Magnises was an American card-based membership club co-founded by Billy McFarland and

Ja Rule Jeffrey Bruce Atkins (born February 29, 1976), better known by his stage name Ja Rule (), is an American rapper, singer, and actor. Born and raised in New York City, Ja Rule became known for blending gangsta rap with pop rap, pop and contempo ...

in August 2013. The club card was not a bank issued credit card; members could use it only by first linking to a pre-existing bank-issued credit card.

History

Card benefits

The company's namesake card, which was targeted to

millennials Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Gen Y, are the demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s a ...

, was widely compared to American Express's "Black Card" (officially known as the

Centurion Card The American Express Centurion Card, colloquially known as the Black Card, is a charge card issued by American Express. It is reserved for the company's wealthiest clients who meet certain net worth, credit quality, and spending requirements on ...

). Similarities between the two cards include that they were both black, made of metal, and promised exclusive perks to members. Despite appearances, however, Magnises's card was not a real

charge card A charge card is a type of credit card that enables the cardholder to make purchases which are paid for by the card issuer, to whom the cardholder becomes indebted. The cardholder is obliged to repay the debt to the card issuer in full by the d ...

; instead, each card copied the magstripe information from a customer's existing

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with a significant global presence. The company operates in 35 countries and serves over 70 million customers worldwide. It is a systemically important fi ...

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in ...

card, for which it could then be used as a substitute. By December 2013, the company had about 500 members. Benefits offered to members included VIP access to clubs, hotel discounts, and various exclusive events.

Business operations

The company was initially headquartered out of a rented

townhouse A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of Terraced house, terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type o ...

in the

West Village The West Village is a neighborhood in the western section of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The West Village is bounded by the Hudson River to the west and 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to ...

neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. The owner of this townhouse filed a lawsuit against McFarland in 2015, alleging that McFarland had "trashed" the building, accusations which he denied. The case was settled in January 2016, and the company subsequently relocated to the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. By 2016, it was operating in New York City and

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, and, according to McFarland, its membership had grown to the tens of thousands.

Bankruptcy

After McFarland's

Fyre Festival Fyre Festival was a luxury music festival organized by American businessman Billy McFarland and American rapper Ja Rule. It was originally created to promote the company's Fyre app for booking music talent. The festival was scheduled to take pl ...

ended in a high-profile fraud case in 2017, Magnises reportedly terminated its lease on its Chelsea office, and its website ceased allowing new customers to sign up. ''The Daily Beast'' retrospectively described Magnises as a scam. In June 2018, after the Fyre Festival, McFarland was arrested again for selling fake tickets to the

Coachella Festival Coachella (officially called the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and sometimes known as Coachella Festival) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorad ...

and the

Met Gala The Met Gala, formally called the Costume Institute Benefit, is the annual haute couture fundraising festival held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in Manhattan. The Met Gala was and still is popularly rega ...

, being accused of acquiring up to $100,000 in this manner. McFarland was subsequently sentenced to six years in federal prison for various frauds in connection with the Fyre Festival.

References

American companies established in 2013 Companies disestablished in 2017 {{US-company-stub