MrBeast Released a Video "Curing" the Blindness of 1,000 People — Some Think It Was a Scam

In his years of internet fame, uber-successful content creator MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, has been no stranger to controversy — especially in 2024. Most recently, the YouTuber and career philanthropist has been facing some heat from fellow content creator Rosanna Pansino, who exposed MrBeast's Lunchly brand for containing mold, leaked chat logs between the creator and his controversial crew, and even reported him to the FBI for some shady dealings.

Now, however, fans are taking a look back at one of his videos from early 2023 in which he claimed to have helped "cure" the blindness of 1,000 people across the globe. According to some sources, it was actually a clout-chasing scam.

Here's what we know.

On Jan. 28, 2023, MrBeast uploaded a YouTube video titled "1,000 Blind People See For The First Time." In intro of the video, he made an incredibly bold claim: "In this video, we're curing 1,000 people's blindness."

Throughout the course of the video, MrBeast tells viewers that he provided the funding for 1,000 people to receive eye surgery to restore their eyesight; patients ranged in age and had varying degrees of vision impairment, but by the end of the video, they could all see again thanks to the generosity of MrBeast and his financial contributions.

Right?

Well, according to one organization that performed some of the surgeries in the video, this may not have been the case. While MrBeast was present for a portion of the surgeries taking place in the U.S., in order to carry out his mission of restoring folks' eyesight across the globe, he partnered with a group called SEE International to coordinate surgeries in a plethora of other countries.

SEE's role in the operation was reportedly to facilitate the sending of necessary supplies to the international organizations involved — including one called Mission Flight, which is based out of Mexico.

However, a recent YouTube video from Mission Flight has alleged that they never received any funding from MrBeast or his team.

In the now-deleted video, Mission Flight explains that they were one of the international nonprofit clinics featured in the video, and that they do regularly perform eyesight restoration procedures like the ones depicted in MrBeast's video. But there are two problems: They never consented to being featured in the video, and they never got a dime from the creator.

"In his video, he claims that he is going to pay for 1,000 surgeries, including surgeries in this clinic," one of the directors of Mission Flight says. "He actually shows [one of our surgeons] ... performing a surgery in his video. But we never received any kind of compensation at all."

According to multiple sources, the amount that would have been owed to Mission Flight based on the claims made in the video was over $120,000.

On Reddit, an additional statement from Mission Flight shed some additional light on the situation and how it got so mixed up.

"SEE International asked if they could do a promotional video for themselves showcasing some of the places their supplies are being used," they explained. "We had no idea that MrBeast was involved until his video was posted ... Yes, SEE received $100k from Jimmy, but their bandages and supplies are not the same thing as paying for surgeries to cure blindness as claimed by Jimmy, and we haven't received a penny from SEE, either."

At the end of their video, the Mission Flight spokesperson addresses MrBeast directly, urging him to make things right.

"Jimmy, we've tried reaching out to you via registered mail, phone calls, messages," he said. "Get in touch with us. Give us a call. We'd love to make things right."

And as of writing, it appears that that's exactly what has happened. Eight months after the posting of their video, following a huge amount of public pressure to address the issue, Mission Flight has confirmed that a representative for MrBeast has been in touch with the organization to right their wrongs.

"Because of the outpouring of support from the viewers, someone from MrBeast reached out to us on Oct. 31, 2024, and didn't realize the funds given by MrBeast to another organization didn't actually make it to us," they explained.

"They apologized for the lack of communication and immediately made good on the claim to have paid for the surgeries. Thank you to the online community for helping us reach MrBeast, which was the only purpose of our video."