Popular Video Game YouTuber The Completionist, also known as Jirard Khahil, was accused yesterday of withholding over $600,000 in donations for dementia research with The Open Hand Foundation.
Late yesterday, two popular YouTube personalities — Mutahar from SomeOrdinaryGamers and Karl Jobst — uncovered an alleged misappropriation of funds regarding another popular YouTube account, The Completionist’s charitable organization founded by Jirard Khalil (The Completionist himself). The charitable organization is The Open Hand Foundation, and their mission statement is “We are working to help find a cure for Frontotemporal Dementia.”
The foundation was founded back in 2003 by Charles Khalil (and family) but registered as a non-profit organization in 2014. The alleged wrongdoing comes from the method of fundraising itself and usage of those funds, which SomeOrdinaryGamers claims “has been collecting dust” in The Completionist’s bank account instead of being donated.
“For the past 10 years, they’ve (The Open Hand Foundation) raised over $600,000, and it’s all just sitting in their bank account,” Karl Jobst claims in his video, “Since its inception in 2014, the Open Hand Foundation has not contributed a single cent to ANY organization.” Both SomeOrdinaryGamers and Jobst reveal they’ve dug through public tax records or the Foundation since its declaration as a non-profit organization, and the Foundation has brought in ~$110,000 yearly, with $11,000-14,000 paid out for ‘administrative expenses.’ With no money being donated, The Open Hand Foundation has stockpiled its donations to an amount of $655,520.
The Completionist fundraises for The Open Hand Foundation by running an annual charity event called “IndieLand.” In these streams, Khalil passively mentions being partnered with the University of California San Francisco and other organizations while stating that “ALL” of the donations go to The Open Hand Foundation to find a cure for Frontotemporal Dementia. This is despite the public tax records showing The Open Hand Foundation allegedly hasn’t contributed at all to any organization, although the records indicate the charity has raised $655,520.
The Completionist’s brother Jacque Khalil responded to Karl Jobst’s questioning with, “Prior to our official registration as a foundation, we donated body parts for research and made financial contributions to an institution that, in our view, made insufficient progress in the fight against these debilitating conditions. This prior experience has taught us the importance of careful consideration in our partnerships. It is the reason why we continue to search for a proper partner and recipient of our donations,” which alleges the organization did make donations prior to having their records go public. Still, it can’t be proven unless those records are revealed.
Jacque Khalil denied any wrongdoing in this situation, and both Jirard and Jacque have stated they were essentially “looking” for a reputable charity that could use the funds without the aforementioned issue of “insufficient progress.” This is also despite the fact The Completionist channel and IndieLand charitable events continuously claim they have “partnerships” with organizations that the donations go towards, and The Open Hand Foundation has paid thousands of dollars in ‘administrative expenses’ and in nine years has not made a single donation of the stockpiled $655,520
While this situation develops, fans can head over to either SomeOrdinaryGamers or Karl Jobst’s video on the subject, wherein SomeOrdinaryGamer’s video has an interview with Jirard himself, claiming he knew about the funds since 2021.
