This seems silly. Finding a proper thing for the best cause possible while saving a bunch to give a huge lump sum. While doing events every year to save towards the big sum. Isn’t exactly forgetting it seems to be working towards while being way too caught up in finding the perfect beneficiary
@@hkxche10 years too long…if he really wanted to help the org would’ve donated SOMETHING by now… plus he admitting to taking thousands like what are you even saying
@@icecold2660 when did he admit to pocketing any of it that wasn’t for events or to support the cause? I’m in no way saying it isn’t dumb, but misinformation doesn’t help anything
@@hkxchebrother please they could have at any point found somewhere and done some research for like an hour or two to find a good organization to give it to. 10 YEARS, of not really doing anything.
Tax accountant here: If you believe they are being shady or fraudulent, please file an IRS Form 13909, Tax-Exempt Organization Complaint (Referral). Information for lines 1 and 2 can be found on the Form 990 (nonprofit tax return), right up top. Under line 3, mark "Other," list out your complaint. In this instance, describe their false claims of helping the cause and lack of transparency in listing out expenses. Line 4, Jirard, and his necessary information. Dates should include all tax years (2014 - 2022). In line 5, put your info. Yes, you have to. Oh, by the way, "I haven't gotten caught yet" isn't a defense against allegations against your organization. That's something scammers say.
As a tax accountant that last line gets me. I've had clients come on after not filing 1040s or 1120s for 20 years and havnt nary gotten a letter from the IRS and only found out when they finally got an accountant and we looked it up. So yeahhh not getting a mention from the IRS means nothing.
In 10 years you can go to college and grad school, get a PhD, and actually become a dementia researcher yourself. And you're telling me in the same time these people were unable to find anyone to donate their money to - that's just absurd.
In ten years you most likely barely have a bachelor degree in neuroscience and a master's. Also it usually takes about 4-5 years to find organisations with merit to invest your money in specialised medical research and treatment of diseases. In the meantime you could definitely spend money on minor sponsorships and donations on thesis projects and other minor individual researches.
@gaarakabuto1 not really, you can go into a phd after a bachelors if you're really smart. Also it doesn't take 4 to 5 years to find an organization with merit. If he really cared, he could have made a grant or scholarship for that research in little time.
@@gaarakabuto1But in his videos he names multiple credible organizations and claims to be working with them. This implies that he is supporting them with the money being raised. Why not just follow through and give the money to those organizations? If they are not good enough and require further research, why is he mentioning them and showing support?
@@annep4830 I never mentioned him, I said for a charity organisation like open hands, it takes around five years to get a stable long term partnership with an institution or an organisation that focuses on scientific research and treatment of specific disease or illness. Where a youtuber can throw his money is none of my business and I wouldn't trust anyone if they are not actively investing in the charity of their option through their physical and not just monetary contribution. From my experience there are only a handful of charity organisations that are honest and many that partly do offer help but also are into sketchy businesses.
This is why I only donate to St Jude or support events that are raising money for them. And ONLY if the donate link takes you directly to a St Jude run site.
I highly recommend looking up whether your charity is registered under a charity regulator. Those people are primarily responsible for making sure charities do what charities do.
Recap of events: -Collected over 600k in donations and let it sit in an account for 10 years -Lied on stream (on youtube videos, his website, etc) about where the money was going (USCF) -Admitted to knowing the money wasn't going anywhere since at least 2021, yet continued to lie to people on stream -Spent over 120k of the donation money for administration costs, yet saying on stream that they don't touch any of the money -Admitted to skimming the money to reimburse himself, allegedly never over "a couple thousand dollars" (again, a lie about not touching any of the money) -Have not conformed to the government's 5% rule -Claims that since the IRS or other "regulatory bodies" haven't come after them, they've done nothing illegal -Very defensive email responses to legitimate questions from Karl -When confronted, seems to care more about his social image and starts playing the victim. Also just making up strange claims like "I was going to donate it today, the past 2 weeks actually" UPDATE: Open Hand Foundation filed a privacy claim against Karl's video. It was rejected. That looks REALLY bad. Not looking good for Jirard. Did I miss anything?
> skimming the money to reimburse himself I think this is the only fair thing he may have done, organizing such event is a big deal and take a toll on finance, personal time and mental fatigue. Personally I would be 100% OK if those 10k of administrative where the money used for to organize the festival (fly in people, hotels, equipment, location rent, food, interns, etc) but i think should have been more transparent
@@lesto12321but the truth of it is we don't know where that cash was spent, he and the team are basically taking a pay out for collecting and hoarding other folks money. It's fucking depressing and I REALLY want to believe he was more clueless as to what others where doing but it doesn't look great
@@lesto12321 Any charity that spents over 20% total (in those years) on "administrative costs" (over 120k spent of 650k collected), while the average charity usually doesnt spend more than 11,5%, claiming to not know how they were spent AND claiming that all money donated goes to charity is Fraud. Not only that, the donations have to have been funnelled through his LLC Corporation, which means he would gain tax deductions of about 15k$ yearly of them. On top of that, that money sitting there is accumulating interest - which we also dont know how that is spent. Also the money just sitting there is getting less "worth" due to inflation. This is not neglience, this is criminal.
I wanted so badly to give Jirard the benefit of the doubt here, that this was just an extreeemely negligent mistake, but when he said he reimbursed himself with the charity money, but "only for a few thousand dollars"... that really hurt down to my soul.
@@comfybaguetteSo much positivity? He's the guy that supported woke G4 and that witch Frosk right? The women that attacked all gamers. How is that positive?
It will never happen unless enough people report The Completionist (Jirard) to the IRS and Attorney General Rob Bonta at the State of California Department of Justice.
The internet has so thoroughly poisoned our idea of morality that Jirard thinks being exposed for charity fraud is frivolous drama where he has to “take the L.” My guy, you’re not getting backlash for cheating in a minecraft speedrun here; this is seriously fucked up and possibly a crime.
So did I correctly understand that the family running the foundation is Jirard's family? Like five grown adults that probably communicate pretty regularly? And not a single one of them thought it was strange $0 was ever contributed to the cause in a DECADE? That doesn't pass the sniff test.
Yeah like i understand wanting to wait until they find a suitable org to donate to, but 10 YEARS!? Like cmon at that point just refund everyone their money back lol
It's honestly not unreasonable that people wouldn't normally think about it. If they trust the person helming the project to handle it, and they themselves are really only there as a safety net for who would take charge of the money if something happened to the current charge, nearly everyone would just forget about it unless it were ever questioned. The only real plausible question is where their operating expense of the funds went to. That, along with the fact they're holding on to the funds, is about the only points of real note that needs answers for questions about them. Everything else is just fluff or negligible.
"I dont want it to go to some Doctor's salary." Bruh does Jirard think research just like happens? Like you put a million bucks in a room next to some fancy lab equipment and a cure pops out?
My mom died from Dementia in 2021. If I wasn't a broke bastard I would have donated to this charity. This whole story is really pissing me off. Thank you for putting this information out.
@@DShawnPaytonOffiicial of course! It can be soul crushing to find out that charity for such a noble cause and that affected so many lives, may actually be defrauding its its donars. I hope the money finally donated , but it has been a week and nothing but silence. I have a suspicious feeling that the money is no longer in that account . I really, really hope I am wrong and this money goes to the organizations it was raised for. But it’s becoming increasingly more clear that they have committed fraud. It appears that someone from the charity actually tried to have videos taken down talking about the whole situation.
As an accountant with some experience in not-for-profit organizations, I can tell you that no sensible NFP would ever list their expenditures in a general “expenses” bucket. Even if it’s just administrative costs like wages and office supplies, you would still need to note that. It would also need to be noted by function as well. Also, unless you are restricting the contributions to very stringent funding criteria that would cost more to the organization than the benefit received, no sensible NFP would have issue taking any charitable contribution (regardless of size). Muta is right, that is an audit waiting to happen and it will absolutely be an ugly one.
Private foundations work differently from a more common 990, and not all 990s have to allocate expenses on the Statement of Expenses. It's possible they are paying some of those expenses in a way to benefit the officers, but for the amounts of money going out the effect is tiny.
@@TheGreaterGrogI assumed the expenses were the cost of having more charity events. Flying guests in paying for people's time cause one person can't run it alone, and stuff like that.
@@AaaaNinja Some were. The 2022 return shows them broken out like that, and prior years tended to have similar expenses although with no detail. And since the event was annual, it is an easy assumption to make. It does look bad, though. I don't actually remember if you get to apply expenses against the distribution minimum or not, as the ones I prepare don't have expenses. They're just brokerage accounts that give out money. One of the best ways to defraud a charity is to pay inflated expenses to another entity that you or a friend controls, but I doubt that will happen for such small amounts.
People are usually willing to not look into things too deeply as long as the person looks trustworthy enough, or at the very least acts like it on camera.
@@Duskoolexactly, it's exhausting to assume everyone is working in bad faith. Not to mention the completionist had been doing it so long that most people would assume someone else must have looked into him by now. It's hidden in plain sight
As an IRS EA, I would point out that he is listed as a part of the board. He's a director. Initially in the call he acts as though this is surprising to him... that he didn't know the money was just sitting there. If that's the case, it's pure negligence. While I'm one for the benefit of the doubt, the fact that the money isn't being siphoned off or anything like that doesn't mean that it won't be in the future and as the money isn't being disseminated for the intended purpose, it's logical to assume malcontent. Edit: Oh and yes.... just a big block of money listed as "expenses" is entirely unacceptable and speaks to them either preparing the return themselves or using someone that is either not educated to the extent they need to be or is intentionally permitting an obviously impermissible practice (likely an accountant: accountants have no obligation to work through continuing education for taxation every year and the fact that $425 is listed as having been paid points to them using someone but that someone not being adequately educated on taxation). Anyone who actually handles taxes specifically - a tax accountant or preferably an enrolled agent - wouldn't allow this if they're worth a dime.
they had 10 years to get their act together~ it's very obvious what they are doing. they are holding the money captive and shaving it continuously year-after-year with 'org/admin expenses' and will continue to do so until somebody takes it away. they have already siphoned six-figures from it and I see zero signs of stopping. they are rats. if he's the director he's getting a slice of it as well.
The line that stood out to me was Jirard saying "do you want me to just take the L, so you guys can make content and call it a scam?" The fact he so easily dismissed it as some cheap tactic for some clickbait content rather than a serious problem is just a joke.
@@svcolonel89He's not right. That's not a statement you make when you're right. That's what you say when someone's caught you red handed and you have no defense.
@mr.brenman2132 right? Actually, it reminds me of what a scammer who scammed me many years ago said to me. It's the kind of "let's spin the table to see if they can feel bad enough to give me a pass" of statement that scammers love to use.
@@mr.brenman2132That statement from him particularly stuck out to me. Thats such a slimy attempt at gaslighting, trying to appeal to your accusers emotions and make them feel bad when the logic and facts are stacked against you. Hes a fuckin snake. So dissapointing man, I was a rather big fan of him. Not anymore.
I used to work for a nonprofit, and they had the legal requirement of making an elaborate presentation and bringing representatives from all over the world to view it. Less than 30% went to grants and they had 100s of millions in the bank. Always research before you donate. Don't break the bank just so your money can sit in accounts for years accruing interest.
@@dustyyyyyyyyyWorking as intended. The laws were done this way to help rich people shield their money and give their relatives 'job experience' and social prestige.
Can we please just make this illegal? I can't see ANY reason for that to ever be done for good reasons. My school was non-profit and they weren't allowed to keep any money into the next year. If we had extra, we'd go on a bunch of really cool field trips around the end of the fiscal year. I don't get why charities are treated different.
most charities(99% at least) are a scam sadly thats why you need to research where you are donating your money.Worked on one cause I wanted to help and like 5% was actually used for the charity everything else was used for "administrative expense" like traveling and shit for the heads of the org and a good chunk was used to invest so it just sit there talked to the authorities and the answer was that it was legally right..... fuck charities I will never donate ever again and if you wonder how I knew this well I created the entire site and Data Base for it ....Im still ashamed that its used to this day by the org
35:00 "it makes me question every charity" *YES* *QUESTION* *EVERY* *CHARITY* If you typically give a hundred bucks or ten thousand a year to various different charities that sound nice to you, it's *FAR* *FAR* better to research them, find *ONE* that you've decided uses your money best, and give it straight to them.
i have seen charity events that SEEM trustworthy. GDQ for one, looks too big to try and pull something like that. Maximillian Dood and Bawkbasoup have also done a few charity events, and those guys do look far more sincere than jirad. as a side note, i was never able to watch jirad again after the whole debacle between him and his co-lead at the time a decade or so ago.
The sad part is the larger the charity is the more likely it is that the funds are going mostly to salaries. AKA paying the board members. @@marcosdheleno
@@dojelnotmyrealname4018 There are some websites that exist specifically to keep track of that. Like my go-to is Doctors Without Borders which I think uses something like 96% straight to funding putting the docs in the places that need 'em. Red Cross on the other hand, it's something like 63%: as you say, the bigger it is, often the worse it is. To some extent, a Red Cross-level CEO *_could_* be worth a $3 million salary or something, if it's the sort of person who saves, say, 5% of its budget over someone else -- then that means the person is literally worth more than their salary, y'know? What I despise most is the advertising, though, really. Those ones like St Jude's that spend a quarter of their budget just mailing people things. At least it keeps the USPS alive! Also, I'm not sure I'd trust any small charity fundraiser, like the one that this video talks about, if they can't explicitly say "there's a trust set up in this attorney's name _______ who is in control of disbursing the funds to the proper charity; I can't even touch the money if I wanted to". That's how it should be done.
My grandpa was lost to Alzheimers. A horrible, horrible way to go. This is a serious blow to the cause, now people are going to be more reluctant to donate to these causes thanks to this dude.
He was only dipping into the funds a little bit. Only a couple of thousand. He even stated he wasn't supposed to do that. I feel bad for his lawyers. 😒
I really never understood why people donated to charities through TH-camrs. Wouldn't it just be easier to go directly on that charity's website and donate there? Why have a middle man?
If the money is still actually there ...just because they say it's there don't mean it is ...unless a third part audit was attached to the filing and it wasn't was never a audit of the non profit
@@Smart-Towel-RG-400 The money is still there but due to inflation, the money is wprth less than it used to. for example, something that would have cost $10,000 in 2014 now would cost $12,996.38
And if you think some random government worker will double check everything he or she receives to work the extra hour for.. what? They care less than workers in private companies and that's that
work abuse happens as well, and if you Call L&I to anonymously give a tip, they'll tell you that can't take it, that it actually has to come from the employee themselves...the whole world is made in a way for it to continue the way it is.
well of course, have your seen how virute signaling those people are? It's both extremes that are usually the ones that are swindling people...@@midnightowl8692
This is the exact type of thing that makes it necessary to do a background check on the charities you choose to donate too. There are too many good hearted individuals out there that it’s not rare that someone will come along and take advantage of them.
yeah, I'm basically at the point where I don't trust any charity. Only things I donate too is directly to local churches who I know are helping the community around me.
I don't get why people are acting like leaving charitable funds in an account to be donated is "taking advantage" of people. Nobody gets any advantage from this. It's just incompetent and negligent.
It's always a good sign when the first response you get is "What we are doing isn't illegal, even if it seems unethical to you". Especially when it might be both. And the bit where he says "I don't want it to go to an organization where it won't do anything" seems quite ironic given the money has just been sitting in a bank account doing nothing. Even if I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and believed they were really looking for a good cause to donate to, if you haven't found one in almost 10 years you either haven't done a very good job looking or there just isn't one that will ever satisfy you, and probably never will be. And I don't think I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt when they have organizations good enough to name as the beneficiaries, but not good enough to actually get the money.
Or, you know, have a plan to donate to MANY organizations with the idea that your $ efficacy will average out. More eggs, more baskets. Pick a new charity every year. IDK there's LOTS of compromises.
Right. He keeps stressing that everything is legal, but nowhere does he say or suggest they have legal oversight of any kind. You can’t just SAY something is “legal” and pronounce it to be so.
I went from genuinely believing it could have been a huge oversight BEFORE listening him speak, to 1000% believing it is some kind of scam AFTER listening to him. His groveling and backtracking had the opposite effect.
i was thinking that they could have been missing something and calling him was just fine. like "oh we sent the money but it doesnt appear in those financial statements; money goes to their account but we keep track of how much we've donated to him" or something that makes the weird and sketchy make sense. but his response was: its so embarassing that you caught me, i really want to move into the right decision right now.
bro said “I was ready to donate right when I got your email but that would’ve made me look like I was admitting guilt”. Come on dude, literally just admitted that he prioritizes his image above peoples’ lives
Jirard: “I had no idea what was going on with my organization’s finances.” You know who also said the same thing? Elizabeth Holmes, Sam Bankman Fried, Bernie Madoff, those idiots who ran Enron… the list goes on.
I'm wondering, is he still doing good on youtube? Has his content significantly dropped off in views since 2014-2015? Because this smells like he's using the charity cash to boost his own personal income.
This boils my piss, I lost my grandmother to dementia and it's not something that just kills quickly, it robs that person and their family of their memory and of that person over years, the fact that the money just sat there enrages me to a level I haven't felt in years, scum of the earth
Im really sorry to hear about your grandmother. Im only replying to your comment because i also use the expression “scum of the earth” to describe horrible people, so i feel a kindred spirit
I am so sorry your family had to go through that. We lost my grandma the same way. In my opinion, it is the most devastating disease known to man and for someone to exploit all of our collective emotions and memories of our loved ones. . .it's the lowest of the low.
I feel you. I am helping take care of my grandpa who has Alzheimers. You are right about I also robbing the family of their memories of the person over the years. I know all my good memories of my grandpa will be replaced with how hard he is to deal with towards the end.
Only like 30% of all donated money goes to the cause, the rest goes to charity creator's pocket. People should seriously stop donating their money to this stuff, it's the same scam as infomercials.
Always research the charity. Even many legit charities only donate a minority fraction of the proceeds to the target cause since iirc they are only legally required to pass along a min 5% of the donations... Red Cross and all/mostly volunteer orgs are usually the way to go to not get scammed by the "payroll" pilferers. This is also why certain cities have such bad homeless problems because the demand continues the supply of donations for the triple digit income groups running it as a for profit industry. I really wish urban people had to live and work on a farm for a year and this likely wouldn't happen nearly as often or as bad. Edit: typo
If my mom died from an illness and I started a charity to raise money to treat illnesses like hers...and I ran into red tape after getting donations...I would NOT rest until I figured out a solution. I would work my ass off to make sure that money got moved. What the fuck was he doing for 9 years?!?!?!
let me get this straight this organization was founded 9 years ago and they're still trying to find the right benefactor...............AFTER 9 YEARS??? bro if it takes 9 years to find the right benefactor then what a joke
That alone could be explained as extended procrastination, depression, perfectionism, yadda yadda. But he actively tells us about specific organizations which his organization donates money too. Okay, maybe he did so and forgot to write about it in the paper work. Maybe he ordered someone to do so and that person didn't know how to do so, but didn't want to admit it and claimed he did it. But then Jirard is confronted about it. He admits that nothing actually got sent towards donations and after thag he still lies to people about specific organizations which did, but actually did not receive any money from openhands, so at that point it's fraud. Even without the fact, that a 5 digit sum was taken from the donations towards "administration" when no administration was done, so that's another layer of fraud.
Agreed. All they'd have to do is put out an intent to provide research funding and tons of teams would come forth to try and get the grants, or they could just phone up a couple universities.
@@andy02q That and the fact that he helped found that charity as a way to help after what he went through with his mother. So if he and the charity pocketed the money, that is more fxxxed up.
So he "allegedly" spent the last 10 years scrutinizing charities so he could give the money to the best of the best but when questioned about it he's now suddenly happy to donate it to anyone.
Because he looks really bad and is being questioned about it, he obviously really cares which is why he might of been so weird about where he wants to donate it to.
@@hkxche Dude, *ten years* to donate. He said he personally had donated money to charities but couldn't get his own organization to donate? And by the way he talked when confronted is very telling that he only cares about his reputation
@@hkxche He had 10 years to donate the money. The thing he cares about isn't donating the money to research, it's his reputation. The only reason he donates now is because the scandal surfaced and his reputation has been tainted. He's just trying to restore it by appearing like he's doing the "good thing".
I think if the money was held for under 3 years the argument of 'trying to find the best place to donate' could barely pass as an argument, but almost a DECADE of withholding funds that were assumedly donated by the public only speaks to a true immoral/malicious management of funds.
i don't see a problem holding the money to find the right charity as long as in events and every call out you state that the money is not going to a specific charity but instead is being held for review and we currently have been holding for x years. So if you want to see your money go directly to a good cause, donate to the source charity, not us. We've got some whatever goal target of a million dollars to reach before we give it to charity X. I'd be fine with that.I wouldn't donate a cent to them but that's honestly done. I'm not sure its legal to do that even with the law being explicit about how charities have to behave but ya know. At least don't lie to everyone and then pretend like you didn't know. Man that Jirard is going to prison.
i could believe incompetence if it were not for how well the indie events were run. They attracted major celebs and for a niche gaming related charity, made big money. It took some real business sense to make all that work and we're expected to believe they just didn't notice the money was ever going to charities they publicly listed and spoke about constantly helping past and present tense? Nah man, that's a scam and its straight up fraud in my eyes@@mikev8746
"This makes me question every charity." This hit so hard. I didn't donate to this, but I have donated to charities & fundraisers in the past & when I hear these kinds of stories, it makes me worry about donating in the future...
Never donate through 3rd party charities at all, those tends to be 1 of 2 things: Fraud and Scam or a tax write off for companies. Always fund the research on a direct route to ensure that your money actually goes to it.
This is why I donate TIME and not money. Working at a soup kitchen, cleaning up a park, or helping build a home or any other volunteer time: I know EXACTLY what I donated because I was the one doing the work
Sadly I'd definitely recommend looking into a charity before donating to it, make sure it's actually spending money where it says it is, and not just funneling it into inflated CEO paychecks or something. There are a whole lot of shady organizations out there.
How many times do we need to teach you this lesson, old man? Money is the root of all evil. It will corrupt. That's what it does. That's why you see all these YTers turning out to be pieces of shit after they get some money. They could have always been, but truth is, the money got to em, just like it always does.
“Grasping hand,” would have been more appropriate. I believe he was hoping to get away with stealing all of it, rather than just the relatively, “small,” sums he has been taking. Would ANYONE go to the trouble of setting up a complex organisation, like a charity, with NO CLUE as to where the money would go? Genuinely, a 10 year old kid LITERALLY could have figured out who to give the cash to after SIX YEARS! Unbelievably scummy stuff going on here.
The fact that 4 days later Jirard hasn’t announced every dollar from that account has been donated already, tells me one thing. They don’t have all that money anymore.
I get Jirard's anxiety during the call but it really seems like this is a pretty straightforward and obvious fix, donate the money and post a postmortem explaining what happened how it was resolved and what's in place to prevent it from happening again.
Nah, donate the money, disband the organization, and retire with what little grace you've still got. He sealed his fate as soon as he said hes known since last year. Its November, he was never planning to donate that money.
As a former CFO for a nonprofit, at best they’ll be forced to pay out the money by the IRS and live with a “black eye” under the watchful eye of the IRS. At worst, they be dissolved, the executive team will be charged (with possible jail time) and they’ll never be able to run a nonprofit again. I’d be sweating bullets if the IRS decided to do an audit and if this organization set up the nonprofit as a way to raise money for research.
This is a large amount of money. $600K+, this will be picked up by an FBI investigation and IRS sooner or later. Just like it took some years before FBI started to do investigation is Crypto rug pulls and pandemic employer employee wage pay loans.
I was wondering if there is an issue with how they specified their expenses. For example in 2018 they had $13,559 listed under 'Other expenses'. But at the bottom of the filing it doesn't further specify this amount. Is this allowed or should they specify how the $13,559 was spend? I dont really know what they could have spend this on. First thing that came to mind is that the plan was to just keep putting 10-20k a year up as expenses until the money was gone. Maybe I'm just too cynical...
@@SIC66SIC66Yes, it is an issue and think it was mentioned in this video they'll be forced to provide receipts of how those expenses break down in case they are audited. If they are unable to do that, or there's something not right in the breakdown it will be a bigger issue still.
@@SIC66SIC66 if they file anything for expense they have to document what those expenses are. If any auditor agent or FBI agent or IRS agent skim through those filings, they would def trigger a red flag and look into it further to see if everything adds up for expenses or if it's fraud when no details explains the expenses. Noting it as "expense" without any reason is an easy way to get audit by the IRS.
10 years of banking money for charity and not donating a single cent to charity is quite literally fraud. Regardless of whether you like the guy or not he is committing fraud by advertising charity and taking peoples money under the guise of donating it to charity.
@@celestial962420"it's called business" No, it's called fraud. No amount of it being widespread makes it okay or changes the words due to semantics. You can make individual comment threads trying to say "oh it's so widespread why care" like you already have when that's ridiculous. Not calling out this behavior exacerbates it and leads to even more rot. He didn't even donate a fraction: if you watch the video Jirard donated literally nothing. If a rapist doesn't get caught, does that make all rape ok? No. If a city has a high rate of serial killings and none of them are persecuted, should it be allowed because of that? These are the most basic ethical questions with the most simple answers to which if you cannot answer you should not be allowed to speak. Also, the IRS actually puts people in prison for this.
It’s a common defense tactic. Even when he’s only being questioned, not technically accused, he starts acting like he’s being accused, and that makes his guilt sound much more real.
My grandfather died of dementia not remembering who I was. A man that would tickle me in the living room carpet when I was 5 and who gave me his knife when I was 13. A month before he died he looked at me in the eyes like I was a stranger. I love you, Pop-pops.
His "do you want me to take the L so you can make content" response tells it all. That's the statement of someone trying to manipulate, not take accountability. Also, notice how focused he is on how he looks. He doesn't want to donate the money immediately because then he'll just look like he's responding to getting caught. My guy, it's not about how you look.
Is it not? This whole scenario has demonized him as a whole. He wants to come out with people knowing he wasn't trying to be an asshole which is fair. There's no recovering from this situation because the internet doesn't bargain. He's obviously not the brightest, so he's begging for help from people with brains and not doing anything because he's terrified of the backlash. If it wasn't all about image then he would have just donated to some random Joe shmoe and said, "my bad guys I should have just done it sooner" and kept working.
No it isn’t and it shouldn’t. Being dismissive of the people investigating you doesn’t help either. Like they said it’s not drama it’s serious, people were deceived, and the fight against dementia could be a big further than it is now.
His family is involved? I'm guessing they're using the money as a credit line. Or could have been invested like a bank dose living off of interest or something.
Aside from the headline story. I cannot quite properly express how amazingly useful it is to know how to look up returns for organizations I donate to. Turns out, a couple charities I like are actually using their funds properly. And now I know how to do this in the future.
I don't know, I feel like there's more to this situation. Why would they "forget" to donate the money but didn't "forget" to actually host the event every year. Sounds like he was keeping around as a rainy day fund in case he got cancelled one day, or maybe he wanted to rack up as much funds as he could and use it as a retirement fund when he was out of the spotlight. I may be speculating too much but I just can't think of a valid reason why it would take someone A DECADE to donate funds you already have just sitting in your bank account.
He and other family members did reimburse themselves with unspecified expenses but also A) the money in the account collected interest. 650k in an savings account can make 26k a year in interest. B) we are assuming that the amount they said they made on their taxes is actually how much they made. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a lie or only reflected donations from certain platforms while other forms of donations they kept quiet about. C) we are also assuming the money is still there where they said it is and in the amount they claimed. I have my doubts about that too
over 16% of their donations have been used as "administration costs' without donating a penny. not only is this legally culpable for their fraud, but its hypocritical at its core for why they weren't donating in the first place.
Because this is his livelihood, and if his reputation is damaged that means less money for him, losing that trust with your fan base is difficult to earn back.
@@andystray4554 Very true, so why not come out and say if they need a new institution to donate the funds to? Why not just be honest? From what I’m seeing (Because I don’t have the full context), they’re very much ok with advertising they are donating to charity without explaining they’re on a institute hunt. They haven’t spent the donation money, so that’s one thing keeping me from labeling them complete scumbags.
Kind of put the whole reason why Greg left the Completionist team years ago in more perspective thinking about it. The whole "We're not even friends anymore, just business associates," or whatever Greg said along those lines, makes a lot more sense.
When you're a celebrity whether it be a youtube/twitch/actor/musician image is everything. Something like this can absolutely destroy you. This is extremely bad not just financially but morally.
Thank you Mutahar for showing us just how easy it is to look up and fact check at the very least the operating expenses and donations for a charity. I know what I'm going to do from now on before donating a single cent to an organization.
Actually donating to 501c3 is a write-off, so donating to this charity is a tax cut. But most people don't get benefit from it, charity donations only come into play if you itemize I think and most people are at a threshold where the standard deduction is more than what you'd get itemizing. The company donated 15k surely got tax benefit from it though.
Jirard: "What you want me to do?" donate the money...??? I'll wait to make accusations but what a misdirecting question, should've been obvious Also, Jirard: "I was about to donate it today" dude, TEN YEARS waiting, doesn't matter if you donate today or tomorrow, is already wayyyy overdue. Jirard already looks bad no matter what. Donating it soon is the least to be done, looking bad or not
Jirard sounded like a teen being caught righthanded with his "I was about to donate it today", besides it sounding like "I'm gonna get rid of the evidence ASAP before you can legally catch me!"
I thought this was a joke until I heard these quotes, word for word, while I had the video playing in the background. Disgusting. He's acting like a child when they are confronted about not doing chores.
Heads up, the dude said himself at 30:16. He took money from the account when he needed it reimburse himself. Just trust him that he did it when applicable, 30k regularly a year in expenses. Jirard is disgusting.
Man really said he was planning on donating it the day he got confronted and really was hoping it'd work. XD "No mom, I was uh, just about to [insert chore here], you just happened to walk in right as I was about to do it!"
“I don’t want the money to go to a doctor’s salary or administrative costs.” My guy WHO DO YOU THINK DOES THE RESEARCH AND KEEPS LABS RUNNING? How does he not understand people working non-profits actually need money to live like everyone else? What a disaster!!
they have been skimming off the top for 10 YEARS for 'organizational/admin costs' they have already stolen six figures from the pile and they will keep doing it for as long as they are in possession of the money, eventually draining it. that is their goal.
I think when he says doctor's salary, he means having a large amount all go to paying one guy who charges too much. Many see it like that considering how overpriced some things are in the medical field.
No see the way this works is you take the big wad of money and throw it at the bad thing to make it go away. You don't use the money to pay doctors to do research into making the bad thing go away, that's dumb!
@@superduperdrew12345 No disagreement there but the issue with that some of the most effective research comes from Universities. This money could have been given to any number of funds that provide grants to grad students to conduct medical research, it's quite easy to ensure it doesn't go to some boomer doctor's beach house fund.
The worst thing is the enormous expenses. If the money hasn't been moved yet is one thing. It's not good but can be atoned for. But having a charity that does nothing and still have expenses in the tens of thousands a year is pretty unforgivable if not illegal.
His reaction in that call was very bizarre. He seems more focused on handling the fallout of this getting out, rather than, you know, giving the money to an actual charity.
It's not that bizarre in this case. He was having a regular day until in theory they contacted him and now he's scrambling at what could potentially be the end of his career and public trust in him.
@@binber2450 This situation could mean the channel could take the brunt of the angry online people more than the charity that is holding onto it and not doing anything with it since they're the ones that need a swift kick in the backside.
Yea that is literally the entire point of a non profit like this to find the best place for the money to go that will have the most impact and not to be a trust fund to sit and collect dust
Maybe an organization that you could shout out during your event, like, say, the University of California-San Francisco, or the Alzheimer's Research Foundation.
"I literally I'm about to donate all this money today" right Jirard.... for course you are. Not because someone called you out on in, but because of the kindness of your heart, literally 5 YEARS after everyone donated it.
Even if the timing really was a coincidence and Jirard was telling the truth about finally giving the money away, wouldn’t he have been able to produce some kind of evidence showing they’d been in the process of finalizing donations for a while? I understand some things have to remain private but surely a screenshot of some email correspondences could’ve helped prove his case. But nope, just gotta trust him on it guys. What a joke.
I think you are misinterpreting the way he said that. I don’t think he meant “oh, you just caught me right in the middle of trying to donate this money!“ I think he meant that he wasn’t trying to hoard the money for any reason, and that he was about to donate it all because he has no reason to keep it. That’s why he goes on to say that he can’t find the right place to donate it to. He has a hot potato that now he’s trying to get rid of, but everyone will be looking at where he gives the money to and so that makes it even harder to decide where to put it.
Long story short, unless a TH-cam/twitch charity event has named and partnered with an organization and you are given a link to donate directly to the organization (money goes straight to the organization but is flagged as being donated as part of the event so that a whole event donation number can be generated), don’t donate
He in general seems like he hates the TH-cam environment, including people he sees as vultures. I don't agree with him, but he seems to have a defeatist attitude towards this. He's a TH-camr who has been expecting the drama hit-piece for years, seeing it all around, and he thinks he's learned from other drama situations and is trying to get ahead of it. By doing that though, he's making himself look even worse.
Yeah I think this is the most damning thing out of it all. He clearly cares more about his image than the actual cause he was supposed to be donating to
@@Im0nJupiter the fact that that's the reason he is worried about is completely separate. He started the charity. He should DO CHARITY. It's been years. No one is that stupid to start charity and not actually do it. He is in fact a scam artist. The fund looks untouched by the books, but the second the IRS itself looks in to it, I bet that money is liquidated already.
Eh that isn’t surprising. He is going to look bad, for really not doing anything wrong. Yes the money wasn’t used in a timely manner but if the money is there… ok? I guess? I dunno what the big deal is here. It’s good that it’s all visible as opposed to stacking for another 10 years and then he donates it? I guess if there was any evidence that he actually did something criminal it would be more interesting. Halfway through the video and it’s a nothing burger
I came into both videos with an open mind determined to watch both videos before concluding anything since I've adored Jirard for a while and I've liked Mutahar's and Karl Jobst's content from what I've seen. I work with a lot of nonprofits and I can confirm that this is a really, really bad look at *best.* What kind of reputable charitable nonprofit can't find a suitable partner organization to donate money to over a ten year period? Who's in charge of programming and outreach to find these sorts of organizations? Why did Jirard continue to say that money was going towards dementia research after being made aware of the problem by Mutahar and Karl, which amounts to them doing Jirard's job for him? The fact that Jirard is a director at Open Hand makes this even worse. I'm on the boards of two smaller nonprofits and while I'm not in charge of their books or finances, I've seen them and everything looks normal. Unless other arrangements were made in writing, Jirard would have access to the books of a nonprofit as a director. How did this not raise any red flags for Jirard? Why didn't he talk to his brother about this? And why did Jirard's brother emphasize that nothing illegal had been done, handwaving any questions about the ethics of misleading donors? The IRS does not mess around when it comes to charity fraud even if it wasn't deliberately malicious. Having greatly respected Jirard for years, I'm just in disbelief.
Seriously I like both too, if Jirard wants to save his ass he should be donating that money as soon as possible. I am really suprised he decided to sit on it.
All you have to see is his reaction when cornered. Automatically went to accuse Karl and Muta of doing this for content, WHICH THEY DO, but has absolutely nothing to do with what happened. That is like textbook response from all scammers/grifters when they are found red-handed by investigative youtubers.
The hypocrisy of saying they are looking for an organization that doesn’t spend money on admin when they themselves are spending approx 20% on admin. And why is admin so bad? Don’t people who work for these organizations deserve to be paid for their time, paid for completing research? This is just awful and thank you for shedding light on this situation.
The amount of money that was BURNED by inflation due to that money just sitting in a bank account is crazy. Especially the pre-2020 money before all the stimulus checks. For example, $100,000 in today's money is only worth around $81,500 in 2018 money, 18% of the value completely evaporated
@@nojuanatall3281 Well if it's in an interest account the loss would have been negated somewhat (there are few interest accounts that match inflation). Though there is also the possibility of any interest being siphoned which would be a whole other can of worms.
Plus $125,000 USD of vague 'expenses' spent on _not_ donating the money - and the few thousand $ he admits he took from the charity fund, but _swears_ he put back 🧐. His mother would be ashamed of him.
"Stimulus checks" jesus christ people actually still believe that this worldwide inflation was caused by a couple thousand dollars of stimulus rather than the once in a century global pandemic, strained supply chain, wars, and corporate profiteering
To be fair, we only heard snippets of this conversation and not the entire conversation so without full context we don't know what was said in its entirety. But its still a bad look for the completionist.
My great grandma had a type of Dementia and we knew she was on her last few months of life so we visited her one last time. My father straight up told me that it was perfectly OK for me not to go so i could preserve the image of her I had from growing up. You could tell there was something there a glimpse of the person that used to reside, someone that deep down recognized us but she was little more than a confused, scared shadow of her former sarcastic self. She never knew she had cancer because the doctors knew she wouldn't be able to comprehend it. For someone to go through a similar experience, to create a charity in honor of their own mother who had dementia, and never do anything with the money is borderline sociopathic.
yeah, that's what i've been saying. charity fraud is one thing, sure it's gross, but it happens all the time unfortunately. nothing new. what is truly disgusting is the fact that he's been milking the death of his own mother to raise money for this fraudulent charity. that's sociopath shit.
They say they "have a 'stringent criteria' for which charities will get their funds." There should definitely be some immediate follow-up questions to that statement. -What exactly IS your stringent criteria? -What exactly have the current organizations failed to do in meeting your expectations? -What exactly have you done in regards to scouting out potential new beneficiaries since when you deemed the current ones 'failing to meet your stringent criteria'?
If I was Jirard right now I’d be hiring the best lawyer I could and be figuring out how to donate the money to the promised charities as quick as possible. Either way I see the IRS paying him a visit in the future.
As a son that has also lost his mother to disease, I'd give him the most painful, yet loving bop to the face. He didn't just let his fans down with this blunder. He didn't just let the people that need this resource down. He used his mother's name to prop up this charity. He even calls himself the completionist and failed to complete his own charity transactions. As you've said. He needs to clean this up as soon as possible and be as transparent as he can. Not just for his audience, but to remove this stain from mama's name.
@@leegaul2161 My Dad's mom had a pretty bad case of dementia during her last few years. Last time I spoke to her, she had no idea who I was, and didn't even seem grounded in the present; kept talking about things I didn't understand, presumably things from her childhood. Now it's getting a hold of my step-father's grandmother (they're about the same age oddly enough), at the worst possible time, just as her husband has just recently passed away. It sucks, it's an awful thing to go through, and we sure could use the money to work on some research, treatments, medication, etc.
One has to recognize that because they don`t need to adjust their account value for inflation, they pretty much wasted thousands of donated money by just letting it rot somewhere, even if the whole amount is still actually there.
he probably 1. only put 720k in name of the charity out of a million or so 2. deducted 120k out of the total with expenses 3. Let the money sit (hopeful outcome)
That what they reported on Tax form, money might not even be there in the account. You know something ain’t right when someone start interview with “What we have done is not illegal”
I used to do 501c3 accounting years back. I've never seen a tax form so blank. Especially with an annual event, there's usually set-asides for the administration of the next year's event. To have nothing going out to their stated purpose is shocking. I like to take charitable events at their word. But I know due diligence must happen. This saddens me, because the cause is more than worthy of support...if only this event actually contributed there.
I like how he is asking them what to do, like "please bro I'm an innocent little boy lost and you are gonna expose me." Kinda manipulative, I dont care how much his friends keep saying what a great guy he is on Twitter, dude is misleading people to give their money to apparently nothing. Just seems very suspicious too keep it that long and obviously he is flustered that it was found out.
I have a story relevant to this!!! Years ago, he did a livestream announcing and raising money for the charity. I did research and I couldn't find it was certified by the government. I messaged him on stream asking about it and he said that it's certification is "in the process". My sister and I found that suspicious. I brushed it aside and on some occasions thought back to it. Hearing this is so heartbreaking. I really looked up to him :( EDIT: He may have been telling the truth about the charity not being certified at that point in time. The reason that it gave my sister and I weird vibes was that he was collecting money when the certification wasn't complete yet. That's not necessarily scammy but it's unprofessional at least. Don't take my story as definitive proof of him scamming. Wait until he releases his side of the story. Also Muta and Karl should release the full video call and Jirard should release any proof that he has in his defense.
@@dylanbell268 Yeah I posted it on both. Sorry I didn't want to spam but I really liked him and this is upsetting to hear. I hope some proof comes up that it's all just negligence :(
Worst part is, at an average yearly inflation of around 3.32% since 2015 costs have risen nearly 30%. So if they just started donating the money since the foundation's inception instead of hoarding it all as they claim to have done, they would've made significantly more impact.
@@Creamcups Well that's what ANY fundraiser doing a "all donations help this charity!" should be set up as: that's going straight into a trust account controlled only by an attorney you've hired for that purpose, and you're *_NEVER_* gonna run into this problem. But ofc, red flags everywhere here. $11k pretty much each year in "administrative costs" with no accounting of how it's used. Yeah, it's just fraud.
I know you're joking, but it will happen eventually unless Muta just retires from content creation I'm not saying Muta is a bad person, I just know people change, and circumstances change
My grandpa got a severe case of alzheimers when I was 14 years old, and seeing your loved ones slowly forget who you are and who they themselves are is something I wouldn't want to wish on anyone. Every time there were charities to help combat dementia and the likes the moment I could I would donate, and of course being in the youtube ecosystem I was a big fan of what Jirard was doing. Hearing about this I feel betrayed and honestly sick to my stomach. I still hope he'll fix it in some way but my god I don't think I can ever trust anything he does ever again.
Almost more important than small vs big donations is regular vs one offs. Regular monthly or yearly donations allows charities or organisations to budget effectively. Seeing up a small, regular donation helps charities more than you might realise
as a tax accountant, this has a lot of potential to be a massive (even if accidental) fuck up that will be extremely costly for them. at the same time, if they're being honest about the money still being there, they'll probably only be paying for audit representation and "be on their way".
as a financial accountant, i think you for your service in saving my sanity. I f'n hate tax accounting.. almost as bad as managerial accounting. let me just input and my data and generate reports for you all to use. also yeah if they haven't done anything shady they'll just get a spank. Their problem is really the claim of passing it through without passing it through. But that's more a state it's registered in thing than IRS thing. States can be way harder on charities than the IRS.
I think the problem is between the claims that they're funding something when they have failed to do so for almost a decade now. That and the "other" filing makes me curious...tbh, the 0 costs for staff/employees also makes me curious but maybe everyone works as a volunteer and doesn't take a salary. Not common (ha) but still plausible.
@@platypuspracticus2 it's not super uncommon for people to do this stuff without salaries. not that this is the same as a 501 c, but a lot of HOAs that I service are majority no-salary situations. Mostly stay at home spouses who do what they do just to occupy their time, ha
Jirad’s defence of ‘I didn’t know what was happening with the money and I knew nothing about it for 6 years’ is the most ridiculous thing in the world. He’s not Jeff Bezos, 600k sat in his bank account is something you would absolutely be aware of. He’s likely attempting to benefit from the interest or wait until the time is right to rug pull. The fact his own mother died of dementia and he used that as leverage to get money is just despicable.
It's not his bank account but one for the charity, he have no reason to access it unless he was suspicious. I do agree it's werid he took so long to notice, but the bank account isn't a reason.
He even regularly reimbursed himself from the charity, he says so himself at 30:16. How Muta and Karl didn't see that as a big red flag, I don't know why.
You're only a criminal when you've been legally convicted of a crime. Meaning he'd have to go to court and be judged to be a criminal. So the logic is technically correct.
Jirard is overthinking this to absolute ruin. If you spotted something amiss, then go public and make it clear you're working to make it right. Every clandestine move they've made to appear less suspicious is ironically making them look more and more complicit.
Yeah seriously I was thinking that, on like day 2 of realizing you don't have a clear answer, make a public video and encourage people to reach out for offering help and pointers. Show progress to getting it done right, if not offering refunds by the second month.
He isn't overthinking anything. He was using the money as a rainy day fund for himself. If he actually had any disillusions about the SFMC or whatever then he wouldn't have named them specifically on his livestreams.
Jirard also stated on that live stream video that ''bits, subs and merch'' would go to the foundation. The money outlined only covers direct donations to Open Hand via a provided link, this does not cover supposed funds raised by the other means, those are unaccounted for.
Jirard is the gulitiest sounding person I have ever heard on that call lol someone who actually had no idea would just say they were sorry and then immediately donate the money - Jirard instead claims that immediately donating the money would somehow further incriminate him... no Jirard, it's not donating it immediately that is incriminating. That and the lies. Also how funny is it that when called out he unironically asks the investigators if they have any suggestions for good places to donate the money hahaha
ngl the whole asking for advice looks like an attempt to do a payoff. Like "if we make a small donate to your charity of choice maybe you'll treat us better in your piece or maybe not post it at all"
As someone who feels that "TH-cam drama" is often overblown for clicks, I've watched several videos from Jirard over the years, thought he was a respectable guy, but this is so bad from every angle. There is no excuse for this and if he was to get jail time I wouldn't be surprised. You can't just treat a charity like your personal piggy bank and I doubt he has legitimate receipts for all the money spent.
Funny because when I watched him on the FPS podcast, he was my least favorite podder in the group. I couldn’t figure it out but he had very bad takes on many subjects. Hearing he employed his family in this charitable organization is just so scummy.
I agree that certain dramas are overblown, but there are other dramas like this that fit the idea of “it’s not drama, it’s dangerous” (quote from Swoop, who is a TH-cam documentarian that covers certain dramas and true crime)
I fully expect him to see the inside of a courtroom about this. The admin expenses aren't huge... that's probably not "personal piggy bank". Still needs audited. If the money were still there. But... it *not* being there is the only reason they couldn't just do the right thing immediately. Yanno, like you would *actually* do if you found out a company you haphazardly ran owed money.
I think he, or others in his family, could avoid jail by proving they were able to donate the full amount listed on their latest tax filings. His reputation is shot for sure, but he may be able to dodge the worst of it. IF THE MONEY IS STILL AVAILABLE.
I've donated multiple times to this charity through The Completionist. I feel like I've just had my balls drop-kicked. EDIT - was not a lot of $$. I have learned my lesson (do more research before donating to charitable endeavors).
@@bigbillywillysgrandadventu7737i disagree with this sentiment as there are plenty content creators who very obviously do donate the money. Like Jack’s Thankmas or CDawgVA’s charity streams for the IDF
@@flandrble What are you talking about? How would donating the money ruin his integrity? Donating the money is the only thing he can do to preserve his integrity.
@@Dante... because it proves he's been complicit with inaction for the past 10 years. Heck, it's been over an additional year (since allegedly finding out even though he is the director) and he still hasn't found an organisation to donate it to? If he magically finds one within the next month, you know he's been in on the fraud the entire time.
This is sad. To hear words from Jirard himself makes it even more of a knife to the heart. He had almost 10yrs to do anything productive. He mentioned he was personally donating to places. If YOU found a place good enough to donate to, why couldn't your organization!? He outright admitted to charity fraud while trying to downplay it by being "only a couple thousand" (imagine saying "I only did a lil bit of theft") He had almost *10yrs*
There are different categories of thievery. A lil bit of theft gives less punishment than a lot of theft. It's not outright downplaying it's more like...yeah...I did something bad. Don't punishment too badly please.
@@bradleymoore2797 When it comes to charity fraud, I really don't care about the semantics and I'm not gonna debate with you on it. That's your input. Ok. It's not changing my stance. Fraud is fraud.
I helped run a 501c3 youth sports org for 15 years. We served 100-150 at risk kids every year on a budget that never once topped $30k. We spent almost every penny we saw, year in and year out. We would hold onto enough money to pay for our insurance and get the snack bar back up and running the following year. I would still be coaching but the Rona got us. My wife was actually a whistleblower on a charity fraud case for a public access TV station she worked at. She was young and got a C-level position due to her education. Turns out, the board (all members of one family) were using the public money the org was granted by the city and state like it was their own change jar. Those people (3 of them) went bye bye for a while. The org was dissolved. This is super suspicious and it won't surprise me if I hear, once this is all sorted out, that the org had less than $10k in the bank when you first contacted them. Since it's homeboy's mom though... I am hoping he's just a dumbfuck.
Idk if him being a dumbfuck is any better in this scenario tbh. Knowing about it since last year and still not donating it is insane. Asking "what do you want me to do?" is insane. When the part about not touching the donations came up, I assumed it was going to be nitpicking about the expenses of the charity, not "well yeah there were a couple times I dipped into this money that we're holding for charity." It's insane that he would do that and not know the amount of money in the account.
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
Check out Karl's Video Here: th-cam.com/video/Rb0dMF1zHyA/w-d-xo.html
Muta you release your video at the same minute as Karl jobst !! AMAZING !
@@WithScienceAsMySheperd yeah right, what a weird coincidence!
Why should i care?
EXPOSED
yeah just didn't know at fierst. I love both and love their collab as true youtubers who play fair with their fans :P@@BrodyDoesStufff
It's funny how they "forgot" to donate 9 years straight, but didn't "forget" to organize the event every year.
This seems silly. Finding a proper thing for the best cause possible while saving a bunch to give a huge lump sum. While doing events every year to save towards the big sum. Isn’t exactly forgetting it seems to be working towards while being way too caught up in finding the perfect beneficiary
@@hkxche10 years too long…if he really wanted to help the org would’ve donated SOMETHING by now… plus he admitting to taking thousands like what are you even saying
@@icecold2660 when did he admit to pocketing any of it that wasn’t for events or to support the cause? I’m in no way saying it isn’t dumb, but misinformation doesn’t help anything
@hkxche The misinformation would be them saying it's going to charity when's its not and hasn't for 10 years.
@@hkxchebrother please they could have at any point found somewhere and done some research for like an hour or two to find a good organization to give it to. 10 YEARS, of not really doing anything.
Tax accountant here:
If you believe they are being shady or fraudulent, please file an IRS Form 13909, Tax-Exempt Organization Complaint (Referral). Information for lines 1 and 2 can be found on the Form 990 (nonprofit tax return), right up top. Under line 3, mark "Other," list out your complaint. In this instance, describe their false claims of helping the cause and lack of transparency in listing out expenses. Line 4, Jirard, and his necessary information. Dates should include all tax years (2014 - 2022). In line 5, put your info. Yes, you have to.
Oh, by the way, "I haven't gotten caught yet" isn't a defense against allegations against your organization. That's something scammers say.
Please somebody do this
As a tax accountant that last line gets me. I've had clients come on after not filing 1040s or 1120s for 20 years and havnt nary gotten a letter from the IRS and only found out when they finally got an accountant and we looked it up.
So yeahhh not getting a mention from the IRS means nothing.
@@kikiohearts jeez your tax system in America is overly confusing
I love how bro is committing Tax Fraud on a massive fucking platform thinking he’s gonna get away with it. The IRS always finds out
@@TheSilverfishProjectTax evasion is rampant and very successful, but only for people that are rich.
In 10 years you can go to college and grad school, get a PhD, and actually become a dementia researcher yourself. And you're telling me in the same time these people were unable to find anyone to donate their money to - that's just absurd.
Yeah, massive red flag
In ten years you most likely barely have a bachelor degree in neuroscience and a master's.
Also it usually takes about 4-5 years to find organisations with merit to invest your money in specialised medical research and treatment of diseases. In the meantime you could definitely spend money on minor sponsorships and donations on thesis projects and other minor individual researches.
@gaarakabuto1 not really, you can go into a phd after a bachelors if you're really smart. Also it doesn't take 4 to 5 years to find an organization with merit. If he really cared, he could have made a grant or scholarship for that research in little time.
@@gaarakabuto1But in his videos he names multiple credible organizations and claims to be working with them. This implies that he is supporting them with the money being raised. Why not just follow through and give the money to those organizations? If they are not good enough and require further research, why is he mentioning them and showing support?
@@annep4830 I never mentioned him, I said for a charity organisation like open hands, it takes around five years to get a stable long term partnership with an institution or an organisation that focuses on scientific research and treatment of specific disease or illness.
Where a youtuber can throw his money is none of my business and I wouldn't trust anyone if they are not actively investing in the charity of their option through their physical and not just monetary contribution. From my experience there are only a handful of charity organisations that are honest and many that partly do offer help but also are into sketchy businesses.
THIS is why I don't donate to charity events. Just donate to the organization directly.
Correct
and still you should be suspicious...
do the right thing, unfortunately, is often not easy...
This is why I only donate to St Jude or support events that are raising money for them. And ONLY if the donate link takes you directly to a St Jude run site.
even then, still peep the IRS lookup...
I highly recommend looking up whether your charity is registered under a charity regulator. Those people are primarily responsible for making sure charities do what charities do.
The Completionist is sure taking an awful long time to complete this charity donation.
He"s doing a reverse speedrun.
Dude...the fact he's complicit disgust me😊
Well, at least we know he won't be rating this scam "donate it".
Unfortunately he seems to have been stuck at 0% for a while.
Very hard platinum :(((
Recap of events:
-Collected over 600k in donations and let it sit in an account for 10 years
-Lied on stream (on youtube videos, his website, etc) about where the money was going (USCF)
-Admitted to knowing the money wasn't going anywhere since at least 2021, yet continued to lie to people on stream
-Spent over 120k of the donation money for administration costs, yet saying on stream that they don't touch any of the money
-Admitted to skimming the money to reimburse himself, allegedly never over "a couple thousand dollars" (again, a lie about not touching any of the money)
-Have not conformed to the government's 5% rule
-Claims that since the IRS or other "regulatory bodies" haven't come after them, they've done nothing illegal
-Very defensive email responses to legitimate questions from Karl
-When confronted, seems to care more about his social image and starts playing the victim. Also just making up strange claims like "I was going to donate it today, the past 2 weeks actually"
UPDATE: Open Hand Foundation filed a privacy claim against Karl's video. It was rejected. That looks REALLY bad.
Not looking good for Jirard. Did I miss anything?
> skimming the money to reimburse himself
I think this is the only fair thing he may have done, organizing such event is a big deal and take a toll on finance, personal time and mental fatigue.
Personally I would be 100% OK if those 10k of administrative where the money used for to organize the festival (fly in people, hotels, equipment, location rent, food, interns, etc) but i think should have been more transparent
@@lesto12321but the truth of it is we don't know where that cash was spent, he and the team are basically taking a pay out for collecting and hoarding other folks money.
It's fucking depressing and I REALLY want to believe he was more clueless as to what others where doing but it doesn't look great
Guilty of sounding like Daffy Duck and annoying the piss out of me.
@@lesto12321 Any charity that spents over 20% total (in those years) on "administrative costs" (over 120k spent of 650k collected), while the average charity usually doesnt spend more than 11,5%, claiming to not know how they were spent AND claiming that all money donated goes to charity is Fraud. Not only that, the donations have to have been funnelled through his LLC Corporation, which means he would gain tax deductions of about 15k$ yearly of them. On top of that, that money sitting there is accumulating interest - which we also dont know how that is spent. Also the money just sitting there is getting less "worth" due to inflation. This is not neglience, this is criminal.
I wonder how much of that money is still in the bank account and not mysteriously disappeared over the years.
I wanted so badly to give Jirard the benefit of the doubt here, that this was just an extreeemely negligent mistake, but when he said he reimbursed himself with the charity money, but "only for a few thousand dollars"... that really hurt down to my soul.
@@comfybaguettepeople who do bad things will also do good things to ease their guilt, also people are rarely all bad or all good
@@comfybaguetteSo much positivity? He's the guy that supported woke G4 and that witch Frosk right? The women that attacked all gamers. How is that positive?
@@fatbroccoli8What's good about him? We only know him from the failed woke G4 reboot and his support of hateful frosk.
@@mr.brenman2132 I don’t rly wanna get political but I think it’s unfair to cherry pick the negatives that have come up in his career
@@mr.brenman2132 I'm talking in general, not just Jirard
This isnt just youtube drama. This is an actual financial crime. I wouldnt be surprised if we see him end up in court.
It will never happen unless enough people report The Completionist (Jirard) to the IRS and Attorney General Rob Bonta at the State of California Department of Justice.
The internet has so thoroughly poisoned our idea of morality that Jirard thinks being exposed for charity fraud is frivolous drama where he has to “take the L.” My guy, you’re not getting backlash for cheating in a minecraft speedrun here; this is seriously fucked up and possibly a crime.
Did he say that?
@@Mngalahad Yes.
@@Mngalahadit's in the video during their call, maybe a quarter of the way through?
@@deeman010gdjno jarard been making wild responses on Twitter the minute this dropped
Not just the Internet. We have politicians who commit crimes and shield themselves by accusing their critics of being politically motivated.
So did I correctly understand that the family running the foundation is Jirard's family? Like five grown adults that probably communicate pretty regularly? And not a single one of them thought it was strange $0 was ever contributed to the cause in a DECADE? That doesn't pass the sniff test.
Yeah like i understand wanting to wait until they find a suitable org to donate to, but 10 YEARS!? Like cmon at that point just refund everyone their money back lol
It's honestly not unreasonable that people wouldn't normally think about it. If they trust the person helming the project to handle it, and they themselves are really only there as a safety net for who would take charge of the money if something happened to the current charge, nearly everyone would just forget about it unless it were ever questioned. The only real plausible question is where their operating expense of the funds went to. That, along with the fact they're holding on to the funds, is about the only points of real note that needs answers for questions about them. Everything else is just fluff or negligible.
I can see it happening if everyone thought it was the other person's responsibility
@platano8667 for 10 years tho? And they raise money yearly.
I really do not see any way that this could be anything other than a scam that Jirard was complicit in.
"I dont want it to go to some Doctor's salary."
Bruh does Jirard think research just like happens? Like you put a million bucks in a room next to some fancy lab equipment and a cure pops out?
No you hold it in a bank-account, and gradually God pays dividends in cures on it.
Yea, you didn't see South Park when they cured AIDS?
This just made me think of when South Park did the whole “money is a cure for HIV” bit
Funny when he said i dont want the money to be wasted but its been just sitting in a bank account for 10 years lol
Research is funded almost solely through grants ... which come from donations & non-profits. So weird that he said that
My mom died from Dementia in 2021. If I wasn't a broke bastard I would have donated to this charity. This whole story is really pissing me off. Thank you for putting this information out.
I’m so sorry for your loss, I can only imagine how infuriating this is for you.
@@RAUDEZA I appreciate that. I just hope that they finally do the right thing and actually donate the money.
@@DShawnPaytonOffiicial of course! It can be soul crushing to find out that charity for such a noble cause and that affected so many lives, may actually be defrauding its its donars. I hope the money finally donated , but it has been a week and nothing but silence. I have a suspicious feeling that the money is no longer in that account . I really, really hope I am wrong and this money goes to the organizations it was raised for. But it’s becoming increasingly more clear that they have committed fraud. It appears that someone from the charity actually tried to have videos taken down talking about the whole situation.
@@RAUDEZA I didn't know that. Wow. Yeah, definitely starting to smell like a scam.
@@RAUDEZAthe money is probably long gone unfortunately 😢
As an accountant with some experience in not-for-profit organizations, I can tell you that no sensible NFP would ever list their expenditures in a general “expenses” bucket. Even if it’s just administrative costs like wages and office supplies, you would still need to note that. It would also need to be noted by function as well. Also, unless you are restricting the contributions to very stringent funding criteria that would cost more to the organization than the benefit received, no sensible NFP would have issue taking any charitable contribution (regardless of size). Muta is right, that is an audit waiting to happen and it will absolutely be an ugly one.
Private foundations work differently from a more common 990, and not all 990s have to allocate expenses on the Statement of Expenses. It's possible they are paying some of those expenses in a way to benefit the officers, but for the amounts of money going out the effect is tiny.
as someone currently studying financial accounting, this checks out
@@TheGreaterGrogI assumed the expenses were the cost of having more charity events. Flying guests in paying for people's time cause one person can't run it alone, and stuff like that.
@@AaaaNinja Some were. The 2022 return shows them broken out like that, and prior years tended to have similar expenses although with no detail. And since the event was annual, it is an easy assumption to make. It does look bad, though. I don't actually remember if you get to apply expenses against the distribution minimum or not, as the ones I prepare don't have expenses. They're just brokerage accounts that give out money. One of the best ways to defraud a charity is to pay inflated expenses to another entity that you or a friend controls, but I doubt that will happen for such small amounts.
What is an NFP?
What's insane is how easy it was to access this information but nobody did so for TEN YEARS and he has like 1.5 million subs
Yea Jirads not the only person with negative IQ
Makes you wonder about his falling out with Greg again honestly.
1.5 mil are small i even remember him long time ago
People are usually willing to not look into things too deeply as long as the person looks trustworthy enough, or at the very least acts like it on camera.
@@Duskoolexactly, it's exhausting to assume everyone is working in bad faith. Not to mention the completionist had been doing it so long that most people would assume someone else must have looked into him by now. It's hidden in plain sight
As an IRS EA, I would point out that he is listed as a part of the board. He's a director. Initially in the call he acts as though this is surprising to him... that he didn't know the money was just sitting there. If that's the case, it's pure negligence. While I'm one for the benefit of the doubt, the fact that the money isn't being siphoned off or anything like that doesn't mean that it won't be in the future and as the money isn't being disseminated for the intended purpose, it's logical to assume malcontent.
Edit: Oh and yes.... just a big block of money listed as "expenses" is entirely unacceptable and speaks to them either preparing the return themselves or using someone that is either not educated to the extent they need to be or is intentionally permitting an obviously impermissible practice (likely an accountant: accountants have no obligation to work through continuing education for taxation every year and the fact that $425 is listed as having been paid points to them using someone but that someone not being adequately educated on taxation). Anyone who actually handles taxes specifically - a tax accountant or preferably an enrolled agent - wouldn't allow this if they're worth a dime.
they had 10 years to get their act together~
it's very obvious what they are doing. they are holding the money captive and shaving it continuously year-after-year with 'org/admin expenses' and will continue to do so until somebody takes it away. they have already siphoned six-figures from it and I see zero signs of stopping. they are rats. if he's the director he's getting a slice of it as well.
Okay then uh, forward this case to your superiors then?
Maybe have your IRS buddies look into this then lol
Malice?
Yup he's probably waiting for it to hit a magic number then run off to some Country like Cambodia or Malaysia .
The line that stood out to me was Jirard saying "do you want me to just take the L, so you guys can make content and call it a scam?" The fact he so easily dismissed it as some cheap tactic for some clickbait content rather than a serious problem is just a joke.
I mean he’s right, if he just forces the foundation to release the funds now, it looks like it was only because they got “caught”
@@svcolonel89He's not right. That's not a statement you make when you're right. That's what you say when someone's caught you red handed and you have no defense.
@mr.brenman2132 right? Actually, it reminds me of what a scammer who scammed me many years ago said to me. It's the kind of "let's spin the table to see if they can feel bad enough to give me a pass" of statement that scammers love to use.
@@mr.brenman2132That statement from him particularly stuck out to me. Thats such a slimy attempt at gaslighting, trying to appeal to your accusers emotions and make them feel bad when the logic and facts are stacked against you. Hes a fuckin snake. So dissapointing man, I was a rather big fan of him. Not anymore.
@@JonathonJDog Definitely. Hopefully there is an audit of that organization. I'll be interested to see what the findings are.
As someone who among the years has supported Jirard's content and his goal of preserving entire gaming libraries this feels like a punch in the guts.
Yeah it's sad
It’s not stopping me from emulating for preservation in my own time
It feels like a punch to my sphincter 😢
Pretty fucked up that the dude spent more time and energy buying random ds games than helping fund research for something that actually affects people
I feel the same
I used to work for a nonprofit, and they had the legal requirement of making an elaborate presentation and bringing representatives from all over the world to view it. Less than 30% went to grants and they had 100s of millions in the bank. Always research before you donate. Don't break the bank just so your money can sit in accounts for years accruing interest.
Did it ever get busted?? That's a LOT of money.
@@dustyyyyyyyyyWorking as intended. The laws were done this way to help rich people shield their money and give their relatives 'job experience' and social prestige.
Can we please just make this illegal? I can't see ANY reason for that to ever be done for good reasons.
My school was non-profit and they weren't allowed to keep any money into the next year. If we had extra, we'd go on a bunch of really cool field trips around the end of the fiscal year. I don't get why charities are treated different.
@@fakename6244the people who have the power to make it illegal are likely in on it.
most charities(99% at least) are a scam sadly thats why you need to research where you are donating your money.Worked on one cause I wanted to help and like 5% was actually used for the charity everything else was used for "administrative expense" like traveling and shit for the heads of the org and a good chunk was used to invest so it just sit there
talked to the authorities and the answer was that it was legally right..... fuck charities I will never donate ever again
and if you wonder how I knew this well I created the entire site and Data Base for it ....Im still ashamed that its used to this day by the org
35:00 "it makes me question every charity"
*YES* *QUESTION* *EVERY* *CHARITY*
If you typically give a hundred bucks or ten thousand a year to various different charities that sound nice to you, it's *FAR* *FAR* better to research them, find *ONE* that you've decided uses your money best, and give it straight to them.
i have seen charity events that SEEM trustworthy. GDQ for one, looks too big to try and pull something like that. Maximillian Dood and Bawkbasoup have also done a few charity events, and those guys do look far more sincere than jirad.
as a side note, i was never able to watch jirad again after the whole debacle between him and his co-lead at the time a decade or so ago.
The sad part is the larger the charity is the more likely it is that the funds are going mostly to salaries. AKA paying the board members. @@marcosdheleno
@@dojelnotmyrealname4018 There are some websites that exist specifically to keep track of that. Like my go-to is Doctors Without Borders which I think uses something like 96% straight to funding putting the docs in the places that need 'em. Red Cross on the other hand, it's something like 63%: as you say, the bigger it is, often the worse it is.
To some extent, a Red Cross-level CEO *_could_* be worth a $3 million salary or something, if it's the sort of person who saves, say, 5% of its budget over someone else -- then that means the person is literally worth more than their salary, y'know?
What I despise most is the advertising, though, really. Those ones like St Jude's that spend a quarter of their budget just mailing people things. At least it keeps the USPS alive!
Also, I'm not sure I'd trust any small charity fundraiser, like the one that this video talks about, if they can't explicitly say "there's a trust set up in this attorney's name _______ who is in control of disbursing the funds to the proper charity; I can't even touch the money if I wanted to". That's how it should be done.
I started researching all the charities I usually donate to and it’s honestly horrifying how much money gets pocketed and how little is actually used
Or just keep it simple, and give food to the homeless
Another thing that sucks is that over a period of 10 years a lot of the donated value was lost, 100k 10 years ago was a lot more than 100k now
Just think of all the lost research that could have been done over those 10 years too.
@@thomasmathew13 I was just about to say this. Lives might have been saved if not for those greedy assholes.
Ooff, hadn't thought about that.
How much less? Has anyone calculated inflation loss?
I did a rough calculation, 600k in jan 2014 money is about 788k in now money
I donated $500 to this organization in 2017 in memory of my late grandmother. Therefore I can confidently say that we are NOT cool with this.
My grandpa was lost to Alzheimers. A horrible, horrible way to go. This is a serious blow to the cause, now people are going to be more reluctant to donate to these causes thanks to this dude.
I'm sorry about your grandmother. My father suffered from it as well. I don't wish it on any family.
Sorry for your loss, my gpa died in 2019. Be well@@Synthwave89
@@ralphiecifaretto8961RALPHIE SO BASED
Cap
Let's hope Jirard gives the donations a rating of...
COMPLETE IT!
☠️
@OFFICERJIMMYUTTPno he didn’t
This is gold
Well Played 👏
@2001jlortiz his channel only has 4 videos and the oldest one is two weeks old at this time-pretty sure he’s just trolling.
After hearing Jirards explanation....i trust him even less now than before.
He was only dipping into the funds a little bit. Only a couple of thousand. He even stated he wasn't supposed to do that.
I feel bad for his lawyers. 😒
@@bradleymoore2797 why they still get paid.
Guys fucking waiting to develop dementia symptoms then use it all on himself 😂
I really never understood why people donated to charities through TH-camrs. Wouldn't it just be easier to go directly on that charity's website and donate there? Why have a middle man?
Low life dog needs to be sorted out physically I mean imagine using your mothers horrible demise to scam people out of money is pretty low
10 years of lying and now the money has devalued. Surely there would be legal consequences for such neglegence.
There are, they are soon gonna get in court, If I remember that right!
If the money is still actually there ...just because they say it's there don't mean it is ...unless a third part audit was attached to the filing and it wasn't was never a audit of the non profit
@@Smart-Towel-RG-400 The money is still there but due to inflation, the money is wprth less than it used to.
for example, something that would have cost $10,000 in 2014 now would cost $12,996.38
And if you think some random government worker will double check everything he or she receives to work the extra hour for.. what? They care less than workers in private companies and that's that
@@EighmyLupin Do we actually have proof that the money is still there?
Charity fraud happens all the time and hardly anyone is held accountable. Thanks for covering this!
One of the recent ones that bothered me is the woman from BLM who got found out.
@@John-Doe-Yothat is not a charity. That is a terrorist organization.
work abuse happens as well, and if you Call L&I to anonymously give a tip, they'll tell you that can't take it, that it actually has to come from the employee themselves...the whole world is made in a way for it to continue the way it is.
GDQ comes to mind
well of course, have your seen how virute signaling those people are? It's both extremes that are usually the ones that are swindling people...@@midnightowl8692
This is the exact type of thing that makes it necessary to do a background check on the charities you choose to donate too. There are too many good hearted individuals out there that it’s not rare that someone will come along and take advantage of them.
yeah, I'm basically at the point where I don't trust any charity.
Only things I donate too is directly to local churches who I know are helping the community around me.
Suckers my grandad would say. It's better to do things yourself and go help people you can.
Yeah they were doing background checks? That's why they haven't donated?
I don't get why people are acting like leaving charitable funds in an account to be donated is "taking advantage" of people. Nobody gets any advantage from this. It's just incompetent and negligent.
@@oposdeo assuming it's actually there. You don't have to give the IRS your bank account numbers when you file a 990.
It's always a good sign when the first response you get is "What we are doing isn't illegal, even if it seems unethical to you". Especially when it might be both. And the bit where he says "I don't want it to go to an organization where it won't do anything" seems quite ironic given the money has just been sitting in a bank account doing nothing. Even if I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and believed they were really looking for a good cause to donate to, if you haven't found one in almost 10 years you either haven't done a very good job looking or there just isn't one that will ever satisfy you, and probably never will be. And I don't think I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt when they have organizations good enough to name as the beneficiaries, but not good enough to actually get the money.
Or, you know, have a plan to donate to MANY organizations with the idea that your $ efficacy will average out. More eggs, more baskets. Pick a new charity every year. IDK there's LOTS of compromises.
Right. He keeps stressing that everything is legal, but nowhere does he say or suggest they have legal oversight of any kind. You can’t just SAY something is “legal” and pronounce it to be so.
@@JazGalaxy having something not be illegal is a devastatingly low bar for a charity.
I went from genuinely believing it could have been a huge oversight BEFORE listening him speak, to 1000% believing it is some kind of scam AFTER listening to him. His groveling and backtracking had the opposite effect.
I can only imagine what his lawyer told him after they from that.
i was thinking that they could have been missing something and calling him was just fine. like "oh we sent the money but it doesnt appear in those financial statements; money goes to their account but we keep track of how much we've donated to him" or something that makes the weird and sketchy make sense.
but his response was: its so embarassing that you caught me, i really want to move into the right decision right now.
Dude sounds so scared because he got caught. I wonder what will happen in the future.
bro said “I was ready to donate right when I got your email but that would’ve made me look like I was admitting guilt”. Come on dude, literally just admitted that he prioritizes his image above peoples’ lives
Jirard: “I had no idea what was going on with my organization’s finances.”
You know who also said the same thing? Elizabeth Holmes, Sam Bankman Fried, Bernie Madoff, those idiots who ran Enron… the list goes on.
I’ve got a feeling there is no money, otherwise he’d have donated it already, or at least proven that it’s there.
He probably spent it all on those digital games for 3DS/Wii U awhile back.
Exactly, ignorance is not an excuse for lack of action. He was responsible for the charity and donations
Those people scammed people. Jirad didn't try to scam people. He tried donating but the company he partnered with won't release the money
I'm wondering, is he still doing good on youtube? Has his content significantly dropped off in views since 2014-2015? Because this smells like he's using the charity cash to boost his own personal income.
This boils my piss, I lost my grandmother to dementia and it's not something that just kills quickly, it robs that person and their family of their memory and of that person over years, the fact that the money just sat there enrages me to a level I haven't felt in years, scum of the earth
Im really sorry to hear about your grandmother. Im only replying to your comment because i also use the expression “scum of the earth” to describe horrible people, so i feel a kindred spirit
I am so sorry your family had to go through that. We lost my grandma the same way. In my opinion, it is the most devastating disease known to man and for someone to exploit all of our collective emotions and memories of our loved ones. . .it's the lowest of the low.
I cant imagine how that must feel, im so sorry
I'm sorry for you, it's a terrible thing to see your loved ones being wasted away slowly by that sickness.
I feel you. I am helping take care of my grandpa who has Alzheimers. You are right about I also robbing the family of their memories of the person over the years. I know all my good memories of my grandpa will be replaced with how hard he is to deal with towards the end.
Charities like this dissuades anybody from donating to any charity ever
Yep. Poisoning the well makes everyone else look horrible.
Only like 30% of all donated money goes to the cause, the rest goes to charity creator's pocket. People should seriously stop donating their money to this stuff, it's the same scam as infomercials.
Always research the charity. Even many legit charities only donate a minority fraction of the proceeds to the target cause since iirc they are only legally required to pass along a min 5% of the donations...
Red Cross and all/mostly volunteer orgs are usually the way to go to not get scammed by the "payroll" pilferers. This is also why certain cities have such bad homeless problems because the demand continues the supply of donations for the triple digit income groups running it as a for profit industry.
I really wish urban people had to live and work on a farm for a year and this likely wouldn't happen nearly as often or as bad.
Edit: typo
Word.
That's why I never donate. Go work for your own cause 🗿
If my mom died from an illness and I started a charity to raise money to treat illnesses like hers...and I ran into red tape after getting donations...I would NOT rest until I figured out a solution. I would work my ass off to make sure that money got moved.
What the fuck was he doing for 9 years?!?!?!
He thought he was the donation recipient. XD
Buying gaming rigs and games.
@EF-fc4du Drinking and getting "sponsorships"
let me get this straight this organization was founded 9 years ago and they're still trying to find the right benefactor...............AFTER 9 YEARS??? bro if it takes 9 years to find the right benefactor then what a joke
That alone could be explained as extended procrastination, depression, perfectionism, yadda yadda. But he actively tells us about specific organizations which his organization donates money too. Okay, maybe he did so and forgot to write about it in the paper work. Maybe he ordered someone to do so and that person didn't know how to do so, but didn't want to admit it and claimed he did it. But then Jirard is confronted about it. He admits that nothing actually got sent towards donations and after thag he still lies to people about specific organizations which did, but actually did not receive any money from openhands, so at that point it's fraud. Even without the fact, that a 5 digit sum was taken from the donations towards "administration" when no administration was done, so that's another layer of fraud.
And he personally donated to charities, and those are not worthy for benificiating from the fund ?
Agreed. All they'd have to do is put out an intent to provide research funding and tons of teams would come forth to try and get the grants, or they could just phone up a couple universities.
@@andy02q That and the fact that he helped found that charity as a way to help after what he went through with his mother. So if he and the charity pocketed the money, that is more fxxxed up.
I mean when he specifically mentions specific benefactors in the fund raise, the excuse of not finding the right benefactor is complete BS.
So he "allegedly" spent the last 10 years scrutinizing charities so he could give the money to the best of the best but when questioned about it he's now suddenly happy to donate it to anyone.
Because he looks really bad and is being questioned about it, he obviously really cares which is why he might of been so weird about where he wants to donate it to.
@@hkxche Dude, *ten years* to donate. He said he personally had donated money to charities but couldn't get his own organization to donate? And by the way he talked when confronted is very telling that he only cares about his reputation
@@hkxche He had 10 years to donate the money.
The thing he cares about isn't donating the money to research, it's his reputation.
The only reason he donates now is because the scandal surfaced and his reputation has been tainted. He's just trying to restore it by appearing like he's doing the "good thing".
@@hkxchehe really cares? Why are people so addicted to parasocial relationships to TH-camrs. It’s sad
@@omensoffate this is in no way about a relationship with a TH-camr. What’s being talked about is what is right or wrong with a big amount of money.
I think if the money was held for under 3 years the argument of 'trying to find the best place to donate' could barely pass as an argument, but almost a DECADE of withholding funds that were assumedly donated by the public only speaks to a true immoral/malicious management of funds.
i don't see a problem holding the money to find the right charity as long as in events and every call out you state that the money is not going to a specific charity but instead is being held for review and we currently have been holding for x years. So if you want to see your money go directly to a good cause, donate to the source charity, not us. We've got some whatever goal target of a million dollars to reach before we give it to charity X. I'd be fine with that.I wouldn't donate a cent to them but that's honestly done. I'm not sure its legal to do that even with the law being explicit about how charities have to behave but ya know. At least don't lie to everyone and then pretend like you didn't know. Man that Jirard is going to prison.
probably started out with that excuse in year 2 and 3, but then grew out into complacency
i could believe incompetence if it were not for how well the indie events were run. They attracted major celebs and for a niche gaming related charity, made big money. It took some real business sense to make all that work and we're expected to believe they just didn't notice the money was ever going to charities they publicly listed and spoke about constantly helping past and present tense? Nah man, that's a scam and its straight up fraud in my eyes@@mikev8746
I miss my lord and saviour, Sea Moose
then it should have told pepole he still keeps the money but he didnt up untill know he acted like its going somewhere @@ClayMann
"This makes me question every charity." This hit so hard. I didn't donate to this, but I have donated to charities & fundraisers in the past & when I hear these kinds of stories, it makes me worry about donating in the future...
Never donate through 3rd party charities at all, those tends to be 1 of 2 things: Fraud and Scam or a tax write off for companies. Always fund the research on a direct route to ensure that your money actually goes to it.
This is why I donate TIME and not money. Working at a soup kitchen, cleaning up a park, or helping build a home or any other volunteer time: I know EXACTLY what I donated because I was the one doing the work
Do are directly to the charity never go through another service.
Just don’t gullibly donate to random 3rd party charities and you’ll be fine lmao
Sadly I'd definitely recommend looking into a charity before donating to it, make sure it's actually spending money where it says it is, and not just funneling it into inflated CEO paychecks or something. There are a whole lot of shady organizations out there.
I'd never thought The Completionist out of all people would do something this shady
he must complete everything, including scamming!
It breaks my heart seeing these people who I grew up with do this stuff.
How many times do we need to teach you this lesson, old man?
Money is the root of all evil. It will corrupt. That's what it does. That's why you see all these YTers turning out to be pieces of shit after they get some money. They could have always been, but truth is, the money got to em, just like it always does.
I do lol who isn’t a freaking narcissist in this today of age. It’s truly sad
No wonder that guy left
Calling it the Open Hand Foundation makes sense, because this has been a real slap to the face.
Your money goes directly into Jirard's Open Hand.
That and the hand is open to taking your money and keeping it.
“Grasping hand,” would have been more appropriate. I believe he was hoping to get away with stealing all of it, rather than just the relatively, “small,” sums he has been taking.
Would ANYONE go to the trouble of setting up a complex organisation, like a charity, with NO CLUE as to where the money would go? Genuinely, a 10 year old kid LITERALLY could have figured out who to give the cash to after SIX YEARS! Unbelievably scummy stuff going on here.
If I have learned anything from this scandal, it's how to easily audit a charity. Thank you so much for your work!
The fact that 4 days later Jirard hasn’t announced every dollar from that account has been donated already, tells me one thing. They don’t have all that money anymore.
That money has been long, loooooooooooooooong gone
I get Jirard's anxiety during the call but it really seems like this is a pretty straightforward and obvious fix, donate the money and post a postmortem explaining what happened how it was resolved and what's in place to prevent it from happening again.
Well he has to cover his tracks first.
Can't come up with some faux story that quickly.
I'd feel pretty nervous.. hes in the interrogation room with two senior detectives (karl... And Muta)..
Nope, he stole all of your money. Just let his channel die off. He was never a good person to begin with.
As much as I don't want it to be true
I don't see this being a universe where his hands are clean...
Nah, donate the money, disband the organization, and retire with what little grace you've still got. He sealed his fate as soon as he said hes known since last year. Its November, he was never planning to donate that money.
As a former CFO for a nonprofit, at best they’ll be forced to pay out the money by the IRS and live with a “black eye” under the watchful eye of the IRS. At worst, they be dissolved, the executive team will be charged (with possible jail time) and they’ll never be able to run a nonprofit again. I’d be sweating bullets if the IRS decided to do an audit and if this organization set up the nonprofit as a way to raise money for research.
This is a large amount of money. $600K+, this will be picked up by an FBI investigation and IRS sooner or later. Just like it took some years before FBI started to do investigation is Crypto rug pulls and pandemic employer employee wage pay loans.
I was wondering if there is an issue with how they specified their expenses. For example in 2018 they had $13,559 listed under 'Other expenses'. But at the bottom of the filing it doesn't further specify this amount. Is this allowed or should they specify how the $13,559 was spend?
I dont really know what they could have spend this on. First thing that came to mind is that the plan was to just keep putting 10-20k a year up as expenses until the money was gone. Maybe I'm just too cynical...
That's if someone tips off the irs
@@SIC66SIC66Yes, it is an issue and think it was mentioned in this video they'll be forced to provide receipts of how those expenses break down in case they are audited. If they are unable to do that, or there's something not right in the breakdown it will be a bigger issue still.
@@SIC66SIC66 if they file anything for expense they have to document what those expenses are. If any auditor agent or FBI agent or IRS agent skim through those filings, they would def trigger a red flag and look into it further to see if everything adds up for expenses or if it's fraud when no details explains the expenses. Noting it as "expense" without any reason is an easy way to get audit by the IRS.
10 years of banking money for charity and not donating a single cent to charity is quite literally fraud. Regardless of whether you like the guy or not he is committing fraud by advertising charity and taking peoples money under the guise of donating it to charity.
It's called business if you donate to any charity it should be expected that the money will not go to what they say it's being raised for.
@@celestial962420 nice bait
@@celestial962420"it's called business"
No, it's called fraud. No amount of it being widespread makes it okay or changes the words due to semantics. You can make individual comment threads trying to say "oh it's so widespread why care" like you already have when that's ridiculous. Not calling out this behavior exacerbates it and leads to even more rot. He didn't even donate a fraction: if you watch the video Jirard donated literally nothing.
If a rapist doesn't get caught, does that make all rape ok? No.
If a city has a high rate of serial killings and none of them are persecuted, should it be allowed because of that?
These are the most basic ethical questions with the most simple answers to which if you cannot answer you should not be allowed to speak. Also, the IRS actually puts people in prison for this.
I mean he did donate some, but it certainly wasn't the full amount
@@cat_clan_leaderhe didn't donate a cent, look at the filing and the Jobst expose
Jirard really got super defensive and went on the attack in that call. "What me to shutup and take the L so that you guys can make content"
It’s a common defense tactic. Even when he’s only being questioned, not technically accused, he starts acting like he’s being accused, and that makes his guilt sound much more real.
@@bee-zeesoul1018 Yeah it's a strange tactic lol
My grandfather died of dementia not remembering who I was. A man that would tickle me in the living room carpet when I was 5 and who gave me his knife when I was 13. A month before he died he looked at me in the eyes like I was a stranger.
I love you, Pop-pops.
His "do you want me to take the L so you can make content" response tells it all. That's the statement of someone trying to manipulate, not take accountability.
Also, notice how focused he is on how he looks. He doesn't want to donate the money immediately because then he'll just look like he's responding to getting caught. My guy, it's not about how you look.
Is it not? This whole scenario has demonized him as a whole. He wants to come out with people knowing he wasn't trying to be an asshole which is fair. There's no recovering from this situation because the internet doesn't bargain. He's obviously not the brightest, so he's begging for help from people with brains and not doing anything because he's terrified of the backlash. If it wasn't all about image then he would have just donated to some random Joe shmoe and said, "my bad guys I should have just done it sooner" and kept working.
No it isn’t and it shouldn’t. Being dismissive of the people investigating you doesn’t help either. Like they said it’s not drama it’s serious, people were deceived, and the fight against dementia could be a big further than it is now.
"Take the L" after being outed for charity fraud. 😎 He’s a classy guy.
Thats true. Someone who is innocent would not react like that. They would immediately try to solve the problem not caring about their own ego.
His family is involved? I'm guessing they're using the money as a credit line. Or could have been invested like a bank dose living off of interest or something.
Aside from the headline story. I cannot quite properly express how amazingly useful it is to know how to look up returns for organizations I donate to. Turns out, a couple charities I like are actually using their funds properly. And now I know how to do this in the future.
can you name them? I'd like to know.
@@DiscordedHaru no
That’s why blockchain charity is the future.
@@horizonikirespectfully it appears exceedingly unlikely that blockchain --anything-- is the future. 100% at least not in the short term.
@@shallowabyss515 I’ll reply to you in 10 years.
I don't know, I feel like there's more to this situation. Why would they "forget" to donate the money but didn't "forget" to actually host the event every year. Sounds like he was keeping around as a rainy day fund in case he got cancelled one day, or maybe he wanted to rack up as much funds as he could and use it as a retirement fund when he was out of the spotlight. I may be speculating too much but I just can't think of a valid reason why it would take someone A DECADE to donate funds you already have just sitting in your bank account.
He and other family members did reimburse themselves with unspecified expenses but also
A) the money in the account collected interest. 650k in an savings account can make 26k a year in interest.
B) we are assuming that the amount they said they made on their taxes is actually how much they made. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a lie or only reflected donations from certain platforms while other forms of donations they kept quiet about.
C) we are also assuming the money is still there where they said it is and in the amount they claimed. I have my doubts about that too
Yeah this 100% reeks of money laundering. The money is definitely not there anymore@@sickregret
the irony of forgetting to send the money to a dementia charity
Dude is 100% embezzling it
@@gokublack8342 that has been proven to NOT be the case
@@zavtparticles6828 your right all that money just vanished into administration aka the administrTion jirard is a part of on the board
@@zavtparticles6828 Has it? I'll believe that when he passes an IRS audit
@@noctotainlowry9246 where is this sudden idea that the money is gone. It's not gone. It's just not being used.
over 16% of their donations have been used as "administration costs' without donating a penny. not only is this legally culpable for their fraud, but its hypocritical at its core for why they weren't donating in the first place.
I agree this was exactly what I was thinking while watching. Good observation.
But will criminal charges actually be pursued though?
@@e1iteyoshi998 class action lawsuit can be filed by donors
@@e1iteyoshi998 10 years of charity fraud. I can only hope that they have consequences for this.
@@JunHector Unless they pay back all the money given to them i expect a uphill legal battle approaching for them.
It’s real sad Jirad is more worried about his image than the funds going to the appropriate charity(s).
Because this is his livelihood, and if his reputation is damaged that means less money for him, losing that trust with your fan base is difficult to earn back.
@@andystray4554 Very true, so why not come out and say if they need a new institution to donate the funds to? Why not just be honest? From what I’m seeing (Because I don’t have the full context), they’re very much ok with advertising they are donating to charity without explaining they’re on a institute hunt. They haven’t spent the donation money, so that’s one thing keeping me from labeling them complete scumbags.
Kind of put the whole reason why Greg left the Completionist team years ago in more perspective thinking about it. The whole "We're not even friends anymore, just business associates," or whatever Greg said along those lines, makes a lot more sense.
When you're a celebrity whether it be a youtube/twitch/actor/musician image is everything. Something like this can absolutely destroy you. This is extremely bad not just financially but morally.
@@ThatGuySizzleMacFr anyone who read Greg's post knows the only thing he tryna complete is his bank account 😂😂
Thank you Mutahar for showing us just how easy it is to look up and fact check at the very least the operating expenses and donations for a charity. I know what I'm going to do from now on before donating a single cent to an organization.
What's your banner from?
@@marc7248 Odin Sphere. It's a really great 2D action game from Atlus. One of my favorite games of all time
@@marc7248damn now I kinda wanna know
Never donate to public fundraisers , get your own tax cuts and directly donate to a cause
Or donate the money yourself and get the government to add 25%
I had a coworker telling me to do this the other day. Do I just donate cash from my account and list it in my taxes at the end of the year?
@@johnlyons3832get a reciept to show the taxman.
Actually donating to 501c3 is a write-off, so donating to this charity is a tax cut. But most people don't get benefit from it, charity donations only come into play if you itemize I think and most people are at a threshold where the standard deduction is more than what you'd get itemizing. The company donated 15k surely got tax benefit from it though.
Jirard: "What you want me to do?"
donate the money...???
I'll wait to make accusations but what a misdirecting question, should've been obvious
Also, Jirard: "I was about to donate it today"
dude, TEN YEARS waiting, doesn't matter if you donate today or tomorrow, is already wayyyy overdue. Jirard already looks bad no matter what. Donating it soon is the least to be done, looking bad or not
Jirard sounded like a teen being caught righthanded with his "I was about to donate it today", besides it sounding like "I'm gonna get rid of the evidence ASAP before you can legally catch me!"
I thought this was a joke until I heard these quotes, word for word, while I had the video playing in the background. Disgusting. He's acting like a child when they are confronted about not doing chores.
Heads up, the dude said himself at 30:16. He took money from the account when he needed it reimburse himself. Just trust him that he did it when applicable, 30k regularly a year in expenses. Jirard is disgusting.
im waiting to hear that most or all the money is not even there anymore
Man really said he was planning on donating it the day he got confronted and really was hoping it'd work. XD
"No mom, I was uh, just about to [insert chore here], you just happened to walk in right as I was about to do it!"
“I don’t want the money to go to a doctor’s salary or administrative costs.” My guy WHO DO YOU THINK DOES THE RESEARCH AND KEEPS LABS RUNNING? How does he not understand people working non-profits actually need money to live like everyone else? What a disaster!!
they have been skimming off the top for 10 YEARS for 'organizational/admin costs'
they have already stolen six figures from the pile and they will keep doing it for as long as they are in possession of the money, eventually draining it. that is their goal.
He's lying dude.
It's not complicated.
I think when he says doctor's salary, he means having a large amount all go to paying one guy who charges too much. Many see it like that considering how overpriced some things are in the medical field.
No see the way this works is you take the big wad of money and throw it at the bad thing to make it go away. You don't use the money to pay doctors to do research into making the bad thing go away, that's dumb!
@@superduperdrew12345 No disagreement there but the issue with that some of the most effective research comes from Universities. This money could have been given to any number of funds that provide grants to grad students to conduct medical research, it's quite easy to ensure it doesn't go to some boomer doctor's beach house fund.
The worst thing is the enormous expenses. If the money hasn't been moved yet is one thing. It's not good but can be atoned for. But having a charity that does nothing and still have expenses in the tens of thousands a year is pretty unforgivable if not illegal.
Excice tax might be in his future if it's proven there were excess benefit transactions
@@rifleman1002what’s excice tax? I’ve never heard of it and it sounds like something people should worry about
@@insaneedoko999 Google says it is "a tax imposed on certain goods, services, and activities."
His reaction in that call was very bizarre. He seems more focused on handling the fallout of this getting out, rather than, you know, giving the money to an actual charity.
is that really bizarre? He's trying to save his livelihood, I think it's a very normal response for most people.
It's not that bizarre in this case. He was having a regular day until in theory they contacted him and now he's scrambling at what could potentially be the end of his career and public trust in him.
His reaction is exactly what I expected from someone who committed charity fraud.
@@binber2450 This situation could mean the channel could take the brunt of the angry online people more than the charity that is holding onto it and not doing anything with it since they're the ones that need a swift kick in the backside.
youtuber brain maybe
Just an idea... how about decide the exact donation destination before starting to collect any money?
you know... that's an excellent point.
Yea that is literally the entire point of a non profit like this to find the best place for the money to go that will have the most impact and not to be a trust fund to sit and collect dust
wtf no that makes way too much sense, why would anyone do that???
That's crazy. But it might be crazy enough to work! 😲
Maybe an organization that you could shout out during your event, like, say, the University of California-San Francisco, or the Alzheimer's Research Foundation.
"I literally I'm about to donate all this money today" right Jirard.... for course you are. Not because someone called you out on in, but because of the kindness of your heart, literally 5 YEARS after everyone donated it.
according to him he's already donated it over the years.. so yeah..
Even if the timing really was a coincidence and Jirard was telling the truth about finally giving the money away, wouldn’t he have been able to produce some kind of evidence showing they’d been in the process of finalizing donations for a while? I understand some things have to remain private but surely a screenshot of some email correspondences could’ve helped prove his case. But nope, just gotta trust him on it guys. What a joke.
@@afunnymansThe IRS will come knocking.
It is much more than 5 years...
I think you are misinterpreting the way he said that. I don’t think he meant “oh, you just caught me right in the middle of trying to donate this money!“ I think he meant that he wasn’t trying to hoard the money for any reason, and that he was about to donate it all because he has no reason to keep it. That’s why he goes on to say that he can’t find the right place to donate it to. He has a hot potato that now he’s trying to get rid of, but everyone will be looking at where he gives the money to and so that makes it even harder to decide where to put it.
Long story short, unless a TH-cam/twitch charity event has named and partnered with an organization and you are given a link to donate directly to the organization (money goes straight to the organization but is flagged as being donated as part of the event so that a whole event donation number can be generated), don’t donate
The fact that his first thought was "im gonna look bad" and not about the dementia afflicted people that he neglected to send money too speaks volumes
Bingo. He's always struck me as an "optics first" kind of guy.
He in general seems like he hates the TH-cam environment, including people he sees as vultures. I don't agree with him, but he seems to have a defeatist attitude towards this. He's a TH-camr who has been expecting the drama hit-piece for years, seeing it all around, and he thinks he's learned from other drama situations and is trying to get ahead of it. By doing that though, he's making himself look even worse.
Yeah I think this is the most damning thing out of it all. He clearly cares more about his image than the actual cause he was supposed to be donating to
@@Im0nJupiter the fact that that's the reason he is worried about is completely separate. He started the charity. He should DO CHARITY. It's been years. No one is that stupid to start charity and not actually do it. He is in fact a scam artist. The fund looks untouched by the books, but the second the IRS itself looks in to it, I bet that money is liquidated already.
Eh that isn’t surprising. He is going to look bad, for really not doing anything wrong. Yes the money wasn’t used in a timely manner but if the money is there… ok? I guess?
I dunno what the big deal is here.
It’s good that it’s all visible as opposed to stacking for another 10 years and then he donates it?
I guess if there was any evidence that he actually did something criminal it would be more interesting.
Halfway through the video and it’s a nothing burger
I came into both videos with an open mind determined to watch both videos before concluding anything since I've adored Jirard for a while and I've liked Mutahar's and Karl Jobst's content from what I've seen. I work with a lot of nonprofits and I can confirm that this is a really, really bad look at *best.* What kind of reputable charitable nonprofit can't find a suitable partner organization to donate money to over a ten year period? Who's in charge of programming and outreach to find these sorts of organizations? Why did Jirard continue to say that money was going towards dementia research after being made aware of the problem by Mutahar and Karl, which amounts to them doing Jirard's job for him?
The fact that Jirard is a director at Open Hand makes this even worse. I'm on the boards of two smaller nonprofits and while I'm not in charge of their books or finances, I've seen them and everything looks normal. Unless other arrangements were made in writing, Jirard would have access to the books of a nonprofit as a director. How did this not raise any red flags for Jirard? Why didn't he talk to his brother about this? And why did Jirard's brother emphasize that nothing illegal had been done, handwaving any questions about the ethics of misleading donors? The IRS does not mess around when it comes to charity fraud even if it wasn't deliberately malicious.
Having greatly respected Jirard for years, I'm just in disbelief.
Seriously I like both too, if Jirard wants to save his ass he should be donating that money as soon as possible. I am really suprised he decided to sit on it.
All you have to see is his reaction when cornered. Automatically went to accuse Karl and Muta of doing this for content, WHICH THEY DO, but has absolutely nothing to do with what happened. That is like textbook response from all scammers/grifters when they are found red-handed by investigative youtubers.
@@kaylemain2006exactly hes a textbook sociopath only worried about how he'll be perceived by the public.
@@kaylemain2006yeah also man is going crazy with his responses on Twitter bros clear got caught with his hands in a cookie jar
@@kaylemain2006well if they dont make videos about it when are people gonna notice so even then its not just for the content
The hypocrisy of saying they are looking for an organization that doesn’t spend money on admin when they themselves are spending approx 20% on admin. And why is admin so bad? Don’t people who work for these organizations deserve to be paid for their time, paid for completing research? This is just awful and thank you for shedding light on this situation.
The irony of Jirard not seeing the donations through to completion is almost too much.
LMAO
Mfw the completionist "forgets" to see his Dementia charity money be ACTUALLY donated to completion
The amount of money that was BURNED by inflation due to that money just sitting in a bank account is crazy. Especially the pre-2020 money before all the stimulus checks. For example, $100,000 in today's money is only worth around $81,500 in 2018 money, 18% of the value completely evaporated
Not to mention the money lost if it were in an account that gains interest.
@@nojuanatall3281 Well if it's in an interest account the loss would have been negated somewhat (there are few interest accounts that match inflation). Though there is also the possibility of any interest being siphoned which would be a whole other can of worms.
Plus $125,000 USD of vague 'expenses' spent on _not_ donating the money - and the few thousand $ he admits he took from the charity fund, but _swears_ he put back 🧐. His mother would be ashamed of him.
Money is worth six time LESS than when I arrived on this planet.
Six fucking times less.
"Stimulus checks" jesus christ people actually still believe that this worldwide inflation was caused by a couple thousand dollars of stimulus rather than the once in a century global pandemic, strained supply chain, wars, and corporate profiteering
JIrard seems more worried about how he looks than actually doing charitable work, based on that conversation.
He sounded like he was out of breath the entire time. Dude knows he fucked up.
Yea total sociopath just worried about how he'll look.
@@DR.64A9 Well that and being extremely overweight can do that to a person lol
He's got a squeaky clean, TH-cam friendly persona he needs to maintain.
To be fair, we only heard snippets of this conversation and not the entire conversation so without full context we don't know what was said in its entirety. But its still a bad look for the completionist.
My great grandma had a type of Dementia and we knew she was on her last few months of life so we visited her one last time. My father straight up told me that it was perfectly OK for me not to go so i could preserve the image of her I had from growing up. You could tell there was something there a glimpse of the person that used to reside, someone that deep down recognized us but she was little more than a confused, scared shadow of her former sarcastic self. She never knew she had cancer because the doctors knew she wouldn't be able to comprehend it. For someone to go through a similar experience, to create a charity in honor of their own mother who had dementia, and never do anything with the money is borderline sociopathic.
Ya, that's what gets me. The family member angle should cause the opposite behavior.
yeah, that's what i've been saying. charity fraud is one thing, sure it's gross, but it happens all the time unfortunately. nothing new. what is truly disgusting is the fact that he's been milking the death of his own mother to raise money for this fraudulent charity. that's sociopath shit.
They say they "have a 'stringent criteria' for which charities will get their funds."
There should definitely be some immediate follow-up questions to that statement.
-What exactly IS your stringent criteria?
-What exactly have the current organizations failed to do in meeting your expectations?
-What exactly have you done in regards to scouting out potential new beneficiaries since when you deemed the current ones 'failing to meet your stringent criteria'?
If I was Jirard right now I’d be hiring the best lawyer I could and be figuring out how to donate the money to the promised charities as quick as possible. Either way I see the IRS paying him a visit in the future.
As a son that has also lost his mother to disease, I'd give him the most painful, yet loving bop to the face. He didn't just let his fans down with this blunder. He didn't just let the people that need this resource down. He used his mother's name to prop up this charity. He even calls himself the completionist and failed to complete his own charity transactions. As you've said. He needs to clean this up as soon as possible and be as transparent as he can. Not just for his audience, but to remove this stain from mama's name.
@@leegaul2161 My Dad's mom had a pretty bad case of dementia during her last few years. Last time I spoke to her, she had no idea who I was, and didn't even seem grounded in the present; kept talking about things I didn't understand, presumably things from her childhood. Now it's getting a hold of my step-father's grandmother (they're about the same age oddly enough), at the worst possible time, just as her husband has just recently passed away. It sucks, it's an awful thing to go through, and we sure could use the money to work on some research, treatments, medication, etc.
One has to recognize that because they don`t need to adjust their account value for inflation, they pretty much wasted thousands of donated money by just letting it rot somewhere, even if the whole amount is still actually there.
Yes, aside from the OVER 100K in expenses, this was the second thing that crossed my mind.
he probably
1. only put 720k in name of the charity out of a million or so
2. deducted 120k out of the total with expenses
3. Let the money sit (hopeful outcome)
That what they reported on Tax form, money might not even be there in the account. You know something ain’t right when someone start interview with “What we have done is not illegal”
@@AkagiRedSunExactly.
Oh don't worry, it's been earning undeclared interest.
I used to do 501c3 accounting years back. I've never seen a tax form so blank. Especially with an annual event, there's usually set-asides for the administration of the next year's event. To have nothing going out to their stated purpose is shocking. I like to take charitable events at their word. But I know due diligence must happen. This saddens me, because the cause is more than worthy of support...if only this event actually contributed there.
I like how he is asking them what to do, like "please bro I'm an innocent little boy lost and you are gonna expose me." Kinda manipulative, I dont care how much his friends keep saying what a great guy he is on Twitter, dude is misleading people to give their money to apparently nothing. Just seems very suspicious too keep it that long and obviously he is flustered that it was found out.
@@hnewc1919 yeah sure seems like it.
I have a story relevant to this!!! Years ago, he did a livestream announcing and raising money for the charity. I did research and I couldn't find it was certified by the government. I messaged him on stream asking about it and he said that it's certification is "in the process". My sister and I found that suspicious. I brushed it aside and on some occasions thought back to it. Hearing this is so heartbreaking. I really looked up to him :(
EDIT: He may have been telling the truth about the charity not being certified at that point in time. The reason that it gave my sister and I weird vibes was that he was collecting money when the certification wasn't complete yet. That's not necessarily scammy but it's unprofessional at least. Don't take my story as definitive proof of him scamming. Wait until he releases his side of the story. Also Muta and Karl should release the full video call and Jirard should release any proof that he has in his defense.
Damn, really sad to hear this, I also looked up to him :(
Saw you post this on both this vid and Karl's vid on this. Sorry to hear that and I also looked up to him
if the clip could be found, thatd be really good. dont know how well his vods are maintained.
@@Mngalahad Yeah it would
@@dylanbell268 Yeah I posted it on both. Sorry I didn't want to spam but I really liked him and this is upsetting to hear. I hope some proof comes up that it's all just negligence :(
He must have forgotten to give the money to the dementia charity
Your honor my client just did an Oopsie with 600k dollars for 9 years straight ☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️
Nah we know he stole it.
@@Frog-2001 Its a dementia joke.
It's a dementia joke people
Lmao, nice joke bro, wish I had thought of that
You’d think you’d find an organization you like BEFORE collecting money
With the current inflation, imagine how much value that money has lost in 10 years..
Worst part is, at an average yearly inflation of around 3.32% since 2015 costs have risen nearly 30%. So if they just started donating the money since the foundation's inception instead of hoarding it all as they claim to have done, they would've made significantly more impact.
Yup. My mind went there as well. As much as donating the remaining pile of money would help the public image...it can't make up or erase this.
Even putting it into a trust would've been so much better
Should've donated bitcoin instead 😂
@@Creamcups Well that's what ANY fundraiser doing a "all donations help this charity!" should be set up as: that's going straight into a trust account controlled only by an attorney you've hired for that purpose, and you're *_NEVER_* gonna run into this problem.
But ofc, red flags everywhere here. $11k pretty much each year in "administrative costs" with no accounting of how it's used. Yeah, it's just fraud.
Seeing one of your fave TH-camrs turn out to be a scammer never gets easy man, just waiting for the day Muta exposes himself
👀
Shit, I'm getting hyped!
Deadass, it feels like they're all doing something bad at this rate.
I know you're joking, but it will happen eventually unless Muta just retires from content creation
I'm not saying Muta is a bad person, I just know people change, and circumstances change
it is easier for public personalities to be at the center of everything
My grandpa got a severe case of alzheimers when I was 14 years old, and seeing your loved ones slowly forget who you are and who they themselves are is something I wouldn't want to wish on anyone. Every time there were charities to help combat dementia and the likes the moment I could I would donate, and of course being in the youtube ecosystem I was a big fan of what Jirard was doing. Hearing about this I feel betrayed and honestly sick to my stomach. I still hope he'll fix it in some way but my god I don't think I can ever trust anything he does ever again.
Almost more important than small vs big donations is regular vs one offs. Regular monthly or yearly donations allows charities or organisations to budget effectively. Seeing up a small, regular donation helps charities more than you might realise
That's a great point. A yearly contribution instead of a great lump sum would also have ensured the money didn't depreciate over time
as a tax accountant, this has a lot of potential to be a massive (even if accidental) fuck up that will be extremely costly for them.
at the same time, if they're being honest about the money still being there, they'll probably only be paying for audit representation and "be on their way".
as a financial accountant, i think you for your service in saving my sanity. I f'n hate tax accounting.. almost as bad as managerial accounting. let me just input and my data and generate reports for you all to use. also yeah if they haven't done anything shady they'll just get a spank. Their problem is really the claim of passing it through without passing it through. But that's more a state it's registered in thing than IRS thing. States can be way harder on charities than the IRS.
What about him openly admitting to dipping into to “a few thousand in funds”? Isn’t that fraud?
I think the problem is between the claims that they're funding something when they have failed to do so for almost a decade now. That and the "other" filing makes me curious...tbh, the 0 costs for staff/employees also makes me curious but maybe everyone works as a volunteer and doesn't take a salary. Not common (ha) but still plausible.
@@ard-net2999 happy to do it, friend. it "scratches the itch" 🤓
@@platypuspracticus2 it's not super uncommon for people to do this stuff without salaries. not that this is the same as a 501 c, but a lot of HOAs that I service are majority no-salary situations. Mostly stay at home spouses who do what they do just to occupy their time, ha
Damn, he completed everything except a proper transaction
Fraud attempt: Completed
completion rank: donated! donated? nah, skip it!
That money isn't only just sitting and doing nothing, it's even worse, it's sitting there and losing its value to inflation each year.
I know the money was worth so much more back then now it’s been destroyed by inflation by this shitty fake noble shit
What about the interest?
What money 😂
Even if that account gains interest, most bank accounts don't give enough interest to even start counteracting inflation
@@Latedozer true, that’s what T-bills are for. 😢
Jirad’s defence of ‘I didn’t know what was happening with the money and I knew nothing about it for 6 years’ is the most ridiculous thing in the world. He’s not Jeff Bezos, 600k sat in his bank account is something you would absolutely be aware of. He’s likely attempting to benefit from the interest or wait until the time is right to rug pull. The fact his own mother died of dementia and he used that as leverage to get money is just despicable.
It's not his bank account but one for the charity, he have no reason to access it unless he was suspicious.
I do agree it's werid he took so long to notice, but the bank account isn't a reason.
One of the defenses they gave essentially amounts to, "Oh, I'm a criminal? Then how come I haven't been arrested?"
He even regularly reimbursed himself from the charity, he says so himself at 30:16. How Muta and Karl didn't see that as a big red flag, I don't know why.
You're only a criminal when you've been legally convicted of a crime. Meaning he'd have to go to court and be judged to be a criminal. So the logic is technically correct.
We need a coffeezilla video lol.
Jirard is overthinking this to absolute ruin. If you spotted something amiss, then go public and make it clear you're working to make it right. Every clandestine move they've made to appear less suspicious is ironically making them look more and more complicit.
There isn't that many people involved. He lied and by 3rd year at least he would have known that he is lying.
Yeah seriously I was thinking that, on like day 2 of realizing you don't have a clear answer, make a public video and encourage people to reach out for offering help and pointers. Show progress to getting it done right, if not offering refunds by the second month.
He isn't overthinking anything. He was using the money as a rainy day fund for himself. If he actually had any disillusions about the SFMC or whatever then he wouldn't have named them specifically on his livestreams.
@@AutocraticalI do think he can't just have forgotten, but at least their nonprofit statements show he was not using the money for anything really
And there’s a reason why he hasn’t done that.
Guilty people generally hide away.
Jirard also stated on that live stream video that ''bits, subs and merch'' would go to the foundation. The money outlined only covers direct donations to Open Hand via a provided link, this does not cover supposed funds raised by the other means, those are unaccounted for.
Makes me wonder how much money they funneled off their mothers death. ugh.
Very, very good point.
@@novaangle2183that’s assuming she’s even dead in the first place
Jirard is the gulitiest sounding person I have ever heard on that call lol someone who actually had no idea would just say they were sorry and then immediately donate the money - Jirard instead claims that immediately donating the money would somehow further incriminate him... no Jirard, it's not donating it immediately that is incriminating. That and the lies.
Also how funny is it that when called out he unironically asks the investigators if they have any suggestions for good places to donate the money hahaha
ngl the whole asking for advice looks like an attempt to do a payoff. Like "if we make a small donate to your charity of choice maybe you'll treat us better in your piece or maybe not post it at all"
The places that they said they've been donating to for years sounds like a good starting point.
As someone who feels that "TH-cam drama" is often overblown for clicks, I've watched several videos from Jirard over the years, thought he was a respectable guy, but this is so bad from every angle. There is no excuse for this and if he was to get jail time I wouldn't be surprised. You can't just treat a charity like your personal piggy bank and I doubt he has legitimate receipts for all the money spent.
Funny because when I watched him on the FPS podcast, he was my least favorite podder in the group. I couldn’t figure it out but he had very bad takes on many subjects. Hearing he employed his family in this charitable organization is just so scummy.
I agree that certain dramas are overblown, but there are other dramas like this that fit the idea of “it’s not drama, it’s dangerous” (quote from Swoop, who is a TH-cam documentarian that covers certain dramas and true crime)
I fully expect him to see the inside of a courtroom about this. The admin expenses aren't huge... that's probably not "personal piggy bank". Still needs audited.
If the money were still there.
But... it *not* being there is the only reason they couldn't just do the right thing immediately. Yanno, like you would *actually* do if you found out a company you haphazardly ran owed money.
I think he, or others in his family, could avoid jail by proving they were able to donate the full amount listed on their latest tax filings. His reputation is shot for sure, but he may be able to dodge the worst of it. IF THE MONEY IS STILL AVAILABLE.
@@ewjimlHe's my least favorite on the FPS podcast as well, though that was well before this whole debacle.
He should have given the money his completionist rating of “Donate it”
"pocket it"
I've donated multiple times to this charity through The Completionist. I feel like I've just had my balls drop-kicked. EDIT - was not a lot of $$. I have learned my lesson (do more research before donating to charitable endeavors).
I'm sorry sorry man
It'll be okay.
ha ha
That's why you don't donate your money to e-celebs???
@@bigbillywillysgrandadventu7737i disagree with this sentiment as there are plenty content creators who very obviously do donate the money. Like Jack’s Thankmas or CDawgVA’s charity streams for the IDF
Remember, kids!: NEVER give a stranger on the internet any of your money!
Seeing Muta and Karl team up is like some TH-cam Avengers shit.
If Coffeezilla enters the same chat, it's Endgame time.
Now we need him with the bitcoin scam guy. I keep forgetting his name 😅
@@Khalmooncoffeezilla I think?
I like Mutah’s gaming content, but love when he puts on the detective hat
I hope complete ass doesn't call out muta in response. 😢
Jirard seems to be more concerned about his reputation than about making sure that money goes to where he said it would go.
because if he donates the money after this, he will lose all integrity built over the past decade.
Yeah, cuz his reputation isn't a big part of his lively hood or anything... Thanks mr. Obvious.
Everybody values their own reputation because who can trust you when you have none?
@@flandrble What are you talking about? How would donating the money ruin his integrity? Donating the money is the only thing he can do to preserve his integrity.
@@Dante... because it proves he's been complicit with inaction for the past 10 years. Heck, it's been over an additional year (since allegedly finding out even though he is the director) and he still hasn't found an organisation to donate it to? If he magically finds one within the next month, you know he's been in on the fraud the entire time.
If this fundraiser had any more red flags I would want to date it.
You can't fix this one.
It's gonna chew you up and spit you out
😂😭
My brother in Christ, no. 😂
@@autobotstarscream765fix it na bro that man wants it to break him
Man, between Boogie2988 and the Completionist - you really can't trust the TH-camrs that parade themselves like pinnacles of virtue.
Not really just by two people in my opinion
You can't trust anyone on a high horse. We're all human and we're all the same.
@@BB-848-VAC and we gotta just trust our gut and think about who we interact (if that makes sense) and all humans act different too in my opinion
Or anyone that does the same
@@BuenDude not technically anyone though ( my opinion)
This is sad. To hear words from Jirard himself makes it even more of a knife to the heart.
He had almost 10yrs to do anything productive.
He mentioned he was personally donating to places. If YOU found a place good enough to donate to, why couldn't your organization!?
He outright admitted to charity fraud while trying to downplay it by being "only a couple thousand" (imagine saying "I only did a lil bit of theft")
He had almost *10yrs*
There are different categories of thievery. A lil bit of theft gives less punishment than a lot of theft. It's not outright downplaying it's more like...yeah...I did something bad. Don't punishment too badly please.
@@bradleymoore2797when thousands of dollars were involved, it’s not a small thievery lmfao
Those 10 years would have been completely wasted. 2006 faked Alzheimer study.
@@bradleymoore2797 When it comes to charity fraud, I really don't care about the semantics and I'm not gonna debate with you on it. That's your input. Ok. It's not changing my stance. Fraud is fraud.
I helped run a 501c3 youth sports org for 15 years. We served 100-150 at risk kids every year on a budget that never once topped $30k. We spent almost every penny we saw, year in and year out. We would hold onto enough money to pay for our insurance and get the snack bar back up and running the following year. I would still be coaching but the Rona got us.
My wife was actually a whistleblower on a charity fraud case for a public access TV station she worked at. She was young and got a C-level position due to her education. Turns out, the board (all members of one family) were using the public money the org was granted by the city and state like it was their own change jar. Those people (3 of them) went bye bye for a while. The org was dissolved.
This is super suspicious and it won't surprise me if I hear, once this is all sorted out, that the org had less than $10k in the bank when you first contacted them.
Since it's homeboy's mom though... I am hoping he's just a dumbfuck.
God bless you brother, thank you for the effort, dedication and years of hard wrork.
Idk if him being a dumbfuck is any better in this scenario tbh. Knowing about it since last year and still not donating it is insane. Asking "what do you want me to do?" is insane.
When the part about not touching the donations came up, I assumed it was going to be nitpicking about the expenses of the charity, not "well yeah there were a couple times I dipped into this money that we're holding for charity." It's insane that he would do that and not know the amount of money in the account.
@@babayega1717 Well thanks. But honestly, it was a blast. Some of the best days of my life were out in the sunshine with a bunch of kids having fun.
don't let anyone to tell you to stop shining
Damn Jirard do be completing that jail time experience.
Wait till he made the maximum security achievement.
The completionist? More like The Complete-fraud!
"Soap On A Rope" achievement unlocked!
@@arrozconeverything Hehehe Don't Bend over.
Hope he has fun against the Booty Warrior raid boss.