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The Fyre Festival Guy Is Starting A New Project Behind Bars, Insists It’s Not A Scam

   DailyWire.com
Billy McFarland attends Magnises and Emir Bahadir Host THE WHITE PARTY at Private Residence on March 2, 2014 in New York City.
Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Billy McFarland, the man behind the infamous “Fyre Festival” failure and fraud, is working on a new project while in prison and insists this one isn’t a scam.

McFarland, in an exclusive interview with The New York Post, said prison had changed him and that now that coronavirus is keeping people home – and away from federal prisons – he has started a crowd-funding endeavor to help other inmates gain the ability to call their loved ones during the outbreak.

“Coronavirus is driving families apart . . . and visits are canceled across every federal prison,” McFarland told the Post. “I’m launching an initiative called Project-315 to bring together and connect in-need inmates and their families who are affected by coronavirus. We’re going to pay for calls for as many incarcerated people across the country as possible.”

Speaking with the Post on the phone from Elkton Federal Correctional Institution in Lisbon, Ohio, McFarland said he was a changed man since his days selling a fantasy island-music experience to the wealthy.

“I see the important things in life . . . way more” he told the Post. “I got lost during Fyre — thinking that I had to make it work at all costs. I realize how immature and wrong that thought process was. I’ve grown up in jail.”

“There’s no question I totally messed up. It really makes me sick,” he added.

As the Post reported, McFarland, 28, “was sentenced to six years in prison and three years’ probation for wire fraud in relation to his ill-fated April 2017 Bahamas-based music Fyre Festival.” He was also ordered to pay $26 million in restitution to those he hurt with the Fyre Festival.

Instead of focusing on restitution, it appears he’s now looking to raise money to pay for inmates’ $3.15 standard cost for each 15-minute phone call to and from the prison. He’s raising that money on Project-315.com and insists this isn’t a scam.

“It’s totally reasonable that people would think this is a scam. The good thing is, this isn’t for me — it’s for the families of inmates, who are suffering because of what their loved ones did,” he told the Post, adding that he has friends “contributing off the bat” to “help the first few thousand families.”

“I have a small business team of four or five people, a mix of tech and entertainment people” helping as well, none of whom were involved in the Fyre festival.

“All the money that’s coming in is going directly to the initiative,” he added. “I’m not on any of the bank accounts or documents and I don’t have access to any of the funds.”

It does not appear as though the Post verified that McFarland was not connected to the bank accounts or documents.

McFarland also told the Post he still wants to make something like Fyre Festival happen.

“I want to focus on the theme of Magnises [the now-defunct credit card company he founded] and Fyre, which was to bring people together and create value through that,” he told the Post.

Those who watched either of the Fyre Festival documentaries will recall the credit card company was geared toward wealthy millennials in big cities who would use the exclusive card to gain perks.

If you’re skeptical, you’re not alone.

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