They were thinking about selling newspapers, all they ever think about. You know the old cliche, "If it bleeds, it leads." Substitute brags for bleeds in this case.
I suspect this is just rags-to-riches spillover from the popular reality TV genre. MH probably saw SuBo and so many others propelled to fame that he decided to dust off his old AlphaOne business plan.
I actually don't think he set out to defraud. I'll bet he's naive enough to think he could have made a go of it. But the day he dreamed up Will Gilligan and the day he said there was strong financial backing, whichever came first, was the day it will be said that he crossed the line into fraud by misrepresenting the truth.
By the way, to those doing ticket price maths, £49 was an introductory fare. I checked a few dates trying to see how many seats were sold and the fare was about £168 each way if I put in more than four people.