The Bahamian restaurant owner who lost $50,000 in life savings after the Fyre Festival fiasco says she was almost scammed a second time when a friend tried to take away half of the money donated to her in a GoFundMe campaign.
Maryann Rolle, who runs the Exuma Point Bar and Grille, gained international attention earlier this year when she appeared in a Netflix documentary about the infamous and widely publicized festival.
Rolle revealed that she was forced to pay local staff working the festival out of her own pocket when Fyre organizers failed to pay her for catering the 2017 event.
Her story prompted an outpouring of sympathy and support and a friend - Pamela Carter - set up a GoFundMe page with Rolle's permission.
It quickly raised more than $200,000 with donations pouring in from across the world.
Maryann Rolle, who runs the Exuma Point Bar and Grille, gained international attention earlier this year when she appeared in a Netflix documentary about the infamous Fyre Festival
But in an interview with , Rolle said the friend she trusted to handle the GoFundMe donations eventually tried to 'screw' her over.
'One of my wonderful friends assisted me by sending up a GoFundMe account,' Rolle said.
'When people watched the documentary they contribute - some $5, some $10, some $20,000.
'I felt very good about it. I realized if you do things from the heart, it pays off.'
The GoFundMe page, which said it was set up by a woman named Pamela Carter in Franklin, Tennessee on behalf of Rolle, has raised $230,000 from 9,000 individual donations since January.
After all the donations kept rolling in, Rolle claims her friend tried to make her sign a contract that would entitle her to half of the contributions.
'It's so unfortunate that a few dollars come in the midst of good friendship. I didn't have a link to my own GoFundMe account because I just trusted that person to deal with this for me,' Rolle told VICE.
Rolle said the friend she trusted to handle the GoFundMe donations eventually tried to 'screw' her over when she asked her to sign of contract that would give her half the money raised
