There are pros to being a con!
Billy McFarland has been surprised to find that being one of the world’s most infamous scammers is good for business, Page Six hears.
Sources tell us that the Fyre Festival organizer is back in business after being released from prison in March — and has been stunned to find that it’s even easier to get business meetings than it was before he was convicted of fraud.
According to an insider, McFarland, 31, has recently been telling friends “that people have been very kind to him on the streets, asking for photos with him — much to his surprise,” and also that he’s been shocked by “how easy it is for him to get business meetings.”
“It seems as though many people want to meet with McFarland for his marketing skills,” says the insider.
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(We don’t wish to be cynical, but we’re guessing that while execs may indeed have been impressed by his undeniable knack for creating buzz, which was on display in the various documentaries about his criminal escapades, there’s probably also a certain amount of cocktail-party currency in having taken a meeting with him.)
Sources say McFarland is living in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn but hopes to make it back to Manhattan when his new ventures get off the ground.
We hear he’s been keeping pretty quiet, and when he was recently spotted blowing off some steam at upscale sports bar Bounce, he told other guests it was only the second time he’d been out on the party scene since getting sprung.
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In March 2018, McFarland pleaded guilty to defrauding investors of $26 million for his 2017 Caribbean music festival, as well as over $100,000 in a fraudulent ticket-selling scheme he began after his arrest. He was sentenced to six years in prison and served four.
