BILLY MCFARLAND: FYRE FESTIVAL FOUNDER REVEALS NEXT SCAM (FULL SEND INTERVIEW) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00greetings from New York City this is
2. 0:01Chris Franco thanks for stopping by
3. 0:03there was an interview published just a
4. 0:05few days ago with the creator of the
5. 0:07fire Festival fresh out of prison Billy
6. 0:09McFarland I've literally been out for
7. 0:11just over two months seen him starting
8. 0:13to do the media rounds and try to
9. 0:15reshape The Narrative about what exactly
10. 0:17he did naturally that made me want to
11. 0:19look up his court case we'll get to that
12. 0:20in a second but first I wanted to show
13. 0:22you a couple pieces here from this
14. 0:24interview where I got a little bit
15. 0:25uncomfortable that comment I also think
16. 0:26it's important to note that like you did
17. 0:28do something yeah you something I'm
18. 0:30completely you lied to a bunch of people
19. 0:31but you still were able to pull together
20. 0:33something that like most people couldn't
21. 0:35pull together it's really not that much
22. 0:37of a feat to pull people together when
23. 0:39you're lying about everything you're
24. 0:40doing it's not that hard if we could all
25. 0:42just lie without consequences I'm sure
26. 0:44people could put all sorts of stuff
27. 0:46together at least on paper and raise
28. 0:47money for it but that's illegal you did
29. 0:49tell some lies along the way I were like
30. 0:51regardless regardless you over promise
31. 0:53and under delivered and you and you you
32. 0:55got [ __ ] but stop that's the problem
33. 0:57that's the narrative they're trying to
34. 0:59bring up I'm not saying and the note
35. 1:00guys are doing it deliberately for Billy
36. 1:02McFarland that's the narrative he needs
37. 1:03to have you over promise and under
38. 1:05delivered and you you got in order for
39. 1:07him to ever be able to do anything like
40. 1:09this again which as I learned from this
41. 1:10interview he already has plans to do
42. 1:12something very similar this guy can't
43. 1:14help but scam people like this is just
44. 1:16what he does this is his character and
45. 1:17I'm not hoping that happens I'm just a
46. 1:19realist I'll let you guys be the judge
47. 1:21but first let me just show you what
48. 1:23exactly he did so we can reason from a
49. 1:25place of reality I'll link to this
50. 1:27document in the description if you want
51. 1:28to check it out for yourselves these are
52. 1:30not my allegations I'm reading off the
53. 1:31government document since launching in
54. 1:33May 2016 they said that they had
55. 1:35thousands of offers that represented
56. 1:37tens of millions of dollars when in fact
57. 1:38they had only had 60 bookings that were
58. 1:41confirmed and paid and those 60 bookings
59. 1:43total 57 443 dollars this isn't oh I got
60. 1:46in over my head this is you were lying
61. 1:48the entire time about everything it gets
62. 1:50better and I'm not trying to be the the
63. 1:52referee of the internet but it's like
64. 1:53these people come on these shows in
65. 1:55order to push their narrative and it's
66. 1:57really dangerous because that media you
67. 1:59know is going to be you used to entice
68. 2:00new investors you know look at the
69. 2:02popularity and people still like me this
70. 2:03guy is a con man once a con man always a
71. 2:05con man it stated that fire had acquired
72. 2:07a parcel of real estate in the Bahamas
73. 2:09worth approximately 8 million dollars
74. 2:11certain investors relied on this
75. 2:12purported acquisition and making their
76. 2:13investment decisions here's where it
77. 2:15kicks in in fact fire media never
78. 2:17acquired any real estate in the Bahamas
79. 2:19let me just highlight that again fire
80. 2:21media never acquired any real estate in
81. 2:24the Bahamas how about item 38 the
82. 2:26original offer report generated from
83. 2:28thefireapp.com booking platform included
84. 2:30just 1.459 million in total offers for
85. 2:33the month of January 2017 but the new
86. 2:36fabricated report that they put together
87. 2:37included 34.79 million dollars in
88. 2:40purported total offers for the same time
89. 2:42period okay fraud it says he sent the
90. 2:45offer reports to numerous existing and
91. 2:47potential investors using these false
92. 2:49offer reports among other documents
93. 2:50McFarland repeatedly made false
94. 2:52statements to investors and prospective
95. 2:54investors about the volume of offers
96. 2:56received by Talent Through Fire media's
97. 2:58booking platform it gets even better I
98. 3:00mean this guy is he did his time he paid
99. 3:02his debt to society but I don't think
100. 3:04that he's changed I don't think he will
101. 3:05change and let me just continue on
102. 3:07before I get myself worked up here in
103. 3:09response to requests from at least three
104. 3:11existing and prospective fire Festival
105. 3:12investors that their Investments be
106. 3:14collateralized McFarland created a fake
107. 3:16brokerage statement which showed that
108. 3:18McFarland owned 2.56 million dollars in
109. 3:21shares in the common stock of Facebook
110. 3:22in fact McFarland owned just
111. 3:261499 worth of Facebook shares at the
112. 3:29risk of oversimplifying this him showing
113. 3:31what he has in his brokerage account is
114. 3:33a way for investors to be more
115. 3:34comfortable uh investing with them
116. 3:36because if it all goes to hell he has
117. 3:37something that he can pay back it says
118. 3:39McFarland attached the fake brokerage
119. 3:40statement to at least three executed
120. 3:42investor agreements and made numerous
121. 3:44misstatements concerning his fictitious
122. 3:46shares of Facebook and emails and texts
123. 3:48to other prospective investors it gets
124. 3:50even dirtier in early 2017 in an effort
125. 3:53to keep the struggling fire Festival
126. 3:54afloat McFarland sought millions of
127. 3:56dollars in personal loans from two
128. 3:58well-established Banks to attempt to in
129. 3:59reduce the banks to Grant him loans
130. 4:01McFarland provided false information in
131. 4:03his loan applications including
132. 4:05representations inflating his net worth
133. 4:07and reiterating the false claim that he
134. 4:09owned 2.56 million dollars worth of
135. 4:11Facebook stock he also provided one of
136. 4:13the banks with a copy of the fake
137. 4:15brokerage statement as well as a
138. 4:16fraudulent fire media income statement
139. 4:18which grossly inflated the company's
140. 4:20revenue and income although both the
141. 4:21McFarland's loan applications ultimately
142. 4:23were denied he repeatedly told potential
143. 4:26investors that the loans had been
144. 4:27approved and the monies from these loans
145. 4:29could serve as collateral for their
146. 4:31Investments he emailed he emailed one
147. 4:33investor a screenshot of a fake email
148. 4:35purportedly from a loan officer at one
149. 4:37of the banks which stated that McFarland
150. 4:39had been approved for a three million
151. 4:41dollar loan and that disbursement of the
152. 4:42loan was pending the loan officer not
153. 4:45surprisingly never drafted such an email
154. 4:47he also repeatedly told investors that a
155. 4:49venture capital firm had completed its
156. 4:51due diligence process and decided to
157. 4:53invest more than 10 million dollars in
158. 4:54fire media in fact at the time McFarland
159. 4:57made these false statements to investors
160. 4:58The Venture cap firm already had told
161. 5:01him that it would not invest in fire
162. 5:02media due to McFarland's failure to
163. 5:04provide requested documents you know you
164. 5:06just got an over your head bro no he
165. 5:08didn't okay he's a fraudster I mean this
166. 5:11is unbelievable I just want everyone to
167. 5:12make sure they're aware of this and
168. 5:14investor presentations and emails that
169. 5:15McFarland provided to prospective
170. 5:17investors he also falsely stated that at
171. 5:19least 10 well-known artists had
172. 5:21exclusive contracts with fire media that
173. 5:23is that all their future bookings will
174. 5:24be made through the fire app no such
175. 5:26contracts in fact were ever in place he
176. 5:28told investors that Justin Bieber and
177. 5:30Drake would perform at the fire Festival
178. 5:31when in fact no such agreements were
179. 5:33ever reached okay then back to uh
180. 5:35magnesis I mean guys this is crazy
181. 5:37McFarland made numerous false statements
182. 5:39and created fake documents to create the
183. 5:41illusion that magnesis would be and then
184. 5:43was purchased by a third party buyer for
185. 5:45between 35 to 40 million dollars the
186. 5:47scheme was undertaken in order to create
187. 5:49the false impression let's keep that in
188. 5:51mind false impression for investors and
189. 5:53potential investors that McFarlane was a
190. 5:55successful entrepreneur with a proven
191. 5:57track record of success in at least one
192. 5:59instance McFarland used the fictitious
193. 6:01acquisition to solicit investment in the
194. 6:03fire entities using the purported
195. 6:05post-sale value of magnesis as
196. 6:08collateral there and this is crazy as
197. 6:10part of the scheme McFarland concocted
198. 6:12an ever-changing cast of purported
199. 6:13magnesis buyers first the purported
200. 6:15buyers were an unnamed Consortium of
201. 6:17five companies next they were a group
202. 6:19led by a well-known fashion Mogul then
203. 6:21it was a Connecticut base broker dealer
204. 6:23again all this is fake as recently as
205. 6:25April 2017 McFarland appeared to still
206. 6:28be changing the identity of the buyers
207. 6:29proposing in an email to a colleague
208. 6:31that the buyers could be a mixed group
209. 6:33of celebrities such as Jay-Z and Sean
210. 6:35Combs or P Diddy as well as fire media
211. 6:37investors he invented a name for the
212. 6:39purported buyers Saddleback media
213. 6:42enlisted magnesus's New York City
214. 6:43address as Saddleback media's purported
215. 6:46address in other words McFarland falsely
216. 6:48claimed that magnesis purported
217. 6:49independent buyer was headquartered at
218. 6:52the same location as magnesis it's crazy
219. 6:54the coincidence I mean he's not even
220. 6:56good at this like he's just a scamming
221. 6:58scumbag piece of [ __ ] in my opinion
222. 7:00again it gets better to imbue this
223. 7:02scheme with a gloss of legitimacy he
224. 7:04engaged two large and reputable law
225. 7:06firms to prepare transactional documents
226. 7:09it's easy to unwittingly paper the
227. 7:11fictitious deal he also created a fake
228. 7:13employment retainer agreement between
229. 7:15himself and Saddleback media this
230. 7:17agreement Bears the electronic signature
231. 7:19of saddleback's purported President a
232. 7:21certain Chiefs I mean come on dude uh
233. 7:24made a person and it says here an
234. 7:25individual who on information and belief
235. 7:27does not exist now let's get to magnesis
236. 7:29because magnesis was a fraud that was
237. 7:31the one that you get the card the black
238. 7:33metal credit card and they were doing
239. 7:34events and things like that but he
240. 7:36inflated all the membership numbers all
241. 7:37of the documents misrepresented that
242. 7:39magnesis had between seven thousand and
243. 7:41forty thousand members and that between
244. 7:43March 2014 and August 2015 it had 2.5
245. 7:46million in Revenue according to former
246. 7:48magnesis employees however magnesis
247. 7:50never had more than four thousand to
248. 7:52five thousand members and had Peak
249. 7:54monthly revenues in the range of one
250. 7:56hundred thousand dollars per month so
251. 7:58again lies lie lie lie so he basically
252. 8:01said that the revenue was double what it
253. 8:03was and that the membership was well on
254. 8:05the extreme end like 10 times more than
255. 8:07it was and he used this information in
256. 8:09these inflated numbers to get subsequent
257. 8:11investments in magnesis that they never
258. 8:13would have given him had they known the
259. 8:14truth there's a real pattern of behavior
260. 8:16here this is not just oh I got an over
261. 8:17my head with a fire Festival it was just
262. 8:19you know I just want to have fun and
263. 8:21that gets even better with a ticket scam
264. 8:23they started having tickets like you
265. 8:24could get tough to find tickets through
266. 8:26your magnesis membership magnesis
267. 8:28employees and contractors repeatedly
268. 8:29purchased tickets for magnesis members
269. 8:31at McFarland's behest from public
270. 8:33websites when tickets were unavailable
271. 8:35from public websites however McFarland
272. 8:37nonetheless would promise tickets to
273. 8:39magnesis members only to be unable to
274. 8:41provide them I'm gonna leave us there I
275. 8:42don't want to get too much too deep into
276. 8:43it I mean there's a lot I'll put the
277. 8:45link in the description yeah this guy's
278. 8:46a criminal and he's on this podcast
279. 8:48acting like you know everything's oh
280. 8:50it's all good you know I learned my
281. 8:51lesson let me show you a couple more
282. 8:53things on the YouTube Here show me one
283. 8:55thing I said that's not true today I'm
284. 8:56I'm ready okay magnesis uh we had over
285. 8:5910 000 paying customers that's a lie we
286. 9:02spent 30 million dollars to execute this
287. 9:03Festival that's a lie we had 250 houses
288. 9:06rented lie not true I spent 5.9 million
289. 9:09dollars some amount of money lie the
290. 9:11money that he did get he did fraudulent
291. 9:13things in order to obtain that money
292. 9:14this guy's a scumbag right like he went
293. 9:16to prison paid his debt to society I'm
294. 9:17not trying to hold this against him for
295. 9:19his entire existence but when I saw him
296. 9:20on this podcast he's already talking
297. 9:21about his next thing let me show you
298. 9:23this yeah so working on a company now
299. 9:24it's called pirate it's put it together
300. 9:27in my seventh month stint in solitary he
301. 9:29was in solitary by the way because he
302. 9:30was trying to record a book and he had a
303. 9:33USB recorder which you're not allowed to
304. 9:34have and they sent him to the hole so
305. 9:36he's already trying to scam stuff in
306. 9:38prison if you think about it this is a
307. 9:39compulsively dishonest person overall
308. 9:41goal here with pirate is like want to
309. 9:43make the biggest impact possible and
310. 9:45wanna whoa that sounds like Sam bankman
311. 9:47freed
312. 9:48um I just want to make the the biggest
313. 9:49impact possible pay people back but to
314. 9:52do that I need to do what I'm good at
315. 9:54that's starting a business not a
316. 9:55festival not a festival oh we can get
317. 9:57into that
318. 9:59oh [ __ ]
319. 10:01his guys he's gonna scam again I'd be
320. 10:04willing to bet he ends up back in prison
321. 10:06within the next 10 to 20 years I know
322. 10:07that's not like a crazy bet but and I
323. 10:10think does it in a scale that's a little
324. 10:12bit more interesting this time around
325. 10:13before we get into it when I go back to
326. 10:15the Bahamas for the first time by the
327. 10:17way there's people in the Bahamas locals
328. 10:19in the Bahamas that he completely
329. 10:21screwed over hard-working people there
330. 10:23was one woman from one of the
331. 10:24documentaries who you know she spent
332. 10:26fifty thousand dollars of her personal
333. 10:27savings to help make the fire Festival
334. 10:29Vision come to life and she was totally
335. 10:31left out to dry she ended up I think
336. 10:33getting some love through GoFundMe but
337. 10:34she's one example there's a lot of
338. 10:36people on the island where they were
339. 10:37trying to throw the festival that never
340. 10:39got paid I mean it's really really
341. 10:40atrocious stuff having no regard for you
342. 10:43know hard-working people that you know
343. 10:45are working for you it's the kind of
344. 10:46character trait that is not something
345. 10:47that you fix you know that's someone's
346. 10:49character so I don't know how he's going
347. 10:51to go back to the Bahamas talk about
348. 10:53hubris to think that you're just yeah
349. 10:54we're just gonna go back I don't know
350. 10:56what's gonna happen I have to ask
351. 10:57permission to go but I'd love for you
352. 10:59guys to be there to capture the content
353. 11:01and be the first ones to return boots in
354. 11:03the ground I think full send getting the
355. 11:06reaction from the locals and watch this
356. 11:08is where the uh this scammer charm comes
357. 11:10in because I think the note guys they
358. 11:12seem like they're pretty down
359. 11:20I think I would say to those guys is
360. 11:21like you don't want to be associated
361. 11:22with a guy like this like that rubs off
362. 11:24on you and so if you're hanging out with
363. 11:26scammers not to say that you are a
364. 11:28scammer but it's hard for people to tell
365. 11:30that you're not when you're you know
366. 11:31putting your arms around somebody who is
367. 11:33uh as we just read through those
368. 11:34government documents I mean this guy is
369. 11:36a convicted scammer convicted fraud we
370. 11:38will do the four day weekends that made
371. 11:41the fire Festival idea happen wait till
372. 11:42Steve hears this thing yeah all right so
373. 11:44he's gonna lose it here's your message
374. 11:46in a bottle and you guys can take that
375. 11:48with you but you guys I really hope you
376. 11:51guys can make the first return trip so I
377. 11:53open it right now it's just a little
378. 11:54invitation you guys can open it later
379. 11:56but I hope that you guys can come back
380. 11:57we'll be the first trip yeah it just
381. 11:59disintegrates the paper just
382. 12:01gonna evolve into another festival or is
383. 12:04this is like so what pirate is going to
384. 12:06be it's going to be a small permanent
385. 12:08hotel in the Bahamas for like artists
386. 12:10and entrepreneurs to come and it's like
387. 12:12partake in these crazy Adventures you're
388. 12:14just gonna build it first I'm assuming
389. 12:15we're partnering with a development that
390. 12:17already exists got it so you know we'll
391. 12:19make it our brand should we go dude you
392. 12:21gotta come yeah
393. 12:24I'm going inside you're going too now we
394. 12:27can love it doesn't exist yet just
395. 12:28remember that it doesn't exist yet but
396. 12:30you see what he's doing see how it's
397. 12:31already real like he's got a look at the
398. 12:33invitation look he put in a bottle oh my
399. 12:35God this is legit are you guys are you
400. 12:38guys coming I mean when I'm going I
401. 12:40don't give it yeah so I have to ask
402. 12:42permission to travel yeah it doesn't
403. 12:44even have permission permission to go
404. 12:45and he's already planning a festival
405. 12:46there or planning a a business there due
406. 12:49to my probation status but we will ask
407. 12:50soon well bro I want to do it back the
408. 12:53original trip a few small propeller
409. 12:54planes straight from New York and doing
410. 12:56the whole thing OG status no OG status
411. 12:59like you mean when you stole money from
412. 13:01your investor and use it to you know get
413. 13:03propeller planes to fly all your friends
414. 13:05out there and film a commercial with a
415. 13:06bunch of models that you pay top dollar
416. 13:08to have fly out there as well again with
417. 13:09investor money that was coming from
418. 13:11statements that were completely false
419. 13:12and misleading that's what he means by
420. 13:14Og style the Caribbean and what we can
421. 13:16make happen there by the way he's trying
422. 13:18to like work these guys because they
423. 13:19have a huge brand they have huge reach
424. 13:21it's his Target demo and so if he can
425. 13:23ingratiate himself with the nelk boys in
426. 13:25the full send podcast that's like that's
427. 13:26his thing right He makes himself look
428. 13:29bigger than it is by associating himself
429. 13:31with people that are doing it big right
430. 13:33that's his whole shtick for him to get
431. 13:34on here and then you know really win
432. 13:36these guys over it's it shows you how
433. 13:37talented he is he's a very talented
434. 13:39scumbag
435. 13:40I gotta ask before I agree to this what
436. 13:43do you guys think leave a comment drop a
437. 13:44thumbs up on the video real quick what's
438. 13:47your status with the people of the
439. 13:49Bahamas yeah that's a good point I have
440. 13:50so many close friends there like they're
441. 13:52the warmest yeah what about all the
442. 13:54people you owe money
443. 13:56tiniest people ever the day I got out
444. 13:58like two of my closest friends there
445. 14:00flew up to New York literally for the
446. 14:01first time from the Bahamas spent a week
447. 14:03here with me my business partner has
448. 14:05gone back a couple of times for the past
449. 14:06couple of months who's the business
450. 14:08partner I gotta find that out I'm gonna
451. 14:10stop here you guys get the idea though
452. 14:11the content I share with you guys
453. 14:13through this Channel and other whether
454. 14:14it's the cmq podcast or anything else
455. 14:16I'm doing I wanted to help all of us
456. 14:18avoid you know making bad choices with
457. 14:20our hard-earned dollars because we work
458. 14:22hard for it you know and there's a lot
459. 14:23of people who are working really hard to
460. 14:24get us to part with our money and for
461. 14:26things that are not as advertised on
462. 14:28that note let me leave it here thanks so
463. 14:30much for watching if you enjoyed the
464. 14:31video I hope you'll subscribe I hope
465. 14:32you'll like it leave a comment
466. 14:34appreciate you guys for cmq investing my
467. 14:36name is Chris Franco we'll talk soon
468. 14:38later