'Pompous' Fyre Fraudster Billy McFarland Hated By Fellow Prison Inmates
Feb. 25 2019, Updated 8:43 p.m. ET
Billy McFarland, the fraudster behind the failed Fyre Festival, is just as unpopular behind prison walls as he is on the outside, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned.
"None of the prisoners inside Otisville like Billy," said a snitch at the New York prison where where McFarland, 27, is serving a multi-year sentence after he was convicted of wire fraud in 2018. "He is a pompous a**hole!"
"He tries to buy respect from people by being flashy with his money," continued the source. "He calls the inmates that he hires to do his work for him his 'groupies.'"
As RadarOnline.com reported, McFarland scammed investors out of $27.4 million while putting together the hyped-up music festival. Though McFarland enlisted the help of Ja Rule to promote the festival, which promised to be a luxury music experience that "exceeded all expectations," it ended up turning into an absolute disaster when it kicked off in the Bahamas in April 2017.
Instead of a luxe music festival, guests paid thousands for soggy disaster relief tents and cheese sandwiches instead of the expensive beach villas and gourmet food McFarland promised.
Now, according to the Otisville insider, he still refuses to take the blame for his wrongdoings!
"Billy thinks that he should not even be there, and he has said this to everyone who wants to listen to him ramble," the insider told RadarOnline.com. "He tells people inside Otisville that the islanders and the people purchasing the tickets should have educated themselves more in order to see the writing on the wall."
"He gets a ton of letters and doesn't open them," added the source. "He lets them sit and pile up and calls it fan mail. He craves attention from the high-end social life and is addicted to that more than he is addicted to his money."
On January 15, Hulu released Fyre Fraud, a documentary that detailed McFarland's questionable actions that eventually led to eight lawsuits. Just four days later, Netflix debuted a similar film, Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened.
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So has McFarland, whose official release date is September 1, 2023, seen the documentaries?
"Of course he has seen them. He can't shut up about them and they are going to get the Netflix version played inside prison for everyone to see," the insider said.
Despite his sentence, Federal Prison Consultant Dan Wise told RadarOnline.com that McFarland got off easy.
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"The islanders he scammed out of work with no pay caused them to flee the area in order to be secure," said Wise. "In my opinion, McFarland should have received a harsher sentence, one more in line with the amount of damage he caused. McFarland is at one of the easiest federal prison camps that exist."
McFarland is not the only celebrity inside Otisville — Jersey Shore star Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino checked in late last month to serve an eight-month sentence for tax evasion.
Do you think that Billy McFarland got too harsh a sentence, or was it not enough? Sound off in the comments.
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