Billy McFarland on Ja Rule Accepting a Proffer Agreement During Fyre Fest Investigation (Part 9) — Transcript

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1. 0:06okay so you get arrested yeah and you
2. 0:08make bail yes how much was bail um I had
3. 0:12to give it was technically a $300,000
4. 0:14Bond but only $50,000 in actual like
5. 0:18cash okay not like literal cash but
6. 0:19$50,000 in money and the rest like you
7. 0:21signed I signed a bond right so you had
8. 0:23the money to actually make bail yourself
9. 0:25or you had to get someone to do it for
10. 0:26you
11. 0:27um I had $50,000 at that point I think
12. 0:31it had to come from a a third party I
13. 0:33think you could you couldn't use money
14. 0:35that you gotten illegally or whatever it
15. 0:36was for it so I think a third party had
16. 0:39to put it up for me but I'm not not
17. 0:40exactly sure where it came from yeah
18. 0:42okay
19. 0:44well at one point I guess after the FBI
20. 0:47came to see you your lawyer got a call
21. 0:49from J ru's
22. 0:51lawyer yes right yeah and J ru's lawyers
23. 0:55said they're offering J Ru a profer
24. 0:58agreement yes now for those who don't
25. 1:01know a profer agreement means you sit
26. 1:04down with law enforcement and you tell
27. 1:07them everything that you know and you
28. 1:09can't be charged with anything that you
29. 1:11tell them unless you're lying of course
30. 1:14but that that only applies for that day
31. 1:16if you choose to incriminate yourself
32. 1:18later on you could get charged but that
33. 1:20day you can Co fully
34. 1:22cooperate and not be charged with
35. 1:24anything
36. 1:25yourself yeah so I didn't know what it
37. 1:27meant and I just remember my reaction
38. 1:30being oh let me call him and he's like
39. 1:32you absolutely cannot call him he's like
40. 1:34I just remember the one line he said if
41. 1:35you call him then I can't represent you
42. 1:37anymore and you know I had no money to
43. 1:39hire more attorneys like you know this
44. 1:41is my guy right and like my my life is
45. 1:43in this attorney's hand so I think he
46. 1:44did a as good of a job as he could have
47. 1:46with an idiot like me but yeah I think
48. 1:49that's what happened I think ultimately
49. 1:51probably the
50. 1:53entire probably all of my employees went
51. 1:55in to to profer I know the FBI when they
52. 1:58when they served me with they went to my
53. 2:01office they went to the the house of
54. 2:03like my assistant like they definitely
55. 2:05my top you know 20 employees they they
56. 2:07went to all of them and just based on
57. 2:10reading the docut I think every single
58. 2:11one of them probably went and profer um
59. 2:14which it sounds crazy right but I think
60. 2:16I understand because like ultimately I
61. 2:18was the one lying to investors and these
62. 2:20other people weren't lying to the
63. 2:21investors so yeah I mean I was I was a
64. 2:24guilty one and like if I was a a young
65. 2:26person or someone with a family too like
66. 2:27it's it's a you know I wouldn't now
67. 2:29having got to jail and like you know
68. 2:31been through that period of life but I
69. 2:32think at that point in time I understand
70. 2:34why they did
71. 2:35it okay because jarro never showed up to
72. 2:39the island right I mean after the
73. 2:41festival was supposed to start no so he
74. 2:43had a concert that like Thursday or
75. 2:45whatever the night before the festival
76. 2:46was supposed to start was so yes he
77. 2:48didn't get there in time okay and then
78. 2:50by the time he found out what was
79. 2:51happening he was like no I'm not I'm not
80. 2:53going but we couldn't like we yeah we I
81. 2:55think like our our accounts got frozen
82. 2:57like as soon as the cheese sandwich at
83. 2:59the internet like
84. 3:01like literally our back accounts are
85. 3:02frozen within minutes so it's like you
86. 3:03literally couldn't even afford to to fly
87. 3:06people in at that point and that was
88. 3:07like a wild experience well you made a
89. 3:08comment about Ja Rule you said
90. 3:09incredible person super charismatic guy
91. 3:11but when the [ __ ] hit the fan he'd
92. 3:13already been to jail so the first chance
93. 3:15to cover his ass he did yeah I think
94. 3:17like as a as a business partner at in
95. 3:20that time frame he was a he was a killer
96. 3:23in a good way right incredible
97. 3:24salesperson extremely charismatic uh
98. 3:27likable by everybody and I think the
99. 3:30fire started as a tech company right and
100. 3:31like the challenge of a venture capital
101. 3:34back tech company is hiring the best
102. 3:36programmers like that's like you're all
103. 3:37competing for the same you know 500
104. 3:39people in New York who can make the best
105. 3:41apps and websites this is in 2016 right
106. 3:43and like he was an incredible person to
107. 3:45recruit this Talent if someone's
108. 3:47choosing between Google and Amazon like
109. 3:49all of a sudden fire comes in and here's
110. 3:51this like super successful rapper who
111. 3:53makes you feel like a million bucks like
112. 3:55now we have a seat at the table where we
113. 3:57ordinarily wouldn't have that seat so I
114. 3:58think he was incredibly effective there
115. 4:00um you know I really liked him but I
116. 4:03think we were close friends for three or
117. 4:05four years whatever it was prior to fire
118. 4:07so know as a person definitely like him
119. 4:09a lot well I mean I guess the question
120. 4:12is if you guys are 50/50
121. 4:15Partners shouldn't both of you have to
122. 4:17take 50-50 responsibility for what
123. 4:20happened or did you do something that he
124. 4:22didn't know about so I was the one lying
125. 4:24to investors um I was like such a bad
126. 4:27criminal it's not even funny like like
127. 4:29people like like people kept asking me
128. 4:31like particularly in oh is there like a
129. 4:33back room was there two set of books
130. 4:35like I was the most open and stupid
131. 4:37criminal of all time I think there was
132. 4:39for the two months prior to fire I
133. 4:41didn't have I never had my own like
134. 4:42credit or debit cards in my pocket
135. 4:44there's probably 20 people who had the
136. 4:46pastor to my bank accounts like if I
137. 4:47needed money I would call someone like
138. 4:48hey like you know why are this person
139. 4:50money like whatever it was like I never
140. 4:52had my own money like all my accounts
141. 4:53were open but like I was so open but I
142. 4:55was also lying at the same time so I
143. 4:57think no one really questioned me
144. 4:58because it seemed like nothing was being
145. 5:00hidden but to try to raise capital I was
146. 5:02lying about the success of the business
147. 5:04to investors and like that was solely on
148. 5:06me so I mean like in
149. 5:08retrospect do you feel that Ja Rule
150. 5:11really didn't have anything to do with
151. 5:12it and shouldn't be charged with
152. 5:13anything or do you think he has some
153. 5:15responsibility and he got off by
154. 5:17cooperating I mean that's such a hard
155. 5:19question I think my feelings have
156. 5:20changed on this time and time again um I
157. 5:23mean like I don't think he had more
158. 5:26culpability than some other people might
159. 5:27have had right um I think I you know at
160. 5:31a 10 out of 10 I had a 10 culpability
161. 5:32and maybe there are some others with one
162. 5:33or two but it was like so overshadowed
163. 5:36by by my culpability okay because at one
164. 5:38point you offer to fight
165. 5:40him to box them over over the money that
166. 5:43was owed yeah I had an offer and I ended
167. 5:44up did fighting four weeks ago now from
168. 5:47today yeah almost almost four weeks ago
169. 5:49um which is top 10 life experience but
170. 5:51right I had an offer to from a great
171. 5:53promoter who would pay back the balance
172. 5:55owed to the Bohemian workers for how
173. 5:58much for dver def it's slow it's like
174. 5:59like $250,000 so like relatively low in
175. 6:01the grand scheme of things right I mean
176. 6:03I know J Ru he's pretty big I probably
177. 6:05put my money on J Ru he'd probably beat
178. 6:07your ass I mean no offense but like I if
179. 6:09I lost I would have no shame right like
180. 6:11if we could do one night and like that
181. 6:13250k is amongst a few hundred people and
182. 6:16like some of those people need it some
183. 6:18some don't as much but like if we can go
184. 6:19literally change 50 people's like lives
185. 6:22right I think this is a around was
186. 6:23around a holiday like it would have been
187. 6:25amazing and to go and do that if I lost
188. 6:26a fight like who cares like that would
189. 6:28have been a [ __ ] awesome moment so
190. 6:29yeah I challenged him for that uh he
191. 6:31didn't take the fight obviously I ended
192. 6:32up fighting somebody else but
193. 6:34yeah right because you and J Rule were
194. 6:37sued for $100 million in a class action
195. 6:41lawsuit uh what ultimately happened well
196. 6:43CU he gets dropped from the lawsuit
197. 6:45right I was in jail so the lawsuit
198. 6:48started right after the festival and
199. 6:50then I think it really picked up steam
200. 6:52when I was in jail uh my only real
201. 6:55memory was they would have like the
202. 6:56local I was in federal prison but they
203. 6:58have the local town like Sheriff come to
204. 7:00serve me at the lawsuit papers every
205. 7:02every like time there's an update in the
206. 7:03case like whatever every six to eight
207. 7:04weeks so you know i' kind of like see it
208. 7:07then I I don't really I think the I
209. 7:10don't know what the final outcome was
210. 7:11but the the ultimate penalty is like
211. 7:12$1,000 dollar or something I think like
212. 7:14the judge basically said you know
213. 7:15they're wrong on 90% of it and like gave
214. 7:18them 10% of the counts for them and it
215. 7:19was like a super small penalty yeah I
216. 7:22actually reached out to J Ru before this
217. 7:23interview to try to get him on the phone
218. 7:25and maybe get you know maybe some info
219. 7:27that's not out there and he just
220. 7:29responded come on VL you know I'm not
221. 7:30into the goofy [ __ ] and that was it
222. 7:32couldn't get on the phone and that's
223. 7:34that I mean I don't blame him but you
224. 7:36know it's my job I'll step into the ring
225. 7:38and see the goofy [ __ ] then okay