Major YouTuber Accused Of Stealing Donations For Years
Jirard Khalil, better known to YouTube viewers as The Completionist, has made a name for himself by conquering some of gaming's greatest challenges, as well as creating entertaining and informative reviews. It's how he's managed to cultivate a following of 1.68 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, not to mention the respect of his colleagues in the content creation field. However, the YouTuber is now under fire for allegedly failing to complete a very important task that he set for himself: properly dispersing money from his family's charity org, the Open Hand Foundation.
Khalil's father founded the Open Hand Foundation in 2003, after his wife Kaaren was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. The stated goal of the charity is to help in the search for a cure for frontotemporal dementia, and The Completionist and his family have remained active with the Open Hand Foundation since Kaaren's death in 2013. According to the charity's website, "in [Kaaren's] honor the foundation continues to operate and raise money to support research and education." Included among those fundraisers is The Completionist's own IndieLand, which brings together content creators and influencers to showcase new games and increase awareness of the fight against dementia. IndieLand's own website boasts that The Completionist and co. have raised more than $600,000 over the years — and according to shocking new allegations, The Completionist and the Open Hand Foundation may have simply pocketed all of the money raised by IndieLand.
Where did the money go?
According to research undertaken by YouTubers SomeOrdinaryGamers and Karl Jobst, The Completionist and the Open Hand Foundation is sitting on more than $600,000 in donations that have never been forwarded to the causes they claims to be helping. Karl Jobst alleges, "In 10 years of filings, they have not dispersed a single dollar to anyone." To back up these claims, Jobst attached a Google Drive folder to the video description, which contains a paper trail of public tax filings and correspondence between himself and the folks behind the Open Hand Foundation.
This seems to be at odds with a number of claims on the Open Hand Foundation website, including a thank-you from David Kessler, former dean of UCSF School of Medicine. In his research, Jobst discovered that David Kessler departed his position at UCSF several years before the Open Hand Foundation would have been in a position to make any such donations. Upon reaching out to Jacque Khalil, The Completionist's brother, Jobst was informed that the org was still searching for the right group to disperse the money it has raised.
Karl Jobst also provided a lengthy response he received from The Completionist, in which the YouTuber denied any wrongdoing: "While we understand the necessity of due diligence in charitable engagements, the insinuation of wrongdoing on the part of the Open Hand Foundation is both unwarranted and unfounded ... Our foundation has always acted in good faith, and we take any suggestion of impropriety very seriously. We stand firm on our record and integrity." This response is significantly clouded by audio provided by Jobst and SomeOrdinaryGamers, which is allegedly pulled from a call with Jirard Khalil.
YouTubers confront The Completionist
In the recording, the caller (allegedly Jirard Khalil/The Completionist) admits to knowing something was off about the distribution of funds. "I don't have an answer. I think that's my f***-up," says the caller. He explained that he believed the donations were going to the right places, but later learned that was not the case. The caller reassured both YouTubers that none of the money had been spent on other things, but that it was still sitting in the Open Hand Foundation's accounts. He also swore that he wasn't trying to use a charity formed in his mother's memory to scam people. He explained that he had only just learned within the last year or so that the money had not been dispersed, and has been trying to formulate a plan since then.
Ultimately, the caller explained that the goal was for the Khalil family to raise as much money as possible, then donate it when they finally found a recipient that met their stated goals. He added that he planned to donate the money as soon as possible, just as soon as he could "figure out the best way to handle this." He added, "I want to make sure that this money goes to a good cause in honor of my mom." His fear, he explained, is that the money will instead go to a doctor's salary, rather than dementia research, and that nobody will believe him as soon as this story gets out.
On that last count, it seems Khalil may have been right to worry. Reddit and X (formerly Twitter) have been blowing up as everyone shares their own takes on the situation. Some have gone so far as to refer to the withholding of funds as outright theft, while others think this is just a case of severe mismanagement. Fans will no doubt keep their eyes peeled for a more substantial response from The Completionist and the Open Hand Foundation in the coming days.