MrBeast Accuses Ex-Worker Of Hiding Cameras And Stealing Secrets In Scathing Lawsuit
MrBeast, a.k.a. Jimmy Donaldson, is taking former employee Leroy Nabors to court claiming that prior to being fired, Nabors had downloaded company secrets, employee and financial information, and intellectual property content, which totals up to a breach of contract. Donaldson even alleges that Nabors installed hidden cameras in Beast Industries office spaces. This case follows a cloudy legal history not just for Donaldson, but also for Nabors.
Many people know the popular (and controversial) YouTube personality MrBeast as a guy who runs around with a bunch of cameras performing big-budget stunts and challenges. Since those 'simpler' days, MrBeast, formally known as Jimmy Donaldson, has grown into an IP empire, launching his own brand of snacks, a burger chain, and the controversial Beast Games reality TV show. Of course, handling this expanded operations, Donaldson's company Beast Industries is no slouch—it employs about 350 people and apparently has no signs of slowing down. The company pulled in $473 million in 2024 (based on a Business Insider report), with revenue projections at $899 million this year, and on course to $4.78 billion by 2029. Yowza.
In the meantime, MrBeast is embroiled in another lawsuit. According to an uncovered court filing, Donaldson is suing Leroy Nabors, a former employee, for stealing strategic plans, breaching his contract, and installing hidden cameras throughout company offices. Nabors began his relationship with MrBeast as an IT contractor for two years (beginning in July 2023) working on Beast servers that contained, among other things, post-production Beast content. Nabors subcontracted management of the IT network to his daughter's company, Vine Networks.
Nabors was eventually hired on as an employee of Beast Industries within the development department handling content production, fundraising, and political advocacy; with the amount of sensitive information his role was exposed to, Nabors signed a non-disclosure agreement. On Oct 1, 2024, due to undisclosed reasons, Nabors was fired from his job.
The court documents state that upon reviewing Nabors company activities while under employment, it was found that Nabors downloaded "more than one thousand Beast confidential files" which included "highly confidential information about business strategy, financial information, capitalization tables, financing documents, individual employee personal information, and other MrBeast intellectual property."
Donaldson's lawyers believe that Nabors downloaded the files knowing that his termination was impending. Nabors calls what he did routine backup. The lawsuit also alleges that Nabors installed multiple hidden cameras throughout Beast Industries offices, with access controlled by Nabors and Vine Networks.
Nabors wiil have an uphill battle trying to prove himself in this court case. As recently as 2022, Nabors was sued by an IT contracting company he founded, Edu-Net, for pilfering millions of dollars in revenue and profits from Edu-Net to HSC Solutions, a competing company run by his daughter.
