NEW YORK – Fyre Festival organizer Billy McFarland was arrested June 30 on federal charges of wire fraud in connection with what would have been the inaugural two-weekend Fyre Festival, originally slated for April 28-30 and May 5-7 2017 on Grand Exuma Island in the Bahamas. In a statement, federal prosecutors alleged that McFarland “presented fake documents to induce investors to put over a million dollars into his company,” Fyre Media, a company McFarland set up for a talent-booking app along with festival promotion.
The criminal complaint said investors had been lured in to back the project with gross misstatements of Fyre Media’s success and altered documents purported to vastly inflate McFarland’s own personal wealth. The criminal charges come with a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
After reportedly spending one night in a Brooklyn, NY detention center, McFarland was reportedly released on $300,000 bail.
Fyre Festival co-founder Jeffrey Atkins, a.k.a. rapper Ja Rule, has not been charged, but both may still be on the hook for more than a dozen lawsuits filed by ticket buyers, investors and workers who lost money in the fiasco.
