For those who don't know who TheFatAussieBarstard is he is one of the most popular Australian Vloggers and plays the character of a bogan (The Aussie equivalent of a hillbilly) In real life he does some kind of computer repair work if I remember right.
This is basically what happened.
Now I did message FatAussieBarstard telling him that I heard the news and I am willing to wait to hear his side of the story. Dozens of videos have gone up already calling him a thief and a fraud and the like. His response is copied below.
Well the interview he gave to the TV stations is out so I am assuming this is his official response. I will now give my opinion on what he did wrong. Let me make this clear from the get go. While I do believe the FatAussieBarstard did wrong, I do not believe it was his intention to steal money from a charity. Some of his decisions was poor judgement and others were just plain stupid. However, I do NOT believe him to be a con-artist.
Lets review the points he brought up in this interview.
From TheFatAussieBarstard "All the money goes to Charity"
For those who are interested here is my 3 video playlist of me raising money for the red cross
Update: Friday July 20th, 2012
TheFatAussieBarstard uploaded two videos. The first announcing that his explanation is coming, and then his explanation. Both videos are embedded in order. He has since removed the videos.
TheFatAussieBarstard The Tooth Conspiracy July 18, 2012
TheFatAussieBarstard Open Apology to YouTubers July 19, 2012
From the couple who bought the tooth and thought their money was going to charity
In his apology, he does come clean and admit that he is guilty as charged and didn't try to dodge around the issue. However the one thing lacking from this apology is an explanation as to why he did it. For someone who has previously looked at this man as a man of honor and integrity, it doesn't make any sense to me why he would do it.
A few days ago he uploaded this 17 minute rant against people who came out against him even some friends of his.
While I understand his anger, I want TheFatAussieBarstard to know that his friends feel betrayed by him. He is the one who needs to rebuild his reputation with them.
This is basically what happened.
Now I did message FatAussieBarstard telling him that I heard the news and I am willing to wait to hear his side of the story. Dozens of videos have gone up already calling him a thief and a fraud and the like. His response is copied below.
Well the interview he gave to the TV stations is out so I am assuming this is his official response. I will now give my opinion on what he did wrong. Let me make this clear from the get go. While I do believe the FatAussieBarstard did wrong, I do not believe it was his intention to steal money from a charity. Some of his decisions was poor judgement and others were just plain stupid. However, I do NOT believe him to be a con-artist.
Lets review the points he brought up in this interview.
- At 1:51 in the video he claimed $4,500 dollars in traveling expenses to deliver the tooth in person. According to the interview he had to fly from Brisbane to Sydney. Even First class I can't find a plane ticket over 1000 dollars. You can search yourself. Of course you can include a hundred dollars per day for a luxury rental car, perhaps another 100 for a fancy hotel. How the smurf did you come up with $4,500 in travel expenses when you only had 733 Km or 455 miles? Which if you put a full day into it should be about a one day drive or a few hours on a plane.
- At 2:01 into the video it says that the FatAussieBarstard paid himself for any time he spent on the auction. You ran a ebay auction and posted a YouTube video promoting it. I did a similar fundraiser 2 years ago for the red cross. I cut my hair put it on ebay and made a video promoting it. I also walked right into the red cross office to hand them the money with cameras rolling. The time I spent on the auction was basically a few minutes. The biggest part of my day was taking the bus all the way to the only Red Cross office in town that accepted cash donations. I am sorry FAB, but you are not in the charity business. If you were to do fundraising for a living, then yes it would be ok for you to be paid for your time. However this was a ebay auction and a YouTube video. Promoting this took no effort on your part. It is called running a YouTube channel. If your intention was to raise money for the charity then raise money for the charity and don't worry about being compensated for the 5 minutes it took you to put this on ebay.
- At 2:49 the news story relays your claim that the reason you did not hand over the money to the hospital is because they wouldn't allow you to film. Well one, you could just do what I did with the Red Cross, I will embed my video playlist below, or you could make an online donation. By going to their website I found their online donation page, they use a site called Working Wonders, and you could have filmed the video with your camera and simply blacked out your personal information. Now if you were to watch my video for the Red Cross, you will see it wasn't easy donating cash to the Red Cross, however I kept at it until I found a way. The mistake you made was giving up to easily.
You then did something rather foolish. You claim you gave the remainder of the money in cash to homeless people on the street. By your own admission you have no evidence of this. We have to take you at your word, and I am willing to do that. However as a former homeless person I can tell you giving out money to homeless people is not the best way to help them. Even if they don't spend it on drugs or booze, they will spend it and usually not very wisely. The few times people gave me some extra cash I usually spent it on a bottle of soda or something like that.
Shelters, soup kitchens, rehab centers can stretch your dollar and maximize it's use. Food pantries is another good place to spend your money. The rehab centers help people kick addictions and help them find homes and become independent. Many shelters have job training programs that they either work with or sponsor themselves. Soup kitchens get a lot of their food donated or at cost and can feed hundreds of people on just a few dollars.
From TheFatAussieBarstard "All the money goes to Charity"
However your money was promised to the children's hospital. I do think you owe them something. Nobody expects you to come up with over $6,000 out of your own pocket but I think a thousand dollars is a reasonable expense. Essentially you need to come out and say that you screwed up, you made poor decisions and hopefully enough of your viewers can forgive you.
For those who are interested here is my 3 video playlist of me raising money for the red cross
Update: Friday July 20th, 2012
TheFatAussieBarstard uploaded two videos. The first announcing that his explanation is coming, and then his explanation. Both videos are embedded in order. He has since removed the videos.
TheFatAussieBarstard The Tooth Conspiracy July 18, 2012
TheFatAussieBarstard Open Apology to YouTubers July 19, 2012
From the couple who bought the tooth and thought their money was going to charity
In his apology, he does come clean and admit that he is guilty as charged and didn't try to dodge around the issue. However the one thing lacking from this apology is an explanation as to why he did it. For someone who has previously looked at this man as a man of honor and integrity, it doesn't make any sense to me why he would do it.
A few days ago he uploaded this 17 minute rant against people who came out against him even some friends of his.
While I understand his anger, I want TheFatAussieBarstard to know that his friends feel betrayed by him. He is the one who needs to rebuild his reputation with them.
