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Billy McFarland, the promoter of the failed Fyre Festival in the Bahamas, leaves federal court after pleading guilty to wire fraud on March 6 in New York. (Mark Lennihan / AP)
Lindsey Bever
General appointment reporter national covering and breaking news
Amy B Wang
General appointment reporter national covering and breaking news
Fyre Festival organizer Billy McFarland, who pleaded guilty to this year to the defeat after the failed music festival in 2017 in the Bahamas, has been sentenced to six years in prison, according to reports.
McFarland was accused of defrauding investors in his company, Fyre Media, and in the music festival, which was reportedly billed as the next Coachella.
But as The Washington Post's Abby Ohlheiser previously reported, when concertgoers showed up at the site in April 2017, they found tents still in boxes, less-than-luxurious meal options and an empty stage.
"The trailer I feel is crushing," McFarland said Thursday in short, according to Vice. "I lived every day with the weight of knowing that I literally destroyed the lives of my friends and family."
[Founder of disastrous Fyre Festival arrested, charged with fraud]
On Thursday, McFarland, repeatedly apologized, urging the court to show that he had recently been diagnosed with this condition, arguing that McFarland had recently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, according to Vice. The 26-year-old told the court Thursday that "the best way to be sorry is through my future actions," according to Vice.
U.S. District Judge Naomi Buchwald told McFarland that "bipolar does not excuse behavior." She sentenced him to six years behind bars and ordered him to $ 26,182,386, Vice said. Buchwald could have felt McFarland to up to 20 years in prison.
Following the sentencing, McFarland's attorney, Randall Jackson, said in a statement to the Post that he and his client are "appreciative of the careful consideration taken by the court."
"We're grateful that the court rejected the draconian sentence," he added, "and imposed a sentence that will allow Billy to spend the second part of his life meaningfully giving back to his community."
McFarland had promoted the Fyre Festival as "MORE THAN JUST A MUSIC FESTIVAL," promising not only live music but also luxurious accommodations, gourmet meals and mingling with celebrities on a private island in the Bahamas. In exchange, festivalgoers paid anywhere from $ 450 to $ 250,000 to wait.
Expectations were high.
Instead, the festival collapsed in spectacular, public fashion. When expected in the Exumas, a group of islands that are part of the Bahamas, they discovered that the luxury accommodations were disaster-relief tents on the beach, some still not set up. Cheese sandwiches made up the "gourmet meals," and festival organizers seemed to be in the dark, sometimes literally, about what was supposed to happen. Blink-182, one of the festival's headliners, had pulled out at the last minute.
On social media, the collapse of the "elite" festival has been unfurled for #fyrefestival, #dumpsterfyre and other unprintable hashtags.
In April 2017, McFarland and his Fyre Festival co-founder, the rapper Ja Rule, had defended their intentions amid accusations that they had been set to defraud people.
"We were a little naive in thinking about the first time we could do this ourselves," McFarland told Rolling Stone then. "Next year, we will definitely start earlier. The reality is, we were not experienced enough to keep up. "
However, the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York said in a complaint that McFarland deliberately orchestrated a scheme to defraud investors, including at least two people who had invested about $ 1.2 million in Fyre Media. Prosecutors said McFarland told investors that "Fyre Media earned millions of dollars of artist bookings" when, in reality, it had "earned less than $ 60,000 in revenue from the artist bookings," according to a statement from the US attorney's office.
It is also worth noting that McFarland has a $ 2.5 million return on its claims to large amounts of money.
In reality, the shares in that stock were worth less than $ 1,500, according to the complaint.
Read more:
The founder of the disastrous Fyre Festival has a history of overpromising 'elite' access
The complete disaster of the Fyre Festival played on social media for all to see; 'NOT MY FAULT' says Ja Rule organizer
Fyre Festival was 'nothing more than a get-rich-quick scam,' $ 100 million litigation lawsuit
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