Fresh off four years in prison, barred from ever serving as director of a public company, and buried beneath $26 million in victim paybacks, Billy McFarland, founder of the fraudulent Fyre Festival, wants to make a comeback. …

His new venture, PYRT (pronounced “Pirate”), launched on social media in October and is supposed to kick things off by hosting, yes, a remote island extravaganza — one that McFarland insists is not a festival. Featuring a slew of influencers and creators, the purported tropical experience will include virtual reality technology that the company says will allow users to participate and control what happens on the island in real time from home.

If that sounds familiar, some are already ringing the Fyre alarms. NBC News spoke to two of McFarland’s former associates who were wary that his new venture already shows similarities with his previous ones.

“Billy’s still Billy. He’s using different words, but he’s selling the same thing,” said Shiyuan Deng, a former product designer at Fyre Media, the company behind Fyre Festival. Deng resigned from Fyre Media shortly before it collapsed.

[Anyone who gets fleeced in this latest “event” will get what’s coming to them. Everyone’s been warned. Caveat emptor, and don’t come crying to us if and when it happens. — Ed]