Earlier this year, two documentaries chronicling the disaster that was 2017's Fyre Festival launched on competing streaming services, with Netflix's FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, and Hulu's Fyre Fraud. The former featured extensive interviews with those personally impacted by the doomed event, with caterer Maryann Rolle breaking down in tears as she detailed how she went through her life savings to feed the would-be festival attendees.
Viewers quickly rallied behind her and raised money via a GoFundMe campaign, but in a new interview with VICE she explained that she almost got scammed out of even more money because of the crowd funding. She said that a friend of hers set up the campaign to help her recoup the costs, but the unnamed friend almost walked away with the funds. "It's so unfortunate that sometimes a few dollars come in the midst of good friendship," Rolle explained.
"I didn't have a link to my own GoFundMe account because I just trusted that person to deal with this for me and so I depend on her as a friend and then she tried to screw me right up by signing a contract that she gets almost a half of my money," she added. "Fyre screwed you, you go to GoFundMe, now you get some money, this person wants to screw you. You don't want to say in this world 'Trust nobody,' because it's so sad to say that, but God, who do you trust?"
GoFundMe was alerted to the possible scam, and they eventually agreed to give her a portion of the money. Rolle said that she was very much grateful for those who contributed, however. "Thank you so much for just lending a helping hand to someone when they needed you most," she continued. "There's still love in this world. I am amazed. I didn't know I would ever be a celebrity in my lifetime but here I am."
