Is this a legit movie? Billy asked if he could walk towards the shoreline. I think it is cool. Rents here are crazy.
He said he didn't spend much time in Brooklyn. I was always told I wouldn't be able to live in Brooklyn. It's kind of nice.
After entering guilty pleas for fraud stemming from his role in organizing the Fyre Festival, Mr. McFarland had been free for 15 minutes. After spending close to four years in prison, he didn't seem to want to lay down.
He was posing for a photographer and talking to a reporter at the end of his confinement when he removed his ankle monitor.
He thought it would be a lot of work, but he cut it off with scissors. He wore a dark shirt and navy pants. He wore sneakers that looked like the All Stars but cost $700.
Mr. McFarland, who has little money in the bank, around $26 million in financial amends to make and no immediate job prospects, said he had purchased the shoes before his legal troubles.
He said that his friends joke that his entire wardrobe is from last year.
Mr. McFarland, who dropped out of Bucknell University after less than a year, was the founder of a company called Magnises, whose flagship charge card was marketed as a kind of American Express Black card.
Most of the people who joined were given access to an open bar where he hosted parties. Norman's Cay, a small island that used to be a hub for cocaine-smuggling, is one of the perks of membership.
The site was chosen because it was the location of Mr. McFarland's next invention, an app that would allow people to book celebrities for special events. The party featured more than 30 musical guests and was promoted by Ja Rule and others. The tickets cost a lot.
The finances of the festival were a mess and it was poorly planned.
An intense rainstorm hit before the first attendees arrived.
Disaster relief tents were located on a makeshift camping ground as a result of the people showing up to find out.
The cheese sandwiches that guests were promised in promotional materials were actually served in plastic foam containers.
There is only one photograph of the sad pile of lettuce topped by two tomato slices, above two slices of cheese, and untoasted wheat bread, that has gone public.
The event that stranded thousands of attendees in the Bahamas and left them scrounging for makeshift shelter on a dark beach was canceled without a single performance taking place. Mr. McFarland was charged with fraud less than two months later.
He said that he was taken to the Brooklyn Detention Center. I panicked because I needed to pay everyone back tomorrow or else this is a lie.
There were class action lawsuits.
Mr. McFarland launched a V.I.P. ticket service that promised users tickets he didn't have to events such as the Met Gala and the Broadway musical "Hamilton."
There were new fraud charges.
He added years to his sentence by doing that. I made a lot of bad decisions.
Mr. McFarland posed near the water. He said he couldn't wait to swim.
He took an ride-sharing service to his apartment.
On the curb outside of his new building, he spoke of the wonders of the area. He asked if the street was bad a long time ago. There are a lot of new buildings. He lived in the meatpacking district before the festival. He said that he was 21 when he moved there.
The rent for his new place was paid by his family and friends. His parents are real estate developers in New Jersey.
It had taken a long time for his parents to realize that someone they were so close to was capable of lying. He said that he hurt them and that it was a bad thing.
Did he apologize to his victims? He asked a question of his own.
If you were me, what would you tell them?
He was only allowed to go to the grocery store or the gym during his house arrest. He used his debit card to pay for his membership at the gym. He doesn't believe he can get a credit card.
He lived in an apartment that was Airbnb neutral. A bird of paradise, two money trees, and a white board were the only decorations that were present. The bed was in perfect working order.
Is the work of a cleaning service involved? He said that you wouldn't believe it. I know how to do it.
He started his housekeeping education at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he was first held, before moving to the Otisville Correctional Facility in upstate New York. He said that it was similar to the facility where Martha Stewart spent her time. I made a mistake.
Mr. McFarland was held in solitary confinement for three months, where he said he fell asleep to the sounds of a gang member screaming because of his tattoos.
He was relocated to a low-security federal prison in Ohio.
The coronaviruses epidemic hit in 2020. Mr. McFarland claimed that he was in a high risk category for health problems due to his allergies and asthma. His attempts were not successful. He said that he hoped that the judgement would be clouded. I was not going to leave.
The records don't say why Mr. McFarland spent six months there. His lawyer said in a phone interview that he had written letters to prison officials in an attempt to get him out of solitary confinement. He didn't know why Mr. McFarland was there for so long. The New York Times didn't return calls or emails.
There was a lot of reading done by Mr. McFarland. He said there wasn't anything else to do.
Simon Sinek wrote a book called "Start with Why: How Great leaders inspire everyone to take action." Gregory David Roberts wrote a book called "Shantarum."
He said it was about an Australian who broke out of jail and joined the Indian mob. I think it's really cool.
Mr. McFarland said that he couldn't afford the books, but a friend bought them for him.
Mr. McFarland said he hadn't been reading as much since he got a Mac computer. He said he missed the computer a lot. I didn't miss that much.
He cannot serve as a director of a public company for the rest of his life. He owes more than $25 million to his victims and his earnings will be taken away.
He has a lot of work to be done.
Mr. McFarland doesn't want to write a memoir at the moment.
He said that the book wouldn't pay the money back.
What do you think will happen?
He said he would like to do something tech-based and ordered an egg sandwich and coffee at the restaurant. People are more apt to take risk with technology.
He thinks it would be harder to get back in finance. The technology is more open. The way I failed is completely wrong, but in a way it's ok.
He was sitting at a table in the corner, no one at the coffee shop seemed to notice him. He thinks he could create the most value by creating a tech product. I'm open to both, whether it's within a company or my own company. I will probably make a decision in the next few weeks.
He said he was not particularly interested in the technology, though he would allow people to come together online to effect real world change in a way they previously couldn't.
Mr. McFarland made his first donation while in prison. Project 315 raised money to cover the cost of calls between underprivileged inmates and their families. Fees were free four days after the project launched. The account associated with Mr. McFarland claimed credit. The suspension of fees came after campaigning by Senator Amy Klobuchar and a group of other Democrats.
He said it made him want to work on good works. Mr. McFarland wants to form a charity that will help the families of prisoners.
He met some great people in prison. Half the people are bad and the other half are good. When asked which group he belonged to, Mr. McFarland dodged the question. He thinks he is a better person than he was four years ago.
He wanted people to know that he was sorry for what happened at the festival. He said he deserved his time in prison. I let many people down.
He blamed his choices on immature and arrogant behavior.
He didn't know what he didn't know.
He blamed the tech world, which he said operates by an "end justify the means" ethos.
He wasn't running a decades-long scheme to defraud people of their life savings, after all. He didn't plan for things to end up the way they did.
The local workers in the Bahamas who were stiffed when the festival was canceled got a lot of attention in the two films.
Most of them were working on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis and therefore suffered limited losses. One restaurant owner said in the documentary that she spent $50,000 of her savings preparing for the festival and didn't get any compensation. She told The New York Times that she was due $134,000.
Two of his former employees traveled to New York for a party after he was released from jail.
The principle consigliere in the Exumas said that he had been paid almost all of the money he was owed for the festival. I was well received. I probably didn't get paid for a week. The festival was said to have been good for tourism in the country. He said that a lot of people came after reading about it.
Scooter Rolle, his cousin and travel companion, said he hadn't received a dime of what he was owed for his work in the days before the event. He said he came to clear things up.
Mr. McFarland bought him a lobster roll after the party. He saidBilly tried his best.
He said the biggest sin he had committed was digging himself in deeper with deception.
He told the truth. I believe I was frightened. The fear was letting people know they were wrong.
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