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MrBeast lays off more employees – Newsweek
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MrBeast lays off more employees – Newsweek

Online video production company MrBeast has laid off a number of employees, it announced on Friday.

The firings followed a three-month investigation into sexual misconduct and workplace misconduct.

MrBeast is the most subscribed YouTube channel in the world and is known for his elaborate stunts. It is run by 26-year-old Jimmy Donaldson, who goes by the name ‘MrBeast’ in his videos and uses the same name for his production company. MrBeast also runs Beast Philanthropy.

The investigation, which was conducted by a firm hired by MrBeast LLC, found no evidence that MrBeast “knowingly” employed people with “propensities or histories of illegal or questionable legal behavior.”

Donaldson shared a letter to his X (ex Twitter) on Friday, written to its board of directors by trial lawyer Alex Spiro. In the post, Donaldson said, “Law firm/investigators reviewed millions of documents/messages and conducted 39 interviews.”

Spiro, an attorney with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, said in the letter that he had found: “several isolated instances of workplace harassment and misconduct.”

He suggested that the company should “quickly exclude people who have violated company policy, regardless of their position or level within the company.”

A company spokesman declined to be specific about the number of layoffs, saying only that the figure was between 5 and 10.

MrBeast LLC was reached by email outside business hours for comment.

The company has recently been rocked by controversy after ex MrBeast contributor Ava Kris Tyson was accused of sharing sexual messages with minors and a 2017 video of Donaldson racist comments and using homophobic language was shared online by YouTuber Rosanna Pansino.

However, the investigation found the claims against Tyson to be “baseless”.

On BBC Reporting on Tyson at the time of the original allegations, she apologized for her “past actions” but said she never groomed anyone, only making “bad jokes.

The person who was named as her victim was also quoted by the BBC as saying: “It was incredibly difficult to have my name thrown out in a public forum without being given the opportunity to share the truth.

“I was not taken care of. These were false accusations made by other people with my name thrown into them.”

MrBeast LLC also suffered a setback in its new Amazon Prime venture, “Beast Games”, as competitors sue the company for “unsafe” employment conditions. They say that because they were making money for the company by competing, they should be treated as employees and that “their work on the show was the entertainment product.”

They also claim that the production team was not offered overtime pay, was not given uninterrupted meal breaks or rest time, and was not paid minimum wage.

Mr Beast Sydney Opera House
MrBeast aka Jimmy Donaldson speaks to the media at the launch of MrBeast Feastables at the Sydney Opera House in Australia on June 26, 2024. MrBeast’s company has fired several employees following a workplace investigation…


Brendon Thorne//Getty Images

A spokesman for MrBeast previously told The Associated Press in an email that he had no comment on the lawsuit.

Spiro said the isolated instances of harassment found in his probe were likely the result of MrBeast growing quickly from being a YouTube page to a full-fledged production company.

He said in the letter to the board: “It is not unusual for core policies and practices in a mature company to lag behind commercial success.”

Spiro is a well-known figure in his own right. He represented the former NFL player Aaron Hernandez during his 2017 double-murder trial and helped Jay-Z’s company, Roc Nation, get rapper 21 Savage out of prison after him. ICE detention in 2019. He is currently representing New York City Mayor Eric Adams on his five federal charges, including bribery and wire fraud.

This article includes reporting from the Associated Press.

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