want 90% of the donation used for research and only 10% for administration, etc.) but the amount donated probably has to be significant so if you are a smaller charity, pooling years of donations to accomplish this makes sense. Maybe that's the intent here but the optics point to your bolded statement.
-When Jirard did the initial interview, he should have pointed this out and not been flustered. Guys, who do you think I should donate to?
-He also shouldn't have rattled of multiple charities during multiple charity drives that Open Hand had donated to. That's just an outright lie.
-Donating a few weeks after this getting brought to light probably isn't a coincidence.
Now it's up to whatever audit to reveal what happened. I simply can't trust Jirad's word on this as he lied about the charities he was "working" with.
Then there is the him claiming that 100% of donations were going to charities, yet having admin costs to run indieland, whilst also saying he didn't want donations to go to admin costs.
Then there is the him claiming that 100% of donations were going to charities, yet having admin costs to run indieland, whilst also saying he didn't want donations to go to admin costs.
ssringo
Member
Assuming there's no malfeasance going on (and the likely incoming audit will determine that), enough people were upset about the situation so they might as well donate it now to at least try and turn the narrative to some extent. Continuing to hold on to it wasn't going to do them any favors regardless of legality/morality/etc. I imagine it's also part of his stepping back from the whole charity thing to donate what they had.
tomato shrub
Member
He seems to have a strong fanboy bubble around him all cushy and positive comments under the video. But on his own reddit all the defenders seem to get downvoted into oblivion, so thankfully the majority of people hasn't gone insane yet (the reddit mod is one of the stockholm-syndromed ones though who has now banned all talk on the topic lol).
Last edited:
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
So he finally donated now? All of it, or some of it?
No doubt he's only donating then cause he got caught. Interestingly, nobody knows what he did with the $600k accrued over 10 years. He might had taken the money and invested it or bought a house. Maybe he sunk it into NVidia stock 5x the money. So ya he'll give back $600k, but he'll bank the rest which will be shown in records unrelated to those charity forms.
Freelance Yakuza
Member
Last edited:
diffusionx
Gold Member
I think the lawsuit threat is a bluff. Because once he sues them then everything comes out. It makes great PR, though, which is why so many people say it without following through.
Last edited:
mitch1971
Member
I bet he followed through when he seen that original video.
Shifty1897
Member
TLDR: Scammer is upset that he got caught, spins wheels, panics, misdirects, threatens legal action to try and discourage others from investigating, but absolutely will not follow through because if he did, it would just expose himself further.
Mownoc
Member
I like how Jirard says "I made statements potentially implying donations were made when they had not yet been."
One of the statements was, when talking about the University of San Francisco, that they were "one of their main funding support partners." That is not 'potentially implying' anything. You are explicitly saying you are funding them.
One of the statements was, when talking about the University of San Francisco, that they were "one of their main funding support partners." That is not 'potentially implying' anything. You are explicitly saying you are funding them.
Last edited:
FunkMiller
Gold Member
He's clearly quite happy to openly lie on camera about where the donations were going. If nothing else, an official, open book audit is required.
Last edited:
bishopcruz
Member
Where are the lies? At most he said he was "working with" the different organizations, which can easily fall under figuring out what's needed for unrestricted donations. The implication is there, don't get me wrong, but not quite lying. That would of course assume his paper trail of communication with these organizations was true, and where they were in talks at the time. As for the none of it goes to us, that means it all goes to the foundation, and expenses in setting up events comes out of that. Still looks like a charity with no full time employees and an unrealistic restricted donations goal let things slide for way too long which is a problem, but doesn't seem to be what Jobst is implying.
Stop caping for him. He's lying through his teeth.
demigod
Member
This really grinds my gears. I hope the dude gets whats coming for him.
Are you really that ignorant. His charity videos implied that he donated already to various charities, dementia / alzheimmer.
Shifty1897
Member
I was wondering how long before this would happen.
Tangerine
Banned
I fail to see how anyone can trust him going forward. It's a huge deal charity fraud. Everyone who donated feels slighted and repulsed and most who never donated, if they objectively look at the evidence and lies he's said, feel repulsed too.
I think he'll continue his own YouTube channel going forward too see if he can recover and see how many views he gets.
I hope he feels like the POS he is. Again, his dementia riddled mother was used to gain more support/donations. Ugh
I think he'll continue his own YouTube channel going forward too see if he can recover and see how many views he gets.
I hope he feels like the POS he is. Again, his dementia riddled mother was used to gain more support/donations. Ugh
Last edited:
EverythingsOverrated
Member
I feel a lot of people will continue to give Jirard a pass short of an actual federal conviction and if that happens there will still be people in denial. I'm looking forward to Karl Jobst's impending video drop that's coming up. He sounds like he's pretty confident in some additional findings he's come across. I'm not saying he 100% should be convicted of fraud, but so far, the more things unfold, the worse it looks. Should be interesting.I fail to see how anyone can trust him going forward. It's a huge deal charity fraud. Everyone who donated feels slighted and repulsed and most who never donated, if they objectively look at the evidence and lies he's said, feel repulsed too.
I think he'll continue his own YouTube channel going forward too see if he can recover and see how many views he gets.
I hope he feels like the POS he is. Again, his dementia riddled mother was used to gain more support/donations. Ugh
I was talking to one of my friends about this whole thing, especially his response video, and we became fixated on the fact that this guy either has some of the worst lawyers ever or he's not listening to their advice. Between the initial call with him, Mutahar and Jobst and his response video, it seems like he's given more ammo/potential for contradictions.
bishopcruz
Member
I am talking about that tweet that supposedly had all the lies. Not seeing any there. Don't watch Jobst because he's skeezy as hell.
Ashler
Member
Ouch...!
Tangerine
Banned
Watching now. Jirard owned so far. Hope he does sue them at this point. Last thing on his completionist list before he transforms into his final form!
Disco Dave
Member
Agree completely. If this ends up in a courtroom I can forsee an Amber Heard type defence. Jirard should just take the L and get on with making YouTube content. He obtained money in the form of donations and he didn't donate that money until he was called out. There's no justification for having that money sitting in an account for over nine years. None.
demigod
Member
I hope he does sue so we can get some entertainment. He will be laughed out in court. Dude committed charity fraud and keeps using his dead mom to manipulate. Human trash.
FunkMiller
Gold Member
Not sure they’ll let him film from his cell.
Disco Dave
Member
Would make for interesting content. Jirards greatest completion challenge; obtaining 500 Korok seeds in BOTW or going 100 days without dropping the soap in the shower.
Herbspiceguy
Member
It's like he consulted a ghetto lawyer. GG.
Phobos Base
Member
"These people slandered me by saying that I ran multiple fundraisers where I specifically said the money was going to charity but instead sat in my bank account."
"So you donated the money?"
"No, it sat in my bank account"
"Next case!"
FunkMiller
Gold Member
Yeah, it's kind of pathetic. Jirard is probably one of two things - an out and out fraud, who deliberately withheld charity donations for reasons we've yet to uncover, or he's a fantasist egomaniac, who bullshitted his way through a lot of charity live streams to sound righteous, and like a big man. Frankly, it's probably the latter. He probably didn't really know what the hell was going on with the foundation, spewed rubbish as a way of drawing in more fans and subscribers, and is now paying the penalty for the deceit.
He might end up standing as a good cautionary tale to other YouTubers about the dangers of letting your success and 'celebrity' go to your head.
Last edited:
