The most likely explanation for the Furman whatsapp was that it was a joke between friends, that Reiver read second-hand and took extremely literally.
Because he'd tied his own credibility to it, he was backed into a corner where if it didn't happen, he felt like he'd look daft, even if most of us would have understood if he'd just accepted that it wasn't actually happening. When we questioned him on it, he got defensive and lashed out, which is all kind of understandable. Howeverm, he then spent 6 months saying 'I haven't NOT heard anything' and other cryptic stuff, even when they were dissolving the FPP company and other clear signs it wasn't happening.