• Hey everyone, staff have documented a list of banned content and subject matter that we feel are not consistent with site values, and don't make sense to host discussion of on Famiboards. This list (and the relevant reasoning per item) is viewable here.

Discussion Karl Jobst: TheCompletionist's charity kept all the money

Status
Not open for further replies.
EggmaniMN said:
While the information in that video is important, Karl Jobst is a known friend of rwhitegoose, a nazi moron that has been banned from every speedrun event and has been in his discord agreeing that white people should be able to say the n word. He is a known shitbag as well.
Click to expand...
Well shit, I thought the name sounded familiar in a very Not Good way. Thanks for pointing this out.
 
I requested a title change because even though he has been pocketing the money, the thread title implies Karl Jobst said that and he didn't (at least not in those words).
 
0
From what I can see, this seems unethical, problematic and at best like Jirard got caught being negligent and in a lie that got too big.

That said, I still don't love framing it as "pocketing the money". That has a very clear connotation of Open Hand being a front for personal enrichment, which doesn't seem to be an accusation even the video is making.

So like, it's bad. There's stuff to talk about and answers people deserve. But I think it's a bit misleading to say he's "pocketing the money" until we know a bit more about what's going on

Edit: while I was writing this the title changed 😂 ignore me
 
okay now i've seen the video and gone through what some of Jirard's friends have been saying as well

honestly even with the most charitable take possible, it is basic fact that he knew it was going nowhere in 2022. and continued promoting it in 2023. while being a director on the company.

i went in with such a mind to find any possible defense for him because i genuinely can't register this, but that one fact just makes it all feel disingenuous and wrong.

it's definitely a level beyond gross negligence. sorry Jirard.
 
Revolsin said:
okay now i've seen the video and gone through what some of Jirard's friends have been saying as well

honestly even with the most charitable take possible, it is basic fact that he knew it was going nowhere in 2022. and continued promoting it in 2023. while being a director on the company.

i went in with such a mind to find any possible defense for him because i genuinely can't register this, but that one fact just makes it all feel disingenuous and wrong.

it's definitely a level beyond gross negligence. sorry Jirard.
Click to expand...

The number of friends/other content creators coming out and leaping to his defence with the "stop jumping to conclusions, Jirard is one of the nicest people I've met" takes is actually insulting. It's inexcusable what has happened here, even in the most charitable light possible he has still knowingly lied to the public about where their money is going while asking for their donations.

I don't give a fuck how nice he is, or how good of a friend he is; what he has been doing is utterly abhorrent and nobody would be defending him if he didn't have the status that he's managed to build up over several years on youtube.
 
EggmaniMN said:
While the information in that video is important, Karl Jobst is a known friend of rwhitegoose, a nazi moron that has been banned from every speedrun event and has been in his discord agreeing that white people should be able to say the n word. He is a known shitbag as well.
Click to expand...
Damn. Well time to re-block his channel.
 
0
Charities are great places to launder money and access through. Create a charity and then set up speaking fees to be paid into said charity. Pay yourself a salary as an employee of the charity. As long as the money goes into maintaining the charities, you can get away with not applying funds towards the function/goals of the charity. Places like Charity navigator used to be good sources until people who had power didn't like the accuracy of the reporting making their Charities looking bad.
 
Revolsin said:
kinda blows my mind. he's always seemed like a really genuine earnest dude in all he's done. this is so counter to everything i know about the man
Click to expand...
It's one thing to be earnest and genuine and it is another thing to competently manage a multitude of businesses and projects at once. The little I've seen of the completionist screams over worked and burned out and his demeanor is always at the cusp of depressed.

Not to minimize the seriousness of this, but I do think that it is pretty likely that there isn't malicious intent here and just someone in over their head that has mismanaged this. But we will see. If it turns out the money has been embezzled that's a whole other thing. But based on the information presented so far I think the most likely scenario is that Jirard is guilty of serious neglect and mismanagement.
 
Again, even taking at his best and assuming it's true that he didn't notice anything until 2022... in 2023 he still asked for more money and he specifically said that they were currently (and he uses that word) working with USFC, even though, according to both Jirard and Open Hands, the last time they worked together was before 2014. Even if everything is true, they were still raising money with a completely false claim knowingly. From 2014 to 2022, the best we can assume for him is blatant wrongdoing, but, at least for 2023, he has basically admitted that he outright lied in order to rise money.

Yes, I think it's good to wait for Jirard's answer, but I can't see how that is not incredibly fucked up.
 
Christer said:
It's one thing to be earnest and genuine and it is another thing to competently manage a multitude of businesses and projects at once. The little I've seen of the completionist screams over worked and burned out and his demeanor is always at the cusp of depressed.

Not to minimize the seriousness of this, but I do think that it is pretty likely that there isn't malicious intent here and just someone in over their head that has mismanaged this. But we will see. If it turns out the money has been embezzled that's a whole other thing. But based on the information presented so far I think the most likely scenario is that Jirard is guilty of serious neglect and mismanagement.
Click to expand...
It's not Jirard alone who is running this charity, but his whole family. You think they were all so overworked for ten years that they couldn't find an organisation to donate to? Why keep running it and make new donation drives year after year? Come on.
 
Nmanic said:
That said, I still don't love framing it as "pocketing the money". That has a very clear connotation of Open Hand being a front for personal enrichment, which doesn't seem to be an accusation even the video is making.
Click to expand...

I get what you're saying, but quite literally they were pocketing the money. It's, allegedly, just sitting in accounts owned by Jirard's family's charity while they lie about "every cent" of it being donated. I agree that the connotation of saying "pocketed" is more that they personally took it, but it was still pocketed instead of being donated.

I'm very interested to know what happened to any interest on those accounts, how much of it was expensed to run the fundraising events, and, of course, whether the money is even still there.
 
daybreak said:
I get what you're saying, but quite literally they were pocketing the money. It's, allegedly, just sitting in accounts owned by Jirard's family's charity while they lie about "every cent" of it being donated. I agree that the connotation of saying "pocketed" is more that they personally took it, but it was still pocketed instead of being donated.

I'm very interested to know what happened to any interest on those accounts, how much of it was expensed to run the fundraising events, and, of course, whether the money is even still there.
Click to expand...
I guess we just have a different view on what it means to pocket it. If the money were with Jirard or his family in their personal bank accounts and it's been proven they used it on like... Luxury or personal expenses, that would be pocketing to me. Right now, it's seemingly staying in a spot people expected it to go to, and hasn't been spent, but there is negligence and a lie about it having gone elsewhere as people expected.

My main point is that pocketing I think has a strong implication that the money has been diverted for personal gain. That hasn't been proven yet, even if it's possible, and is an accusation the video that started this thread did not even make.
 
Sahasrahla said:
It's not Jirard alone who is running this charity, but his whole family. You think they were all so overworked for ten years that they couldn't find an organisation to donate to? Why keep running it and make new donation drives year after year? Come on.
Click to expand...
To add onto this, you have to file a tax return every year for a non-profit. They're usually not returns you can just knock out in 15 minutes either. You need to detail the sources of your largest donations, and detail the activities you're doing to raise funds.

Also people need to stop splitting hairs over semantics like what the definition of "pocketing" means. The bottom line is the money hasn't been donated like it was supposed to.
 
BassForever said:
people need to stop splitting hairs over semantics like what the definition of "pocketing" means. The bottom line is the money hasn't been donated like it was supposed to.
Click to expand...
This is about a point I made so I feel the need to respond. I said in my original post that what's happening is bad, negligent, a lie and people deserve answers. I also simultaneously think it's important to not add on additional accusations/conclusions until we know more. I think this is a perfectly reasonable point to add to the discussion.
 
Given the implications, I think Open Hands needs to be audited officially by the responsible agencies. This isn't something that can be resolved by hearing their side of the story or whatever, they shouldn't answer just to the gaming community anymore at this point. It's a legal matter.
 
Raysu Delight said:
The number of friends/other content creators coming out and leaping to his defence with the "stop jumping to conclusions, Jirard is one of the nicest people I've met" takes is actually insulting. It's inexcusable what has happened here, even in the most charitable light possible he has still knowingly lied to the public about where their money is going while asking for their donations.

I don't give a fuck how nice he is, or how good of a friend he is; what he has been doing is utterly abhorrent and nobody would be defending him if he didn't have the status that he's managed to build up over several years on youtube.
Click to expand...
100% this. It’s incredible how many people on twitter who usually cast immediate judgement when it’s a business, executive, or person they don’t really know involved are all the sudden in a ‘wait-and-see’ mode.

If I cared enough and had too much free time I would dig up their tweets around the Helena Taylor debacle and shove it in their faces. Lots of folks sure quick to jump to conclusions on that one.

Edit: though perhaps the internet at large is learning that jumping to conclusions is actually wrong. I should stress I prefer a wait and see, get both sides of the story, make judgements approach.
 
Aether said:
Isn't normal boots not quadrupole dead by this point? Or does it still somehow exist?

And: what's with peanut butter gamer?
Never heard anything about him.
Click to expand...
I don't think there's anything that happened with PBG that I'm aware of. I double checked and Normal Boots still technically exists, but it's mostly a different group. Apparently Did You Know Gaming? is a part of them now so that's pretty neat. Had no idea.
 
Samurai Goroh said:
I don't think there's anything that happened with PBG that I'm aware of. I double checked and Normal Boots still technically exists, but it's mostly a different group. Apparently Did You Know Gaming? is a part of them now so that's pretty neat. Had no idea.
Click to expand...
just look at the subreddit. they are a "group" in the furthest sense there is, they have some merch that has normal boots ...and thats it. no crossover, no collective intro splash screen, no video update on the normal boots channel in 2 years, the X handle only retweets the individual channels, thats it.

In my book normal boots is dead by any metric.
 
KingOnion said:
100% this. It’s incredible how many people on twitter who usually cast immediate judgement when it’s a business, executive, or person they don’t really know involved are all the sudden in a ‘wait-and-see’ mode.

If I cared enough and had too much free time I would dig up their tweets around the Helena Taylor debacle and shove it in their faces. Lots of folks sure quick to jump to conclusions on that one.

Edit: though perhaps the internet at large is learning that jumping to conclusions is actually wrong. I should stress I prefer a wait and see, get both sides of the story, make judgements approach.
Click to expand...
It's also easy to jump to conclusions or "write people off" when it's a stranger you don't know and never interact with outside of watching their content.

It's something entirely different when it's someone you're very close to irl. Like imagine if you heard an accusation of one of your closest friends who's never even shown a hint of being problematic was suddenly exposed like this. You'd probably be in a bit of shock and want to give them the benefit of the doubt no matter how bad it looks.
 
BassForever said:
Like imagine if you heard an accusation of one of your closest friends who's never even shown a hint of being problematic was suddenly exposed like this.
Click to expand...
I think the point about people not wantong to believe bad stuff about their friends is broadly true, but it's worth noting that Jirard remained friends with (and I believe continued to work with) JonTron after he said a whole bunch of heinous, racist shit, so I don't think it's quite true to say he's "never even shown a hint of being problematic"
 
0
Not much to add: Not many ways for this to turn out regardless of Jirard's intentions. A terrible situation that is disappointing.

I will personally wait before I say anything more.
 
Why are so many people giving him the benefit of the doubt? It has been 10 years of nothing being donated, not one or even two. No ones goodwill last for that long
 
Pechan said:
Why are so many people giving him the benefit of the doubt? It has been 10 years of nothing being donated, not one or even two. No ones goodwill last for that long
Click to expand...
Well, I don't know if anyone is giving benefit of the doubt in terms of "there is something bad happening". Everyone seems to agree negligence/mismanagement is at play.

But by his own words, he's only been aware of this issue since 2022 and it has not been established whether the money being withheld was for personal enrichment, or if genuinely they just have been twiddling their thumbs for seemingly no good reason.

So yeah, as far as I can see everyone agreed a massive mistake was made. And no matter how you slice it, the most recent show had Jirard knowingly lying while asking for money. That's gonna be the big one that sticks for me, personally. The benefit of the doubt is in regards to whether or not something even more nefarious happened (like manipulating charity funds for personal gain)
 
Nmanic said:
But by his own words, he's only been aware of this issue since 2022 and it has not been established whether the money being withheld was for personal enrichment, or if genuinely they just have been twiddling their thumbs for seemingly no good reason.
Click to expand...
I find the latter to be extremely implausible given the 2023 fundraising campaigns that made no mention of this issue. Ignorance is not a valid excuse at that point, but Jirard kept up the charade knowing full well that the money was going nowhere. This would not happen if Jirard wasn't a willing participant in the scheme.

All of the available facts and details show that we're way past the point where the benefit of the doubt is warranted.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Mer.Saloon said:
Not much to add: Not many ways for this to turn out regardless of Jirard's intentions. A terrible situation that is disappointing.

I will personally wait before I say anything more.
Click to expand...
At this point Jirard has to lawyer up, you're probably not going to hear much from him until they have a clear path for how to resolve the situation with minimal risk of prosecution.
 
BassForever said:
At this point Jirard has to lawyer up, you're probably not going to hear much from him until they have a clear path for how to resolve the situation with minimal risk of prosecution.
Click to expand...
Well Jirard kept contacting jontron after he, the son of Iranian immigrants, came out as a white supremacist accusing people of color and especially immigrants, of destroying white culture.

Jirard (and also PBG / Peanut Butter Gaming) even went to jontron's wedding afterwards, so yeah, I guess we can always excuse friends for being massive pieces of shit.
 
Last edited:
0
Aether said:
just look at the subreddit. they are a "group" in the furthest sense there is, they have some merch that has normal boots ...and thats it. no crossover, no collective intro splash screen, no video update on the normal boots channel in 2 years, the X handle only retweets the individual channels, thats it.

In my book normal boots is dead by any metric.
Click to expand...
I would consider it on life support just because the brand technically still exists. But yeah the idea of what normal boots was died a while ago, and honestly the brand might dissolve after this whole deal with Jirard.
 
InsaneZero said:
Ignorance is not a valid excuse at that point, but Jirard kept up the charade knowing full well that the money was going nowhere.
Click to expand...
I agree, and said as much in the post you replied to. This is the part that imo is the most damning. Even if he was totally ignorant until 2022, why did the recent stream go up with the same claims made? There's nothing salvageable there.

I guess for me the part where I've been withholding any judgment is if this is the most nefarious scenario-- Jirard is intentionally misleading people so that he can personally make money off of this. The reason I give the benefit of the doubt there is because the evidence provided does not support this conclusion. It's also not a claim made by either of the videos, which I did watch all of. The damning thing those vids talk about is the lies, negligence and questioning of the admin cost. That last bit is the part that maybe could lead to something worse, but not on the scale of Jirard embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars wilfully and maliciously. That's the only thing I am giving benefit of the doubt for. With everything else I have tried to be clear in each of my posts that I agree about the wrongdoing happening.
 
thoughthaver said:
well a certain federal agency won't be giving him the benefit of the doubt
Click to expand...
They have the resources and the authority to get the truth out of him.
Rando users on Fami are not the same.

I hope it's not malicious and would rather it's stupidity. They'd still need to pay, but at least they're not total scum.
 
Honestly jirard for the the last say 5 years seemed to run on fumes, could be that what to do with it doesn't fit in his "need to make content" brain while the raising of the funds does.

(Not to argue for him, it's still a no go, his whole business concept just seems baffling to me)
 
0
Nmanic said:
I guess we just have a different view on what it means to pocket it. If the money were with Jirard or his family in their personal bank accounts and it's been proven they used it on like... Luxury or personal expenses, that would be pocketing to me. Right now, it's seemingly staying in a spot people expected it to go to, and hasn't been spent, but there is negligence and a lie about it having gone elsewhere as people expected.

My main point is that pocketing I think has a strong implication that the money has been diverted for personal gain. That hasn't been proven yet, even if it's possible, and is an accusation the video that started this thread did not even make.
Click to expand...

eh i'd say that even just assuming the numbers in the filings are all accurate and the money claimed to still be there is and it also wasn't being used for anything like collateral on a loan or something then more than $100k in "administrative expenses" over the years for a charity that doesn't actually even do anything is still "pocketing" the money on some level, it's just not pocketing ALL the money
 
0
Pretty crazy situation. I like Jirard’s stuff, but the situation is cut-and-dried regardless of what his story is.

People donated under the pretence that their money was going to charity to make a difference, and it’s been sitting in a bank account untouched for years without notice. Even if there’s no nefarious reason behind it — which you’d hope there isn’t — it ultimately doesn’t matter. The fact he’s been aware of it since (at least) last year and still didn’t say anything also doesn’t help his case. He could’ve come forward and explained long before the videos came out, but he chose not to.
 
0
Hey everyone,

While this bit of news coming to light is definitely important and warrants the discussion; as some members have brought up in this thread, Karl Jobst has been known to have ties to right wing figures and neo nazis.

We believe protecting the community from people like this and not giving their content extra exposure and legitimization, is more important than hosting the thread as is.

Feel free to make a new thread to discuss this news without using Karl Jobst as a source.

-Tangerine Cookie, MissingNo, xghost777
 
Status
Not open for further replies.


Back
Top Bottom