MrBeast probe ends with some employees fired but finds no proof of sexual misconduct allegations

recent YORK — Online video production corporation MrBeast said Friday it has fired somewhere between 5 to 10 employees following an investigation into the YouTube empire’s workplace population.

A corporation spokesman declined to put a precise number on the firings, declare which employees were let leave or for what reasons. But the shakeup comes as Jimmy Donaldson, who draws millions of views under the MrBeast alias with highly produced stunts and giveaways, deals with accusations of impropriety against himself, his collaborators and others within his multimillion-dollar production corporation that have threatened his household-amiable image.

Investigators only identified “several isolated instances of workplace harassment and misconduct,” according to a two-page note sent Friday by Alex Spiro, a trial lawyer who led the investigation by white-shoe law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and whose clients have included Jay-Z and Elon Musk.

The nearly three-month probe concluded that there was no basis behind allegations that MrBeast throng members committed sexual misconduct or “knowingly” employed people with “proclivities or histories towards illegal or questionable legal conduct.”

Spiro said the throng interviewed 39 current and former employees. Millions of documents from phones, emails, and messaging platforms including Discord and Slack were also reviewed, according to the note.

The controversies surrounding the so-called King of YouTube began snowballing this summer. Ava Tyson, a Donaldson partner and fellow creator accused of sharing inappropriate sexual messages with minors over multiple years, left the channel in July. Also circulated online by YouTuber Rosanna Pansino was a 2017 recording of Donaldson making racist comments and using homophobic slurs.

A preliminary July shoot for his ambitious “Beast Games” Amazon Prime Video display was quickly hit with safety complaints from some contestants who said they faced “limited sustenance” and “insufficient medical staffing” while competing for a $5 million grand prize.

MrBeast in turn has hired recent executives, including a head of personnel and a general counsel, according to Spiro, and additional employees are getting “targeted training and executive coaching” for undisclosed violations of corporation policy.

The corporation “has grown exceedingly quickly from a YouTube commence-up comprised of a throng of talented youthful individuals to a much larger entity,” Spiro wrote to MrBeast’s Board of Directors. “It is not uncommon that policies and practices essential in a mature corporation would lag behind commercial achievement.”

Donaldson has largely remained silent on the matters. He recently launched a prepacked lunch brand alongside internet personalities Logan Paul and KSI — marking his latest entrance into the food trade after his chocolate bar and burger chain were met with mixed reviews. His 325 million YouTube subscribers have continued to view their feeds filled with outlandish, high-vigor videos like the recently titled “100 Identical Twins Fight For $250,000.”

In a Friday post on X sharing Spiro’s note, Donaldson wrote that he “was asked to refrain from making community statements to enable a detailed and unbiased investigation.”

Pansino, one of Donaldson’s most vocal critics, responded on X that the findings of “workplace harassment and misconduct” and “multiple firings” cruel “it might be period for a bigger investigation.”

Donaldson’s level of fame and growth place him in “pretty rare corporation,” said advertising lawyer Robert Freund, whose habit helps creators resolve disputes. He said he suspects the note was released in attempt to assure stakeholders “that he’s running a professional operation.”

“I don’t view anything fishy or suspicious about what we’ve been presented with here as the community,” Freund told The Associated Press.

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