Maryann Rolle, a Bahamian caterer, who is one of the many Fyre Festival victims will finally get her funds back after being scammed out of more than $100,000 by criminal Billy McFarland thanks to the kindness of strangers. However, Rolle is calling on McFarland's Fyre Festival partner, rapper Ja Rule, to pay the money festival organizers promised her.
Rolle sacrificed her credit and life’s savings to make sure Fyre Festival attendees didn’t go hungry. She signed a contract with event organizers thinking it would be beneficial for her business, Exuma Point Resort.
“I wasn’t working for this one, I was working on our future goals with Fyre,” she told Bahamian news outlet Tribune 242. “That was my purpose.”
Rolle and her husband, Elvis, were contractually obligated to provide lodging and catering for Fyre. They were paid per transaction, but every time they attempted to swipe a credit card from the organizers, the payment did not go through. They were later promised a lump sum wire payment.
The Rolles never saw a dime. Despite the shady business dealings, the couple assisted the stranded festival attendees.
“I’m at the airport on Thursday morning [of the festival] when I got the call,” Maryann recalled. “They said the grounds aren’t ready, we would like to bring the guests to your place for a few hours until the site is ready. We had a good relationship, we did so much for them so we couldn’t say no to that.”
After feeding guests, Fyre staffers and paying her staff, she was left $136,000 in the hole, including $50K from her life’s savings. Maryann started a GoFundMe to recoup the costs and has surpassed her $123,000 goal by over $40,000.
She also received an apology from rapper and Fyre Festival co-organizer Ja Rule.
"My heart goes out to this lovely lady… MaryAnne Rolle we’ve never met but I’m devastated that something that was meant to be amazing, turn out to be such a disaster and hurt so many ppl … SORRY to anyone who has been negatively effected by the festival,” he wrote on Instagram.
Maryann accepted the apology.
“I really didn’t see [Ja Rule’s apology]. I feel from the bottom of his heart, he is sorry. I don’t know if he was aware of the pain and hard work that I went through because he was in the front line of everything but I am glad he is aware of it and he did apologize so that in itself speaks volumes. He cares,” she told TMZ.
However, apologies don’t pay bills.
“If he’s sorry, he should be donating something to me cause sorry’s more than a word, it’s an action. I would hope he would donate $100,000,” she added.
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