The CGA Audits Jirard's Response
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 พ.ย. 2024
- This is my analysis of Jirard's, The Completionist, response to the recent backlash over the operations and potential fraud within the Open Hands Foundation, during which he was on the Board of Directors.
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Thanks for coming by everyone! Don’t forget to check out my follow up video where I point out EVEN MORE issues. I can't believe Muta threw me in his video! I'll do my best to make more videos on any funny business I find going forward with this story. This sort of drama is NOT what I intended for this channel, but I am of the people that feel betrayed by one of my favorite content creators. I've been formulating different ideas for my educational videos. Let me know in the comments if you'd prefer a video on "understanding your paycheck", "what is standard deduction vs itemizing deductions", or something else.
- The CGA
Can you please cover the part where the Open Hand Foundation did not check the "If the foundation is in a 60 month termination under section 507bib" for 5 years in a row while claiming to be under going the section507bib process?
Understanding your paycheck is a great idea I think!
That would require a good bit of research. In the grand scheme of things, I'm not entirely sure that's a "material" concern. I'll see if I can dig anything up, but that is not the hill to die on lol
@@TheCGA but what about the 5% rule that karl brought up in mutahar's video?
@@twizz2955 I'll admit that particular detail was new to me, but I think Jirard got that one right in his response. If I remember correctly, while operating as a public foundation, they don't have to.
My biggest takeaway from Jirard's response: if he was never called out on all of this, he'd still be running charity fundraisers name-dropping organizations that were not receiving money, and that is deeply disturbing to me, even moreso than the donations sitting idle.
And we know this because he says he found out about this in 2022 and then said the same script he always says at indieland 2023, as if nothing was wrong.
Just on the grounds that he was name dropping specific organizations that he has 'worked with' after he has self admitted to knowing about the money not moving he has committed representation fraud.
Jirard was not called out because the money was still in the account.
My guess is the money is frozen because it's being used as collateral for loans and assets.
The donations were not sitting idle. He was profiting off of it. He spent a lot of it. This $600k is just what his family scraped together in the last month to save face.
He has not one time, showed the bank account where the money was sitting and the transactions involved. He could have invested in crypto for all we know.
@@t.yop9But since we don't know, idle speculation is pointless and harmful.
Better to deal with facts.
I'm so glad an actual accountant gave his input on this situation.
now we need an actual criminal psychologist for the rest
We shouldn’t need one to prove someone is lying, the evidence should be able to stand on its own. But this is good to cut through the jargon
Omni previously worked at an account before becoming a fulltime youtuber.
@@logancontracier7125 What a freeking weird point of view. Do you really need to argue that badly? Or do you think your opinion is really valid to anyone else on the planet except you?
@@eriklarson9137 it’s just an opinion. Imo you’re doing the same thing by trying to dunk on me.
He talked about numbers for 2023 (which doesn’t matter) and an audit for 2014. Let’s see the books in between
Exactly!
A 10 year old audit is so irrelevant it’s deceptive AF. The SEC only considers 3 years of public audits as relevant… so what should this be relevant?
We never saw ANY bank statements from either year mentioned.
"please forgive me so I can save my reputation"
He seems more angry than sorry in the video.
how dare you check if i'm actually a good person 😤
Of course he's angry. People often get angry when caught or cornered in fear or being jailed or fined.
@@jonmayer oooopsies, I guess he should have been transparent with people's money from the start 🤔
@jonmayer Honestly, yeah, good point. As somebody who has both witnessed people put on the edge and experienced being thrown into a corner myself (over something I had nothing to do with), it's natural to get frustrated that you were forced into such a mess to begin with. It is not evidence of innocence, of course, but it is a good thing to remember whenever everything becomes crystal clear.
He sounds like a pouty child being forced to apologize to a gas station attendant for stealing some candy.
I am incredibly dumb when it comes to accounting, so I want to leave a comment to boost your video since it points out important information that a lot of people gloss over when looking at Jirard's response
Thank you! I appreciate that.
He invokes the memory of his deceased mother seven times in a blatant attempt to garner sympathy to make you think it is ok to lie for TEN YEARS about donating money to institutions working to find a cure for the disease that claimed her life. What an absolute scumbag.
He's been bringing up his dead mom for ages for his own benefit. I remember way back, when I used to watch Completionist videos (that are no longer on his channel, but that's another story) he brought up playing games with his mom as a reason for him being "The Completionist." This guy is shameless and it is finally catching up to him.
The fact that he even released his mom’s spine and brain stats/autopsy is wild. Like, okay, and this counters/proves what exactly? Lol.
@@HMcKormickIt's really the most callous part about this.
@@fedos Right!? No one has ever remotely questioned anything about his mother, let alone where her remains have gone. But that doesn't stop Jirard. He really is despicable.
I mean, you never know. Maybe his mothers dying wish was for him to use her name to cheat people out of money.
Let's keep it 100% here, guy had time to re-complete 100+ games, but didn't have time in 10 years to find a worthy charity or foundation to put funds into for the disease that basically killed his own mother. JFC, how about not complete just one game for a second time and instead find the right place to donate the money to. Apparently that sh!t only takes about 2-3 weeks.
He has a team of people who help him complete the games. Definitely had some time on his hands.
It's funny that he found several entities worthy to name drop them and assert that he was working with them, but they weren't worthy to actually receive a donation 🤔
You expect a scammer to donate the money when nobody knows about the scam? 🤣
I love how Jirard specifically says that there was no "Criminal" or "Financial" fraud when the claims being made against him are that he has committed CHARITY fraud, which I believe is it's own distinct category.
Mainly because it would fall under the IRS. As if they got involved they would be after Tax fraud charges aswell if they found wrong doing.
It's clearly a letter written by his lawyers to try and flip the story. It won't work.
In essence his defense is😊 "what I've done is not illegal actually!"
Yeah the biggest question is about the morality of his actions not the legality. He’s legally allowed to withhold funds but he shouldn’t.
@@ganymedehedgehog371 The withholding of funds isn't (entirely) the issue, it's the fact that he lied about giving the money when he was actually withholding it. Calling his foundation the main funding partner of one of these charities, when he was not funding them at all and knowing that he wasn't. That's the charity fraud part, and the part that is legally dubious.
Morally it's bad that he withheld the money, but legally it's bad that he lied about donating it for 10 years, for his personal benefit (personal benefit doesn't require said benefit to be monetary, such as propping up his reputation).
So glad to see a fellow accountant running through this. The idea that no-one was picking up on him putting net revenue in as if it was gross revenue was driving me insane.
You know why you don't see any CPAs publicly defending his actions? They want to remain CPAs.. us accountants are under one of the most draconian Ethics Laws ever.. hell I'm surprised SOX don't contain "The Rack" as a penalty. Any accountant looking at any of this is saying "thank god I wasn't doing the tax returns and have nothing to do with this". Minimum charity fraud for misleading donors about money going out when it was not. But it looks worse than that. Also, it's a charity, he should put up Balance Sheet and Income Statements for all years at a minimum. Legit charities put out annual reports with audited full financials yearly.
I am not an accountant, and it was driving me up the wall too.
@@MisterJackTheAttack exactly the same here, it's wild that basic financial competency is so sparse in general knowledge
@@gingersonnyboy Karl has a new video that sheds some light on this question. Since Open Hand doesn't run Indieland, any money donated to Indieland is first sent to Jirard's company (The One Video Entertainment) which then makes a single donation to Open Hand. That is how I understand it, and I could be wrong, but that is why the net proceeds rather than the gross proceeds show up. That is still super shady, and means Jirard is lying when he says he or his company never touch any of the money.
The expenses thing rubbed me the wrong way too. You don't have to be an accountant to know it makes no sense to deduct expenses BEFORE calculating the revenue. That defeats the entire point of reporting expenses
Na, you just add your expenses BACK in! Its all part of CAAP......
Completionists Accepted Accounting Principles....
Unless those expenses are skimming from the interest of the primary account? I see what the game is, I just don't know enough about accounting to see how they did it.
They also never once disclose that they use donated money for expenses relating to the charity. They said ALL the money goes to charity not "Most of the money goes to charity we use some for expenses" That's pretty open and shut charity fraud in my not a lawyer opinion. My assumption was ALWAYS that all the donated money went to charity and the cost of indiland and everything else came out of Jirard's pockets
@@whitepaws60 Yeah, it’s a absolutely a misrepresentation.
@Raijian9 Using part of the donations to cover expenses is legal UNLESS one claims that none of the donations would be used for that purpose.
Thus Jirard broke the law. No amount of obsfucation takes away from that fact.
The sad thing about this response is it's clear a lot of people have fallen for it. Whether they were just waiting for a good opportunity to be defensive, or whether the semantics (which were quite well crafted) worked we can't say, but ultimately this video is quite deceptive in what it provides and how it frames those answers. Yet the mainstream response appears to be forgiveness, and hostility towards Jobst for bringing this to light.
The like/dislike ratio (18900 / 26400) on Jirard's response tells another story, but not everyone has an extension for that.
WTF are you talking about lol. His own video is nothing but bad comments towards him
@@SM-nz9ff I was talking about comments I saw on sites off TH-cam. But the comments being hostile is a good sign.
Meanwhile, religion has been banking on empty promises and false hope since human communication. It's the same game, just different players.
@@LetsChat you can validate that with epistemology then?
He is sorry you FELT mislead. Not that he actually lied for years.
And as for Jirard, the only thing he's sorry about is getting caught.
To be fair, I doubt his lawyers would let him affirmatively admit to lying and commiting charity fraud in a TH-cam video. Definitely doesn't help his case tho
@@danielwest6095he can try to mince words as much as he wants but he already admitted during the call that he knew at the very least since 2021 that no money had ever been donated yet he kept lying to everyone during the fundraisers.
he said "to those who felt mislead, im sorry" why does everyone choose to misunderstand that
@@Sweetrad because that's manipulative language that places the blame on the people who donated instead of saying "I'm sorry I misled you" which is what he did. The tactic clearly worked on you.
glad to see other people picked up on the same issues i did. i'm not an accountant but even i was more confused then convinced by his "transparent" response. it literally didn't adress any of the major issues, and made contradicting statements, and also messed with wording and numbers that didn't seem right even to my non accountant eyes.
thought i was going crazy when i saw all the support when his own video did the opposite for me, cause it avoided all the issues and made some of them worse for me. only thing it really cleared up was the signature on the documents, with it being e-signed, but the videos had mentioned that as a possibility and that they weren't totally sure, so it was already a possibility, this just confirmed what they suspected, so even this "clarification" was just dotting an "i" we already thought should be dotted.
The esigning thing was dumb and so besides the point. All it did was make Muta and Karl look petty and give Jirard a PR win.
anyone who wants to believe him can easily watch that video and convince themselves he's somehow in the right. humans are just so so good at being biased, even when just sitting and listening
Great video. The defenders are so much like mindless drones to defend him.
Cult of personality
Oh and BTW Karl said on Twitter he's ready to go to defend himself in court over this, and a new video about it is coming next weekend.
I saw that post earlier today. I'm looking forward to follow-up. I hope one of them see my video and reach out. I'd love to help them iron out any details from whatever other discrepancies they find.
@@TheCGASomeOrdinaryGamers featured you on his response
Video is out now! Karl went out hard this time.
@@CainXVII yeh I saw. It was brutal.
Seeing an actual professional looking at this is what I’ve wanted. Thank you.
Very good video. Speaking as a lawyer, I doubt he files any defamation lawsuits against Karl or Muta because he runs the risk of anti-SLAPP litigation in return. Filing defamation lawsuits in response to allegations that he didn't donate the money (true) sure sounds like the litigation is designed to silence First Amendment speech to me.
Since neither Karl, nor Muta live in the United States does that make any difference? Karl is Australian and I believe Muta is from the UK (but thats just something I read, i havent confirmed.) Can he sue them in American courts, or does he have to file suit in their home countries? Just curious haven't heard much about this side of it
@@MrCodyminner Muta is Canadian and has similar but weaker free speech protections as US citizens. Karl, on the other hand, is much more open to slander/libel lawsuits in Australia, though his case seems plenty strong even for their courts.
International lawsuits have complicated jurisdiction and protection shenanigans. The US, for example, extends free speech protections for its citizens when it comes to international lawsuits. It still may be possible to sue them in their home countries if the OHF is willing to jump through hoops, retain lawyers familiar with those courts, etc, but any potential lawsuit would most likely be filed in a US circuit with a bias in favor of slander litigants unless international suits are restricted to specific courts/circuits.
Grain of salt on the second paragraph; It's obviously a complex subject and I only have some circumstantial knowledge. My main point is that it's going to be an expensive nightmare to follow through on the threat, at best.
@Gehrich_ yea I think keem said that the door to a international lawsuit is at least 50k to start in the past. Nevermind the long battle if your opponent fights you on jurisdiction you can easily get into the 100s of thousands of dollars.
@@lucasfragoso7634 Karl seems at least experienced when it comes to legally defending himself, he already has to deal with fending off law suits from Billy Mitchel. Meaning whatever accusations he makes to the Completionist, he should be wise enough to how to frame them.
My biggest hang up with his story is his explanation on the original call with Karl and Muta, “I found out in 2022 and I was like, that’s not f’n cool” to now being “we were waiting on the best place to donate”.
My new issue is a man who posts a methodically outlined video with very specific language while trying to convince us he had no idea what was going on with the donations for a charity he founded and runs.
bet it was a mix of the two. he has to say it that way for legal reasons if i understand right.
@6:45 "Doesn't matter" Bingo.
@9:00 Also spot on. He's spouting a confession.
@16:00 Appeal to Authority fallacy, propping himself up as the authority.
@37:00 right again, been right the whole video, but you certainly don't use Gross and Net interchangably, ever, especially on statements of financial condition or the like.
@38:50 yup, when you get the money, that's when you report it.
@49:30 good catch on that whoopsie
@53:20 "The math didn't math" Fucking right.
Wonderful video. So much fluffing from Jirard.
The level of attentiveness & engagement demonstrated by this comment is admirable in my eyes. Very nice.
After watching the video. Im 100% sure now the IRS has zero clue to all this. That his silence was waiting for them to come knocking. That his lawyers were maybe asking around to see if an investigation was going to open up into them. Tells you a lot about what is going on and his character.
I think the only thing Jirard could have to done to save himself (even if it's a lie) was to tell Karl and Muta that he had no idea what they were talking about and that he's going to look into it. Then he could get back to them like 3 days later and tell everybody that there was miscommunication between him and his father, because the father took care of the payment stuff. Then he could donate the money in a matter of days and he could give up his position. That would be somewhat believable.
Yeah at the very least he would be seen as incompetent but otherwise get out of it as a minor controversy
Absolutely. He could have handled this much better. Present himself as they face man of the charity who did not have an understanding of the actual distribution of funds. Then pay up and go quiet for a few months.
Thank you Karl and Mutahar for donating $600k for dementia research, you absolute legends!
Now, Jirfraud, please donate the remaining $55k, the funds raised in 2023, the subs, bits merch, golf tourney money, charity grants etc to dementia research too, thank you
The guy thought won't look at the files he provided... his "audit opinion" is for filings in 2014... the charity didn't get register until 2014. The auditors couldn't look at previous years since the "charity' wasn't registered until 2014. Nor did they audit filings for 2015-2022. The guy is slimy as hell thinking no one would notice the Audit date and information.
you said it right, right off the bat. It took so long to respond because it had to be spun massively.
Good on you for calling out all the irrelevant manipulative parts.
Dude was trying to guilt trip, play the victim, gaslight, downplay the situation and act like the good guy in such a short time.
Then there was the corporate bullspeak. Trying to come across as if he knows what he's talking about and how it's over all our heads. It's just the same bullshit we hear day in, day out from politicians and CEOs attempting to damage control.
Question: if they changed from a private foundation to a public charity, and the 60 month period ended in 2020, why did they still continue to file under a 990-PF instead of a 990 or 990-ez?
That's almost impossible to answer without more info. Presumably, they'd either get approved or denied after the 60-month time frame. No mention was made one way or the other from what I can find.
@@TheCGA what effect could that have on the "5% rule"?
It seems like they may have either unsuccessfully transitioned to public, or continued using the now incorrect form. Is using the incorrect form to file simply a "clerical error" as Jirard puts it?
@@nhooj8882 it’s entirely possible. That doesn’t make it less of a problem, but I don’t think there was any attempt in bamboozling with this particular point.
At what point does a clerical error reaches into criminal?
@@bigboybastard7162 that is a question for a tax attorney, which I am not.
You got a shoutout on SomeOrdinaryGamers channel! You deserve it, this was a great breakdown
Great video. I am also an accountant (not tax side, though I do my family's). I was the only person in my friend circle who didn't fall for this video. The part where he mentioned cost netting into reported revenue was so huge of a red flag.
The reason he brings up his mother and her body wasn't just for tear jerking, but because it is the ONE donation they have made during the entire charity. So technically because they donated her body they have "worked with such and such" charities, and that they have made donations. That is the reason a lawyer suggested buttttttt the charity didn't exist at the time of her death, but they want to claim it as a donation the charity made or give it as a fake donation for his fans to use as a valid donation.
Yeah. He basically used his mothers corpse as a shield for accusations made against him.
....
Personally him using his mothers autopsy as "evidence" or "proof" is almost the most despicable part of this whole scheme of his.
I’m honestly not entirely sure the point of that being in his video.
@TheCGA the whole thing seemed like jingling keys mixed with gaslighting and piss poor attempts at fake sympathy. He contradicts himself several times aswell as the immediate un restricted donation after being exposed but somehow they had all the money solely for a "restricted" large good doing donation.
@@briandstephmoore4910 I think he poorly explained that money given to OHF was unrestricted and they wanted to make a restricted donation to an actual charity org. I understand what he tried to say, and it’s fine, but he didn’t have the best wording for it.
Thanks for putting effort into this - Im sure a lot of people will get value from this.
I hope so, but I'm realizing after the fact that the video got too long. Avg watch time is less than 20 min.
@@TheCGAThat’s their loss. I’m glad you took your time in appropriately analysing Jirard’s response: in real time.
@@xxx_shanklinarcade_xxx9984 I concur - watched it all and it was all very relevant.
@@TheCGA I listened while I was working. It was well put together and clear. Thanks for making it understandable for those that aren't so familiar with these things. There was a feeling of "off" listening to his explanation, but I didn't have the specific info necessary.
@@TheCGA So good it was added to Mutas video :D - well done
It's a good video. I kind of knew that Jirard being on the board of directors meant he'd have to attend annual general meetings, though I wasn't sure if that applied to charities.
The net revenue underreporting is new to me.
Jirard in stream: "All subscriptions and bits go to charity, we don't touch any of it"
Jirard in response video: "bits and subs were used for production cost"
Which is it then?
I didn't know about charities being required by law to do annual meetings, that really hammers it down how stupid it sounds to be like "I didn't know guys". By letting it sit for 9 years the buying power of their money decreased so much. They basically did 1 indieland charity stream for nothing by waiting so long. Really sad. Great video!
Minimum 1 per year
Didn't California also have the "5% rule" for charities too? That they are forced to donate a minimum 5% of donations raised to where they say they will donate it?
@@LudwigVaanArthans yeah, but certain qualified expenses can count towards that amount. However due to the non-existent expense itemization, we have no idea if any of the expenses claimed were qualified.
Its good for my head and heart when a professional speaks things clearly, and clarifies the misbehavior. I love Karl but he can be a bit charged sometimes, thank you kindly for sharing your time and expertise in these matters for us.
Edit: it is amazing to me how much my basic accounting 101 class I rememebred in this video . I feel quite proud of myself and i have you to thank I wish you a great day.
Very good video. I was hoping exactly for something like this! I shared it on the megathread on the Completionist's Reddit page, as multiple people have mentioned wanting an accountant's pov, but unfortunately, couldn't do much else. The mods have forbidden talk of the charity there.
Yeh I went to post it myself on there, but I saw one of the mods say he's taking everything down.
@@TheCGA Yeah, he's taking everything down because he's friends with Jirard and calls him the cornerstone of his life. It's so unhealthy.
@@mage1439 isn’t that just Reddit in general though? 😂
I just find it crazy that a company that made so many "clerical errors" would be so willing and open to submit to an audit. I am sure an audit should be forthcoming and can only imagine what will be found. During the first reports I thought it was crazy that a charity would have less filled in then I do on my yearly tax filing where I just take the standard deduction.
At this point I just hope he's just surrendering but throwing his PR and legal firms under the bus to save face.
Once got in an audit and owner basically went "alright you got me, what I owe you and what we must do to become compliant?"
him droning on about how important the cause is to him and how often ive heard "in honor of my mother" made my blood boil tbh.
his actions tell a different story. seems like it was way more important to meet people and get his head padded for what a "great guy" he is..
I swear this common trope happens way too often.
In fact, I think everyone follows just a singular book (or unwritten rule) of how to garner sympathy from those who don't truly understand what happened.
They bring up unimportant information that is not related to the topic they were being accused for, attempt to stick to that one topic for so long that the audience's reasonable way of thinking degrades from it being hammered in so much, and they carefully evade any sort of actual valid argument that they cannot reasonably defend against (if they were truly in the right) without them slipping up and making themselves look even more like a fool.
It happened with Billy Mitchell, it happened with the Co-Founder of Heritage Auctions, and the same is happening with Jirard of TOVG. It feels like the same old stories, but with different contexts.
Him bringing up his mother's autopsy is him literally using his dead mother to hide possibly criminal behavior. If he really did do something, then he's pretty darn evil.
Don’t forget to check out the follow up
This needs more views
Indeed
Jirard fumbled his response from the very beginning. Getting on call with Karl and Muta so he can contradict himself with his charity streams was a boneheaded move.
Never thought I'd hear a CPA actually say "the math doesn't math". I enjoyed that
Full disclosure: I do not yet have my CPA. I am a Tax Accountant at a rather large CPA firm. I just haven't pulled the trigger to take the tests yet.
Thank you for this video. I hope influential individuals see your breakdown so more discourse can be had.
"Jirard, what is your response to these allegations."
Jirard: First of all, my mother is dead!!
Honestly, what an excellent ADULT way of tackling this issue. I'm glad they saw your video as I happened to come across it yesterday. Thank you for providing a very objective take on this situation.
To me, the fact that he kept saying how important this charity is to him because of his mother just makes it even worse that if we are to believe what he said- he didnt bother checking the money was being donated until 2022.
Great video, but I recommend you watch it at 1.5x speed
Yeh...that fair lol
Ya doing my part to get this video pushed in the algo good video
Saw your video from mutahar my guy! Glad a fellow accountant making content keep it up
so glad to have a professional input, I thought his wording was strangely specific but didn't know why so I'm glad you broke this down. It's easy for me to pick up the emotional manipulation but this tax stuff is beyond me.
As CEO of accountants, I want to confirm that this video is awesome and y’all need to smash the subscribe button. 🤙
I think this is actually a better analysis to Jirard's response than Karl and Muta's. Much more in depth, objective, and able to simplify complex topics in a digestible and entertaining way. Excellent work!
Lol the cut at the end. His team looked at how hot headed he got, and needed to end on a "positive note".
"my 20 friends who subscribe, I hope they see this" - sir, you've earned yourself so many more subscribers than that, and I'm so excited to see it. I love seeing people talk about the things that they're passionate about and can share the details in a way that the rest of us can understand. I am not a numbers person in the slightest, nor have I ever really followed The Completionist until this saga. Karl and Muta have made incredibly informative and clear videos, but your video helps me understand exactly how far off the rails Jirard's claims about the money have gone. Many kudos and all of the good vibes for continued, well-deserved success to you!
Heads up, you're about to get some views on this.
Hoping people that watch it stay for the whole thing. I know I turned a 20min video into an hour, but it was necessary.
@@TheCGA you can recommend people to watch it in 1.5 or 1.75 speed
@@TheCGA If the content is good you'll find an audience and I thought this was a good breakdown. Nice work.
Glad to see an accountant explain why he is wrong and explain about filing as a business .
Thank you! Make sure to go check out the follow up too.
56:37- Jirard: "I own up to my part in this."
Me: "But you didn't."
56:40- TheCGA: "But you didn't!"
Me: "Thanks, I'm glad we agree."
Really makes you wonder about the Greg situation years ago. If he’s gaslighting us imagine what he did to Greg.
45:17 This was honestly one of the things that annoyed me personally the most about his video and gave me insight into his mindset. He clearly gets angered and agitated here and stresses once again that the organization is a public foundation, he's acting like his 'acusers' are morons for not knowing this and he is irritated with them that he has to say it once again. But he filed his returns wrong, he literally talked about the clerical errors made, the box was checked saying they were a private foundation. So how is anyone suppose to know they are a public foundation if they themselves in their public returns state they are a private foundation?
It was their mistake in their filings, and yet instead of taking accountability for that mistakes he is instead getting mad at the people who pointed it out and blaming them for their ignorance even though it is the Open Hand Foundation's fault entirely. Blaming others for your own mistakes and getting emotionally agitated when that is pointed out is not the response or action of a sound mind, a calm person, or a good guy. This is the kind of reaction a narcassist or someone obsessed with their own image would have.
It doesn't prove anything on its own, but its a huge red flag to me about his personality and trustworthiness.
their 2019 filing the box "section 501(c)(3) exempt private foundation" was checked, my source is the timestamp 20:36 on SomeOrdinaryGamer's original video on the subject "The Completionist’s Charity Scam Has To Be Investigated..."
After the audio leaks this break down is even funnier. Good job sir!
Great video, nice to have an accountant break this down. Just got to the end the "Oh, an audit is definitely coming. You better have those bank statements ready," made me lol
I implemented and fixed accounting software for decades. People severely underrated the intelligence, organization, skills, and creativity of accountants. My hat is off to you sir.
Edit: I forgot humor. I put a piece of charcoal in one of my accountant friend’s Christmas stocking. She hunted me down and busted me with minutes. I have gotten a picture of the stocking with the coal every year for fifteen years so far.
I found it so weird when he brought up the golf tournaments, he's like "I was not involved in any way" After being a fan of him for a few years now, I'm not surprised at all how he's handling this.
I stopped following him when I realized he's a bit of a self-important ass
Jirard is basically saying "I'm really attached to this cause and you should feel sorry for be because of my mom. I mean, I wasn't attached enough to check that the money was actually being donated for 7-8 years, or to see what kind of positive effect we were having. I also didn't end up donating the money after that for a year or two, until it became a PR nightmare for me, but you should focus on the fact that my mom died."
As much as I'm sure it sucks losing your mom, especially to an illness like this, that's not an excuse to scam people. You would also think it would make him want to really help people going through that. And dragging the reputation of the charity (which was founded in honor of your mom) through the mud is really not the best way to honor her, and it doesn't make me feel worse for him.
I work in the realm of non-profits around finance, operations and research - I was so excited when my partner brought this up. Finally TH-cam drama within my niche knowledge base where I was able to point out 'wtf, what is he saying moments' throughout an 'apology' video. Thank you so much for the breakdown from your perspective, this has been a wild fun roller coaster. The one sad thing in this is that the $ that was donated is such a large amount that it's likely going to mess up their forecasting for awhile; most gifts of that size are tied to multi-year contribution contracts or grant agreements.
Oh and if anyone is wondering, you can ask for a gift of almost any size to be (temp) restricted.
Check out the follow up where I point out more inconsistencies with his statements and take a deeper dive into the filings.
At first I was awestruck that Jirard could make a veiled admission of guilt, pretend to be innocent, then play the victim. Now after rewatching his farce of a "response" numerous times I've come to realize how compelling it would be to anyone who missed the original videos.
He likely never intended to address the situation in any meaningful or honest way. He instead opted to propagandize the majority of his audience who haven't followed this saga in totality. He seemed to go as far out of his way as he could to:
-Downplay the severity of his actions while feigning remorse
-Solicit emotional responses by using his mother's tragedy
-Trump up the allegations via dirty edits and speaking for Karl and Muta
-Set up and demolish intentional and blatant strawmen as a show
-Paint Karl and Muta's reports as incompetent and malicious despite them being overwhelmingly competent and justified
-Provide only one relevant (and damning) document in a sea of "receipts" that only exist to provide the illusion of transparency
-Play the victim of the results of his own actions
-Attempt to silence his critics via threats with no merit
He's not that incompetent, rather he's likely attempting to retain and insulate subs through deceit. He had to jump headfirst into the bus to do it, though he was halfway there to begin with.
In short, "Screw reality! Screw the law! Screw you! I gotta secure the bag!"
I made a follow up deep dive into the tax filings if you’d wanna check that one out too. It’s not as long as this one.
GOOD COMMENTARY.
An excellent analysis, makes this a lot clearer especially for a foreigner not completely understanding all the differences in taxation.
Speaking of the international differences, the most shocking thing to me was Jirard posting the autopsy reports. To me that sounds an utterly insane violation of privacy towards someone they claim to love so much every chance they get. Over here, I didn't even get to see the reports of my mother because they are considered part of the patient confidentiality that doesn't stop when a person passes away. Just posting that to the Internet to 'own the trolls' is just... flabbergasting. Insane. Sickening even.
Thank you for your expertise, Ethereal Ghost Accountant haunting Jirards video.
I am on the board of a smaller non-profit and yes, we get a report on how we are meeting our budget goals and what the money is spent on at every meeting. And mailed to us before every meeting so we can read it in advance. If he didn't know, either someone should be fired or he has not been doing his job.
I never thought that I'd be interested in an 1 hour in-depth analysis of accounting. I greatly enjoyed the video as I don't know how it works in the US wih charities and your analysis seemed honest, down to earth and focused on information.
I also think if you'd cut together the best parts into a 1-2 minute video, (2023 is not over yet, the misreported number does not include expenses ...etc.) getting the point across very quickly, it would be way more easy to share / get into the long thing, as I didn't know at the beginning what I'd be up for and an hour video is long and recommending a shorter video to friends who ar enot that deeply interested in the whole thing would be way easier than a 1 hour mammoth stream :)
Yes I'm going to make an effort in my future videos to edit down to much shorter format. Thanks for the input.
@@TheCGA Maybe just taking small segments and making them into shorts could work. I enjoy the longform personally. (And would also enjoy the shorts)
Bit late to all this but great that someone with the background can explain all this. Great job
someordinarygamers shouted u out so i checked this vid out amazing video keep it up
Awesome thank you!
i love how important this foundation in his mother's name is, for which he's been taking donations for YEARS.
no longer part of the charity AT ALL.
disassociates indieland from ALL charity completely.
he's basically pleading ignorance or innocence, and then running like hell and severing all ties to avoid any culpability.
really honoring mom there.
You know, this is overall a really shitty situation, but if theres anything good coming out of this I'm incredibly glad you're gaining subs and interest! We really gotta have informed individuals in the content creator space, great examples imo including Coffeezilla, LegalEagle, and ofc Karl Jobst and SomeOrdinaryGamers, and im incredibly glad I can add ya to the list!
In short, "Methinks the lady doth protest too much." He certainly isn't assuaging me from thinking this whole thing is fishy.
Really helpful video! I'm curious about your thoughts on his statements in Mutahar's original video, about 30 minutes in during a clip from the call, when Jirard talks about reimbursing himself for indieland expenses from Open Hand. He even says something to the effect of "you're not really supposed to do that," but it's hard to parse not knowing the rules around it.
I'll have to go back and pay particular attention to that part. I must have missed it.
@@TheCGA replying just to see if you ever got the chance to look into it? I'm very curious as to others thoughts on it
@@MrCodyminner go watch my follow up. I talk about how that could happen. It’s also the pinned comment, at least when it comes to merchandise.
I’m here from Muta’s video! This is such a good video! Great work, I subbed.
Really great breakdown. I picked up on the same issues especially the muddying of facts by bringing up completely irrelevant information. Also throwing out numbers without any detailed breakdown or receipts.
The reason why he brings up donating his mom's brain is to justify the times he asserts his foundation has ''donated'' or worked with various foundations. Notice how he emphasizes that taking part in research studies and donating his mom are considered an important contribution by his foundation.
That is not the face of a man who is sorry he was called out. That's the angry face of a man who realized he just lost his retirement fund.
I do not think any attorney was involved in this script. He admits to stuff here that a lawyer would never want.
Give Jirard a break, it would have taken at least 10 years for him to find an attorney who meets his standards
What a platform fusion accounting and gaming. Love your logical thinking process, this is what's missing on TH-cam. Hope you get that bid to help other big TH-camrs with all these rich people scamming society. Great content 💯
Thanks! You should check out the follow up I did. Then you’ll really be mad.
This situation is such a bummer. I watched my grandpa and uncle suffer through Alzheimer's.
So mixing games - and Indie Games - with a cause that hit close to home really rolled me into the hype. I also love the satisfaction of a game competed.
I have arthritis so I don't get to enjoy games as long as I used to, and it was nice to see some of my favorite games "completed" like God of War Ragnorok.
All this to say, I had every reason to just stay a huge fanboy. I probably would have taken any lie he told me, if it just made sense. But Karl's got a strong reputation. And seeing him just lay out numbers. Well. Open Hands had an uphill battle. And his response fell *flat.*
It was nice seeing someone not related to Muta/Karl who just cut through the fat. Someone with no reason other than "hey, I have specific knowledge in this area" categorize the lies from the manipulation.
Thanks.
It doesn't make this any less of a bummer, but it makes me feel better about stepping away from his content.
And this whole situation made me realize that my money is much better served donating directly to a program than a middle man charity.
Glad you uploaded this, i was very confused the way the Completionist explained it
it’s amazing how many “celebrities” run big money charities and organisations who really have no idea how to run one.
Thanks, for the breakdown. I hope your channel will grow, because we need more experts to weight in such discussion.
Thanks for doing this! I have a lot of accountants in my family, but we're Canadian so I doubt the laws are totally the same. I couldn't ask them.
This was very informative. Thank you. I look forward to the content you will be making.
Thanks for your breakdown based on your accounting expertise. Your sighs when hearing Jirard's misleading statements say it all.
finally someone qualified to speak on the matter, pretty good video.
What gets me about him waiting until 2 weeks after the video came out is that they spoke to him over a conference call. He knew this was coming. He could have at least donated the money between the call and the video's release.
This is the video that was needed on this topic. An unbiased look at the evidence from someone who knows how all of the finances are supposed to work. Thank you for this breakdown and I hope more people see it so they can come to the right conclusion.
You should watch the follow up
Hehehehehe. Making good use of the face cam. Just head shaking, quietly allowing Jirard to finish his statement before pausing with a "No."
Great delivery.
A really good video. It was really cathartic to watch you react to this video since I had a similar reaction albeit without the expertise. The whole "feel" bad for me schtick really ticked me off and the whole thing really said nothing about the claim put before them. Also, the whole tone and presentation felt off, and your commentary about the accounting side of the content was really enlightening.
I highly suspect his brother, Jacques, wrote this script, there's a lot of phrases that aren't in Jirard's normal lexicon, but were in his brother's email response to Karl.
Quite possible
Very informative. I appreciate the breakdown.
I still want to see receipts proving the $600K that WAS donated came directly from untouched charity funds. Would love any input or proof on this that the Khalil family didn't simply wire funds from personal/other accounts to cover the recent donation. Luckily this is something the IRS will be able to track if/when they get audited.
Yeh we’d have to see the foundation’s bank statements for the last few months to verify.