Jirard Khalil "The Completionist" has seemingly been committing fraud by pocketing charity donations

Yet another video and it sounds even more damning for Jirard. Said in his apology/response that some of the money donated went towards Indieland costs, meanwhile there's been dozens of times said on stream that all the money donated would go directly to charity. Donated 600k when there was at least 650k raised last year. Nobody in the Open Hand Foundation knew anything about restricted donation plans. There's also Jirard admitted in the phone call that the only reason he was looking into donating *now* was cause he was afraid of all this going public and him losing face.

I'll be honest, while I still say that the initial videos were a useful service this has now simply entered the standard Youtube video cycle and It's going to be hard for me to care about My Response to his Response to My Response that these inevitably all go to.

I think if there are additional concerns it's time for the youtubers to wash their hands of it and pass it on to proper authorities.

@kainhighwind09: I think Jirard was sloppy in what he said, but I think a lot of the "we're not taking any of this money" stuff was intended to mean "this is not a revenue split, everything is going to the event and charity" and not "we're paying for this whole event out of pocket." At times he said things that definitely sounded like the latter but, again, I think a lot of what he said was sloppy and grandiose rather than intended to mislead. That doesn't really absolve him, but I think people are painting him as this sinister operator in a way that I haven't seen strong evidence for.

@efesell: I mean Jobst is now putting ads up front on his videos so he has definitely turned his into drama. Part of his business model is cultivating feuds (like with Billy Mitchell) so I don't see this dying down unless Jirard goes radio silent on it, like he said he would, and refuses to engage. Even then if there are legal proceedings those will be covered.

This is Jobst's schtick. That's part of why they're being so aggressive towards Jirard. I'm not defending what he did or his response, really, but they're acting like he had some evil plan and all we've seen evidence of so far is they stockpiled money and failed to donate it, and Jirard lied. There's no real benefit that we've seen accrued to him so far, which is why I'm more inclined to see this as incompetence and grandiosity than malice so far.

@efesell: I agree. I'm not watching any sort of response to the response (especially not when it has such hyperbolic language right on the thumbnail). This has now moved completely into "YouTube Drama" territory that I don't want any part of.

I watched the video, just to see what the response would be. However, I'm at a point where if anything more comes of this, we will hear it in a legal way. If Jirard, for example, gets arrested, then we'll know the situation is a lot deeper and even more serious.

@bigsocrates: I don't relate it to his feud with Billy Mitchell mostly because that takes place specifically within the speedrunning community of which he has been a part of for decades, he has been covering speedrunning cheaters for a long time as a way to discourage cheating in a thing he loves, it's only natural he'd cover Billy Mitchell and the legal battle was instigated by Billy who maintains his innocence.

I also don't see a problem with the sponsor segments, Youtube is his job, yes it would help his video appear more altruistic if he didn't do it but he does have bills to pay, especially now that he has potentially two lawsuits to fight, regardless of whether you think he's right or wrong lawsuits are ridiculously expensive for every party involved.

I don't defend the language used though, if he really believes in this fight and the "facts" then they should speak for themselves, inflammatory comments are unnecessary, though... it's not like Jirard's video was free of aggression either.

I don't think there's any evidence that we've seen which proves any embezzlement of charity money though i think the golf tournament money is still unaccounted for, i think it's just lazy and slow handling of donations which i don't think is a crime, i'm not a lawyer, but i don't think Karl has much else to fight this with besides partnerships with charity organisations that weren't receiving any money, which probably also isn't a crime.

And now it looks like he's being removed from Sea of Stars. This seems unnecessary. The devs should do whatever they want and maybe they just don't want the negative attention, but it feels like he's being treated like a rapist or a cannibal instead of just a guy who screwed up big time. And maybe he is something worse, maybe he's a thief, I don't know.

It's not that I am really against this change it's more that I feel like it is part of a bit of a mob mentality, or at least a reaction to that mentality.

@cikame: The feud with Billy Mitchell, however it started, is a big traffic driver for Jobst and he has to know that. The Completionist videos are doing well too and, crucially, reaching a different audience than he normally does. The fact that he's including ads isn't morally wrong per se but it does show that he sees this as part of his business and is incentivized to continue working the story as long as it's producing dividends. That's not to say he's making stuff up but he's clearly being inflamatory for views and stirring up drama can be profitable.

I am a lawyer but not a California lawyer and I don't know if a crime has been committed here either. Probably there has been one, given fiduciary rules around handling money and California's strict charity laws. Whether that crime will be prosecuted and what the result will be is much iffier. I do not think that given the current facts jail time is likely, but if the authorities get bothered enough they may try to levy a fine or at least do a further investigation. If money is shown to have actually been stolen then the stakes change.

@bigsocrates: It's called the court of public opinion. And lately, it's become very powerful in cancelling people. The thing is, even if he ultimately didn't try to steal the money and was just incompetent, lying to people for over ten years about people's donations going to the right place is very serious. People hate being lied to more than anything, especially these days. It's like the saying goes: It's not the crime, but the cover-up that gets you in the end.

@av_gamer: There is, indeed, a lot of serious wrongdoing here and Jirard has not taken full accountability for his dishonesty. I do think that his statement was vetted by a lawyer and that lawyer almost certainly advised him not to directly apologize or admit any guilt, so I understand that part. I just think that the stuff he's confirmed to have done is not SO bad that I would remove him from a game or whatever over it.

I just feel like yes he screwed up badly but he's being treated by some as if he's some kind of monster instead of someone who messed up in a somewhat relatable way (he was lazy, irresponsible, and grandiose but not malicious...at least from what we know so far.)

This is not so much about Sabotage doing whatever they want to do because I understand them thinking "hey we've got a game we want to sell here, let's not get any more of this stink on us" as the reaction in some quarters and people like Jobst treating him like he's some kind of monster.

He's not a monster but he's a real solid "Well alright, fuck that guy then who cares" which is how most people seem to be treating him now.

Like Jobsts clickbaity shit with "Worst. Apology. Ever" or whatever is silly when I don't even see a single ukulele present but doing just a quick temperature test about him on socials and people seem Appropriately Angry at what he's actually accused of.

Karl Jobst released a new clip from the call and...it's not great. I'm not going to link it but it's easy to find, but in it he basically begs them not to reveal things because he has "20 mouths to feed" (shades of Total Recall but he's talking about employees) and how he wants to leave content creation to get into making games.

It's not a good look but mostly what I think when I hear it is...why did he take this call at all? What was he trying to accomplish? He just sounds pathetic and trapped. Maybe he thought he could kill the report through begging, but he claims to know the Youtubers he was talking to and that seems like a crazy idea.

Just baffling stuff.

@bigsocrates: His "response" video has to be the first time he talked to a lawyer, right? Everything else has been desperate flailing of a guy terrified of losing his clout. If he had shut up early and often (see: the Shut The Fuck Up Friday lawyers), he could have weathered this at least a little. Even if there's no crime here whatsoever, is anyone going to want to follow him? Probably (see: Nick Robinson and ProJared still having followers), but not to the extent he did two months ago.

I thought the Sea of Stars cameo was bizarre but chalked it up to him being buddies with the dev team or something. The game feels like such a personal project to the lead designer that if they want to cut Jirard from Mirth, that's fine with me. But to your point, it did feel a little silly to take such a running start on removing him from the game. The holes keep getting deeper, maybe they have a bad feeling about this situation and wanted to nip things in the bud?

@allthedinos: It sure seems that way but that baffles me too. Given how much business stuff he does he MUST have lawyers he does business with regularly just for contracts and such. He couldn't talk to one of them or get a referral from one of them? Maybe he was embarrassed but lawyers hear horrible things all the time. I'm not a criminal attorney but I've had clients confess crimes to me for various reasons and of course I can't talk about it and try not to judge them (nothing super serious tbf.)

Or he has no lawyer friends? As a lawyer I have people contact me all the time for advice. Literally yesterday a friend's girlfriend texted me about a text she was considering sending to her ex-husband in response to him talking trash to her about her parenting. My response? "How could sending that possibly benefit you?" He doesn't have anyone he could run stuff by like that? If a friend of mine wanted to talk to two people accusing him of improprieties I would say "Don't do it and if you feel you have to definitely have counsel with you in the room."

Even short of that he should at least have had a plan of some kind!

He could probably survive as an independent Youtuber like Projared but Jirard has a machine behind him, as he said in the call. 20 mouths to feed. A major hit in viewership is going to cause that to collapse. He'd have to go back to editing himself or working with one editor, he'll have a had time finding sponsors...it's a much bigger fall.

Plus he had a good guy image that was part of his appeal and is now utterly shot. Projared had an image as a big nerd. That image became "horny, sketchy, inappropriate big nerd." Jirard will never be wholesome again, or at least not without a decade of image rehab.

Having played Sea of Stars my guess is they just do not want any controversy. That game is pretty close to a cozy game for an RPG (though it does have some horror imagery and brutal moments) and what's the real upside of leaving him in? They probably announced it because they were getting pressure to drop him but it takes time to cook up a replacement since I doubt they'll eliminate the mechanic. Get ready for "Trina the Builder" to make her big debut! But she has to be drawn and written etc... and in the meantime they're probably getting Twitter and email spam and who needs it?

Jirard was in there not just because he helped them out and promoted the game but because he was a wholesome character who fit the vibe of that particular place in the game. Oopsies.

You guys are way too invested in the drama and out of touch. Big difference between arrogant YouTubers who frequently took advantage of female fans for sexual favors and well-meaning guy who is in over his head trying to manage a charity (lol! CHARITY! C-H-A-R-I-T-Y! Like what have you or most YTers ever done in this regard? How dare you judge otherwise!)

I'm really not that invested in Jirard or this drama. I watched his videos from the start but fell off over the years. I just really hope the SBB gang are alright because I love them so much and Jirard is honestly the worst part. If you ever watch their videos, you will see how stubborn, mournful and lame Jirard is. He'll keep making the same mistakes and get frustrated while shutting out everyone's advice. And that's just playing a video game. So yeah, put that together with real life stuff and you have your answer. But Alex, Brett, and Ted are just the best and deserve better. Alex at least has Chilluminati to stay afloat but I'm not sure what will happen to Brett and Ted. Brett and Alex make me laugh on a daily basis and bring me so much joy, so it'd be awful if it all ends because of this. Jirard is their brother so they will ride for him as they should, I just hope there is something after.

@lonelyspacepanda: It's strange that you seem to think that the fact that it's charity makes it better. He convinced his fans to give literally hundreds of thousands of dollars to a charity and then he sat on those funds. That's pretty bad. Whether it's better or worse than taking advantage of fans sexually I leave to an individual decision, but it's bad.

Not that it matters but I've personally given many thousands of dollars to charity (none to Open Hand but instead to things like community bail funds and health related charities) and I've also done a lot of volunteer work with various populations like immigrants, prisoners, and people at risk of losing their housing. So while I haven't raised as much as Jirard I've done a lot of charitable giving and work.

But that doesn't matter. Jirard lied to his fans and mismanaged charity funds. Even if that's not as bad as manipulating fans sexually it's still pretty bad. Possibly criminal. It's not just Youtube drama.

As for the rest of the SBB....given that SBB was subsidized by TOVG it's probably going to have to either fold or cut back a lot. That sucks and the rest of the dudes appear to be totally innocent. But it has nothing to do with this thread where nobody has been discussing them or even blaming them for sticking by their friend.

So far as still having followers goes I know ProJared was helped out by coming out with evidence that largely discredited the absolute worst shit he was accused of which left him guilty of being a huge fucking idiot but also gained him sympathy when a lot of the people accusing him turning out to be huge assholes as well. I never heard another word from Nick Robinson though so I just assumed he stayed quiet long enough to simply start over.

Jirard though... everything coming out from him just seems to be "I did that shit" and "Please don't tell anyone I did that shit" which... yeah I dunno seems like it's gonna be a harder rebound, at least for someone that has more of a proper "Brand".

For the record, my comment was not intended to be about *what* the sex pest YouTubers did, so much as what they did should rightfully have nuked their public followings. And yet ProJared (new context was helpful, ty ef) and "Babylonian" still pop up. My intent was to say Jirard will always have some kind of a following, even if he gets criminal charges, because inertia is a hell of a thing.

I hope everyone who worked for Jirard is able to land on their feet. They don't deserve to be involved in this entire thing their boss thrust them into.

It does seem that everyone eventually just gets a comeback tour. The internet loves a story above almost all else and when that's all over there's always time to just wait it out.

I don't know if any one was around long enough to remember early days of Jirard the Completionist, but he used to have a creative partner that was in nearly every video for first 3 or so years. Eventually they wanted a bigger cut, Jirard let them go and they sued demanding every video on the channel to be taken down (well every video with them which was most). That's where the whole "New Game Plus" video series came from. Anyway, would be some extra juicy drama if they were the ones behind bringing this story to the public. Would turn this into a real epic drama!

It is an individual call but I do put abusing the trust of fans and sexual assault in a much worse category than "sitting on charity funds with plan to eventually spend in near future" which TBH I still don't have much feelings about given don't know how charities typically work and what's expected.

Or, more accurately, lying about a bunch of shit and very conveniently donating the money once everyone was on him about it.

If it was the plan to eventually donate when the stars aligned a little transparency and honesty would have landed him in a very different position.

It's funny how charities are so difficult when it comes to the money going to the right places, but once Jirard got called out, the money that was sitting for a decade suddenly moved very quickly. Very funny. But let's see if this guy actually committed a crime. I believe his rep is shot among people with common sense. Hopeless fans will still drink his kool aid, clearly.

Why can't I post an image of the Father Ted "the money was just resting in my account" gif? Now folks are going to have to use their imagination. Travesty.

@lonelyspacepanda: I am trying to find a way to phrase this that doesn't sound condescending because I'm truly not trying to be: Have you never read the news about charities? It is truly baffling to me that you think that setting up a charity is considered this thing one can do that is morally just and without reproach. Charities are fraudulent ALL THE TIME and that doesn't even BEGIN to address more murky stuff like how the money gets spent, where it gets sent, what it goes to, etc...