YouTuber Charity Scam That Lasted 10 Years 

"We don't touch any of it" Well they took that way too literally and just left the money completely untouched

this lad really went for the 100% completion on his career by getting the bad ending

Its really ironic that a dementia charity "forgot" to donate the money.

He admitted to spending some amount of it on something else. He justified it by saying it was no more than a couple thousand each time, and that it didn’t happen every year, which is of course irrelevant as what he did is the definition of fraud.

It’s so easy to forget what a shark Asmon is when it comes to business. His financial literacy is very impressive.

"We don't touch any of it" - every charity ever

10% is great for a charity that actually provides said charity. It’s ridiculously high for one that doesn’t perform the charity it claims to.

Dude said he found out they weren’t donating in 2022 and then stated months later they are donating to charities in 2023 🤦‍♂️

He lied to everyone which makes this hard to forgive and forget. The silver lining is that the money can still go to charity but his reputation takes a nose dive from this.

When my mother died back in late 2011 we set up a charity to raise money for the medical bills/funeral/burial and somehow some way the lady that helped us set it up took every bit of it... it still shocks me to this day how inconsiderate people really are. They will kick you while you're already down...

It's strange that name dropping of specific organizations continued for 10 years. None of those places got a cent but their names were still used year after year. Also, having an account with a massive amount of money in it is an asset in itself. Having expenses that aren't itemized isn't great either. Very disappointing that people immediately want to forgive and forget.

When gross negligence or reckless incompetence is your BEST case scenario, you know you fucked up.

Let's be honest, those charities with 20%+ administration charges probably have hundreds of employees. Whereas "Open Hand" sounds like it's ran by his dad and maybe a few family members. And tbh if they haven't done anything with the money, what are ANY administration costs for anyway? Sounds shady AF to me and his excuses are laughable.

I work in this space and we often receive correspondence from people who want to start their own charity. In many cases this is ignited by the loss of a close family member to an illness/disease (similar to what happened here). We provide them with advice on what charities are already working in the area and how to engage/raise money for them. Sadly many people ignore our advice and instead persist with a half arsed attempt at making their own charity. It mostly goes like this: they do a small amount of research and are shocked to find out they aren’t starting a global revolution as there are 100s of charities already doing what they want to do. However, they think they can do it better! Then the real slap in the face hits when they realise it requires a lot of WORK and they abandon the whole thing. Usually without any donation/contribution to any of the existing charities. While I wish I was wrong, and I'm not saying this is what happened here, I believe that in a lot of these cases the people are in grief and want to start a charity for themselves as a means of dealing with it. They aren’t truly interested in the wider issue and weren’t even consciously aware of its existence until it impacted their life.

It's disingenuous at best, fraud at worst. This is like the Johnny Depp/Amber Hurd thing where Amber kept saying her "pledge" to pay charity means the same thing as "donating" the money.

Videos like this always get extra funny when you know Asmon work for the IRS for like a year or two.

22:22 THIS IS 100% TRUE. Ask any professional if negligence is a valid excuse in a court of law. One of the few things that was really hammered into me in my business ethics course. Jirard this is your charity and you can’t be unaware of its activities.

When I joined the Army one of the first things they did was teach us how to properly donate to charities if that’s what we wanted to do. There are like Zack said all sorts of ways to verify what percentage of overhead a charity takes before they donate the rest. We were encouraged only to donate to charities that were above 90%. I feel like that should have been part of high school’s adult training. Oh wait… that’s not a thing 😅

I've seen people making excuses for him because the money is supposedly still there but that is irrelevant since he's been saying it is going places that it wasn't going including AFTER being called out he has STILL said it was going to those places. This isn't just some innocent mistake or "negligence" it is 100% purposeful dishonesty, to what end idk but I would imagine the end goal was to keep the money.

if he was in the board, he'd have to sign the balance sheets every year. Literally impossible to miss that money is just building up

He worked for G4 .. first red flag. And it is fraud because they publicly said that money "was" donated. Not pledged. Also, if they made more then 100k a year and there is 600k on the account ... where is the rest?

New Karl Jobst videos are always the highlight of the week, but as a longtime fan of The Completionist - this one really broke my heart. Major props to Karl for reporting on this and getting the truth out - he is the hero we need but don’t deserve.

So the guy who’s known for 100% completing things only got to the 90% mark with a charity and skipped the last 10% of actually giving the money?

Asmon is right. Words matter. When he realized he said, “that’s not cool”. That’s not cool? If I ran a charity for 10 years and I found out the money was never donated my heart would drop into my ass. I’d be freaking the fuck out.

In Honor of his mom, yes his mom got to be so proud of him.

this is why I don't trust virtually any charity ever. I don't know if it's just me but I just almost ALWAYS get a sense there is some sort of scamming or laundering going on.

The thing is, whether they used the money or not, or spent it. They lied, they lied to every person that donated, lied to every person that put their efforts and time into the project. All their time and money was wasted because the money has been sitting in an account for 9 years. So where are the benefits to donating then? all that money and time that could've gone to research was just sitting in an account. So essentially everyone got played, and that is a scam in itself.

As someone who's from a country that's always ravaged by typhoons, I always see in the news that we got tons of donations from charities around the world but when I take a look around I just wonder where all the money went. Cause all they give you is a fvcking bag of rice with a couple can of sardines.

Imagine you get payed with the money you helped raise without saying it and watch a video about a scam on money raised.

They didn't donate a single dollar to anyone, not to the charity they said or anyone else. They also pulled money from what was donated to them. In total they raised $655,520 for dementia research, but only $549,320 of it is left. They have been taking between $10-30K from it each year as "expenses" with $0 for charity contributions.

It seems the Completionist is taking a long time to complete this charity.

Some of the biggest evidence he hasnt donated it, is usually these big donations are acknowledged by the foundations receiving the funds. Heck i dont think i've ever noticed any donations over 10k go unacknoledged. Let alone one for $600k.

Even if it gets donated NOW, depreciation and the years of lost research still take a chunk out of this. It should 100% be passed on ASAP, but that does not absolve those involved entirely, even if they go for the 'I'm just incompetent' angle... Shame.

I'm losing my mother-in-law to Alzheimer's. These guys are shameful and pathetic frauds; time is the only thing you DON'T have with this.

Literally, they could be keeping all that money in an account that earns interest payments which they can skim off for their own personal use and meanwhile the principal is not reduced so they can sit in front of a camera or lawyer and say "we don't touch the money" with a straight face. It is very unethical and despicable.

My guess is, at least one person involved planned on keeping this as a retirement fund, so that if money ever stopped coming in, they could keep taking larger and larger amounts out each year, quietly shuttering the charity once the account dried up and walking away with the money in hand. Also saying the operating costs are reasonable is a little wild when you compare them to charities that actually employ and help people, it shouldn't cost very much to do nothing with the money each year.

Either he had no role in the distribution of the cash and found out it was not going anywhere, or he knew all along. Kinda sucks because he is gonna take the fall here when I am sure there is definetly more than one person at fault

It's pretty obvious the guy is guilty as all hell, and they've been caught mid-fraud. The reason all the money is still there (or so they claim), is because they couldn't cash out. Yet. It's extremely hard to just cash out a foundation, especially if it's a non-profit. You first have to launder that money through valid recipients. A foundation's charter limits what you can spend it's funds on, and with a charity, a non-profit nonetheless, that list is VERY short. The second you try to move that pile of money out of the charity, and NOT to a valid recipient or organization, it's gonna raise some huge alarm bells at the IRS and various other acronym organizations, like the FBI's fraud division. The reason they couldn't cash out is most likely that they are friggin amateurs and they couldn't find a corrupt lab or organization to participate or give them a large enough kickback. Just like Asmon said, their reported operating costs are very sus, like they are desperately trying to stay under the radar until they find an org equally stupid enough to play along. The problem is, they did this scam ass backwards. With charity scams, you have to find or create the orgs you'll launder the donos through FIRST, preferably years in advance. Because if you try to move the money through an org which was created AFTER the charity, that's gonna raise a forest of red flags in all the wrong places. And you rather need a veritable maze of said orgs, because the SECOND you cash out through one of them, the timer starts ticking to the FBI kicking down your door, so you need to get gone really friggin fast after payday (preferably to some place with no extradition). But considering they were such friggin stupid amateurs even a youtuber could blow their scam wide open, I don't think they have much of a choice now. The best they can do at this point is get rid of that money lightning fast (like give it to UC or any number of the recipients they were continuously name-dropping through the years) and hope to sweet baby jesus the IRS/FBI don't consider them a big enough fish to heat up the fryer for.

Man the curtain is really falling for these long time "positive" youtubers... crazy to think every single youtuber i followed for years gets caught into some bad shit.

If you stop and think about it, Open Hand was taking ~10% for their operating costs. However, they are a middleman charity. So the entire plan was to pass the money to charities with their own operating costs as well. Which means even less money makes it to the causes themself. Really, just donating straight to the best causes is the best option. Hopefully this is a great lesson for as many people as possible moving into the future.

Even if the administrative costs are relatively low, it's still fucked up that for 10 years they've been charging administrative costs when they have done jack shit at administrating the money.

I saw this yesterday - the sad thing is this - the worst case scenario is that they were holding the money and charging admin fees year after year to siphon money way to themselves etc. which is bad. BUT the BEST case scenario is just as sad because best cast, Jirard screwed up and was negligent and failed to help any patients or research for almost a decade because he and his family were just dumb. Either way it sucks man.

Asmondgold is correct about the signatures not showing up on paper tax documents signed electronically. I have signed all my personal and business taxes electronically for 10 years and I just looked at my paper copies given to me by my accountant for all those tax years and they all look just like the form shown starting at about 10:28 in the video. All the other info is filled out such as the tax preparer's name and address but my signature and date do not show up on any of the paper forms. The tax form not being signed and dated by the person in charge of the charity on the paper form is not an indication of fraud.

The lesson from this is, if you want to donate money to help a cause, look into it yourself and donate directly to it if possible.

What Asmond says about the words people use being more telling of what they're doing is so spot on. I had a gf who came over one day and started talking in a way that just wasn't like her in the nearly 10 years I'd known her. I paused and thought about what I did know about her and before I could even process fully everything going on, I said, "you banged my best friend didn't you?" She stops talking with a look of sheer horror and replies, "Who told you? I bet it was (mutual friend). I knew I shouldn't have told him!" And I go, "No. You just did. Leave." All from contextual clues of what she was saying and how she was saying it. This applies to everyone that you learn enough about. Pattern recognition is a thing.

The biggest issue here is that the money has not been donated and has been on an account for around 10 years, I could understand if it was 1 or maybe 2 years but 10 years is odd, especially if we consider that the money the people donated years ago does not worth the same as today because of devaluation. This is something to be cautious, as ProJared said, serious allegations need to be taken seriously and that's why I consider waiting for a good explanation is important regardless if this feels disappointing (especially if you were a TOVG follower/supporter for years).

It can take a lifetime to earn trust, but a second to lose it.

My question is why haven't the charities in question called out this large annual fundraiser thats been claiming to to fund them for the past 10 years

Wow, it's wild seeing people on twitter say that they shouldn't be judged until they give a response. There are responses in the video. He literally says that money is going places in their stream and name drops their partners even though they have not donated a single cent for almost 10 years. Oh god we can't have nice things can we?

The IRS has been cut and under funded for years. The systems they use are ancient and haven't been updated in decades. I have a hard time believing they are able to look into every charity every year.

Dude not the completionist...... he seemed like such a good dude. Really hope there is a good explanation for why, please don't let this be another wholesome youtuber turns out to be a douchebag scenario.

Hes probably putting it into a savings account that builds interest. That way he's not "misusing" it but still making a profit.

He states that he didn't know about 2/3 of a MILLION dollars for nearly a DECADE. That he only found out in 2022. No one is dumb enough to believe this. Even if true, why did he not publicaly state that they haven't found a benefactor? Why did he continue to proclaim that the money was going to these organisations and helping people? 125k of "expenses" and a decade without a single person being helped. Scumbag. That money could have help people that have since passed away.

I think what’s makes this particular situation especially egregious is the fact that doing charity streams boosts the creators profile. While the completionist may not be finically benefiting he definitely is benefiting on a social standpoint. To me it’s clear the reason he kept doing these streams was to increase his profile. Further proving this point is his constant reference to where the money was “going”

What I find baffling is him just not knowing if the money after the event was donated. You throw an event to raise the money, how would you not know if you gave it away or not?!

Tax guy here. The only big flag I can see is that they took money and promised that the funds was going (not would go) to other organizations. It did not. Now they can say that they money was intended to go to the organizations, and that meant fundamentally the same thing. That is a much more debatable topic. But it sounds like they took the money, used it responsibly and filed everything above the board with the IRS (esignatures included).

In Spanish we have the common phrase "No hagas cosas buenas que parezcan malas y malas que parezcan buenas" which according to a summarizer: It refers to the importance of honesty and transparency in our actions. It means that we should be truthful and transparent in our intentions and actions, and not try to hide our actions behind a deceptive appearance.

His Dementia kicked in and forgot to donate the funds

This guy did the same things but since he has more clout you won't hear a peep. Hope Karl and Muta prove me wrong.

If you discover that 10 years ago someone stole your money, and when caught they decide to return it, it’s not like they magically un-steal it.

anyone ever heard of something called a Nest egg scam, this sounds like what that does, hoard money in a charity account for a few decades wait till everyone forgets who you are and what you are attached to, then withdraw all the cash and close down the charity account when it's safe to do so

I remember when his sidekick Greg(think his name was) left the show for unknown reasons and wanted all videos with him in it deleted off the channel. Was Greg the hero all along?

either he is grossly incompetent, or he is trying to cover for somebody, (either himself or a family member) who has done something super duper shady. Several points in there, he starts to get upset at someone not involved in the conversation then fumbles back to oh uh uhm...

Softgiving.

Essentially, he was just stealing some of the money, and holding onto it in such a way that if anyone ever caught on, he would just say "oopsie, see I didn't steal it, see? The gold pile is still right here." Clever boy.

10% expense is very low... dude they have not donated any of the money, 10 years without doing anything

I would imagine the reason he hasn't donated it because the money... isn't there... waiting on update

This genuinely seems like the Completionist is just letting his brother or someone else control the charity while he’s the face. It seems like he has no idea what he’s doing.

Considering they never donated the money, I'd say 10% as administrative costs is relatively 100%. 100% of their costs in the past 9 years have been for administrative costs. I'd like to see a non-profit/charity who shares that same statistic

So for 7+ years (i'm giving him benefit here) as Director of the charity, he never looked at the bank account? I .. I don't accept that as truth.

People are trained animals. Well said Mr Gold.

Asmongold gets it. There seems to be something very weird about this situation and Jiraad isn't going to tell us and it's probably some weird family stuff. Ya know, considering his brother is also involved in the organization.... and they donated their mother's body. I'm just picked up on something weird going on.

The adm fees are absurdly high if you consider they aren't providing any services. Sure, 10-20% going to adm fees makes sense if your org is looking around to find the best places to send the money too... keeping track of how the money is used... organizing campaigns to get more money... websites, ads, etc... But if your org gets money mostly only from a yearly event... and the money just stays there forever... Who is being paid tens of thousands of dollars to do that? Aka: Who is being paid to do nothing?

Welp this age well

See the thing that gets me is: you can easily say “ok it’s bad you haven’t donated the money but at least they haven’t spent it” But.. money DEPRECIATES in value over time! Especially £100s of thousands of dollars sitting in an account doing nothing. Inflation is a thing. Time value of money is a thing. Due to their actions they could have easily lost money to charities of 10s of thousands of pounds, as opposed to having spent the money in a timely manner. This isn’t THEIR money to do that with, it’s the publics money that they have gotten hold of on false promises. In my opinion while it’s not outright stealing, it may as well be just as bad or just slightly better than it.

This did not age well... LOL

I’m a fan of the FPS podcast and I’ve always felt like there was something amiss with his demeanor. That even further solidified when he proudly stated last week on the podcast that he “spent all weekend raising money for charity”. That really didn’t sit right with me. Now this…color me unsurprised. 🤣

What I hope is happening is that Open Hands is holding the money and waiting for it to be eligible to be a restricted donation, meaning the organizations being donated to can’t just gobble it up in administrative costs or funnel it into a CEO’s paycheck, ensuring the money has to be attributed to very specific and ultimately more effective things like funding specific avenues of research or something. But! If that is the case then Jirard absolutely should have made that clear in the Indieland streams and not name dropped a bunch of orgs and explicitly stated that the money donated would immediately go to those organizations. He should have made it clear that the money was going to be held in an account and donated in one lump sum that would go directly to specific areas of research and aid.

Softgiving, your calling this guy out...?

The thing is he claimed he found about it 2021 and still ended up acting same way for 22 and 23 speaks volume that he is lying.

Here is a more realistic version. The RU-vidrs brother was in charge of charity told him all these things. He found out but doesn't want to rat out his brother. Problem solved

“We don’t touch any of it” (We’re working on a way to funnel it) “We just give it to the people that need it” (Us! We need it! It’s our money now!)

I've never heard of this guy until he joined the Friends Per Second podcast on Skill Up's channel. I've always got a weird vibe from him and I couldn't understand why (looking like my intuition might have been right), he just did not fit with the other three at all. Regardless it's a great gaming podcast and I hope it sticks around even if they have to drop him. They have guest hosts all the time so maybe they can bring someone else in full time.

I like how Asmon suggested they donate more than what they’ve taken in, and instead they donated less than what they had in 2022. I think that’s suspicious.

Maybe they had the money in accounts and they were skimming the interest into a separate account? But I think you're right, best case scenario is just extreme incompetence.

Damn thats sad, when I was a kid I used to love watching him and jesse cox play horror games with scary game squad :(

I can't find any charity to take my money in 11 months. I guess the world is perfect now then.

But... did he "PLEDGE" to donate them

"you look like an asshole AND you don't get to enjoy the money." That killed me lol.

I guarantee you that money was used. They most likely used it as collateral for business loans and they already said they had to use some but wouldn't say how much.

This really hits me in the guts. Grandpa passed away from a very bad case of dementia progression this year…

The expenses shouldn't even be there at all since they also get funding to plan and do Indieland.

My guess is that they are letting the money sit, and collecting the interest off of it.

I found that perspective of having that "honor among thieves" very interesting. It reminded me of the original movie "Gone in 60 Seconds" (1974), where the criminals only stole insured cars. They always had that classy attire and acted like gentlemen outside. In some ways, it can be seen as some business where the core operation just happens to be illegal.

10 years of lost time in research is such a waste. Imagine having seen someone close to you fall into dementia while that money was just being useless on some stupid account...

Asmon keeps reframing it like the guy only pledged the money and failed to deliver. The CHARITY pledged it yes, then announced it had been given to those organizations. Over and over. It's much worse than him just not sending it personally. That's the most nefarious part. They lied when they said the money had ALREADY been donated, and it was still sitting in the bank. And they did this over and over for 10 years. It's not complicated.

Maybe they got dementia and forgot it was in the bank

I can see the gap between when he learned about the money not leaving to places and the 11 months of it still being there. I recently got medical assistance for major depressive disorder that impacts my ability to work properly, and from the process of beginning asking where I go to file for that, to filing for that, to getting it. It’s been like a year and a half and a full year of working with the Mayo Clinic before that. And even after we sent off an application to the government it I got a call about it saying I’ll get a letter and a letter saying they were still working on it and to expect an answer within 6 weeks, and finally through actions of constant prodding through an advisor appointed by the county, I got accepted as disables after 3 to 4 months after getting that letter. It’s probably not fully equivalent to working for disability but I can see the time.

The irs cant micromanage every charities financials. That money was being hoarded up as a retirement plan. He could pay himself 30-40k a year to manage that for 15 years

In Germany the costs for administration and so, are allowed to be 50% at max with prof that it was spenden on these things. In short 50% has to go to the cause no matter what. In average 70%-80% of the donations go to the cause from German charities.