The Completionist responded to both Karl Jobst and SomeOrdinaryGamers, two YouTubers that worked together to call out his charity, the Open Hand Foundation, for fraud. Jirard, aka The Completionist, claimed that he did nothing legally wrong and threatened to legal action against the content creators.
After almost a month of silence on the matter, Jirard aka The Completionist put together a video addressing allegations made by both Karl Jobst and SomeOrdinaryGamers in regards to the charity foundation he’s a part of.
Jirard spent 18 minutes breaking down the creators’ biggest concerns with how charity donations were carried out, admitted fault with how long he held onto funds before donating them, and has ultimately stepped down from his position within the Open Hand Foundation.
However, Jirard also believes that these videos were made with “selfish intent” and that he’s speaking with his legal team in regards to taking action against the creators.
The Completionist threatens legal action amid charity fraud allegations
The Completionist responded to allegations from both SomeOrdinaryGamers and Karl Jobst in his response video, showing clips from both creators followed by directly shutting down their claims against him and explaining how the the way tax filings revolving around the foundation worked.
And, though Jirard admitted fault in some areas, he claims that nothing he did was legally wrong and that the circumstances surrounding this case have gotten out of hand.
His full video goes over several of these points, and you can watch the video here if you’d like the full picture of how Jirard defended himself from these allegations:
However, the biggest point from Jirard’s breakdown is as follows: “The foundation is actually not legally required to distributed a minimum of 5% a year in charitable donations because, once again, the Open Hand Foundation is a public charity. This means that the $600k that was donated did not incur any fees or is not subject to any tax penalties.”
He continued, “To insinuate that the money was missing and that the penalties were to be applied, and that my family and I had to float the missing funds is just not true. Also, none of the money from the Open Hand Foundation has ever funded any of my projects for my company.”
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
Jirard was adamant that he had never touched the money despite not directly donating it at the time, though it’s worth noting The Open Hand Foundation since donated $600k on November 29, 2023, as is noted in a follow-up video from SomeOrdinaryGamers himself as well as in an article from The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration, the charity that the money was donated to.
The Completionist concluded with strong words for both Jobst and Mutahar (aka SomeOrdinaryGamers): “Saying that we are fraudsters, that what we are doing is illegal and constitutes charity fraud, that we are using my dead mother’s name to potentially embezzle money and steal is categorically false. I should have been more transparent about the money not being donated, and that’s on me, but my family and I haven’t done anything illegal. Not before then, and not since. And, as mentioned previously, we have correspondence from the IRS to prove that.”
However, it doesn’t seem that Jirard plans to take these allegations lying down. He’s in “serious conversations” to take legal action against Karl Jobst and SomeOrdinaryGamers.
“These allegations were made by individuals who, self admittedly, aren’t even financial or legal professionals. These allegations are slanderous, and, we believe, were done with selfish intent. They have directly jeopardized the safety of me, my staff, and my family.”
He then called out both Jobst and Mutahar for making these allegations in the first place, and claimed that he isn’t afraid of scrutiny from the IRS.
“Due to the overwhelming amount of people who have been instructed to file complaints to the IRS and Department of Justice, we understand an audit may be coming. And we welcome it. Our legal and financial teams have assured us we have done nothing criminally wrong or illegal.”
He also feels that content creators should be “held accountable” for allegations of this kind, but believes that the manner in which he’s been called out by these creators is slanderous and was made without either creator being properly informed on what they were accusing him of.
“I recognize and take accountability for all of my actions. At the same time, I am not going to let my reputation be compromised by allegations that are not true. I own up to my part in this, but I will not be painted as someone who’s a con-artist and embezzler. I won’t be someone whose name gets tarnished without putting up a fight.”