Fyre Festival's Founder Pleads Guilty To Wire Fraud
In a fairly satisfying conclusion to one of the schadenfreude-ist stories of 2017, Fyre Fest's founder plead guilty in federal court to wire fraud on Tuesday. As you may recall, Fyre Fest was a lavishly promoted music festival on a private island in the Bahamas that people paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to attend — and that turned into an utter catastrophe when attendees were greeted with cold cheese sandwiches, relief disaster tents and a lack of plumbing.
As much fun as it was to laugh at people with too much money being duped into, uh, camping, the festival's attendees and investors were definitely victims of false advertising — and now the festival's 26-year-old CE-bro William McFarland will pay for his negligence and unscrupulousness:
Billy McFarland, 26, told a judge Tuesday that he "grossly underestimated the resources that would be necessary to hold an event of this magnitude." McFarland may spend a decade in prison after admitting he defrauded 80 investors and a ticket broker out of more than $26 million.
My intention and effort was directed to organizing a legitimate festival," McFarland said in a clear voice to U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan. "In an attempt to raise what I thought were needed funds, I lied to investors about various aspects of Fyre Media and my personal finances."
McFarland was arrested on June 30, 2017 and has been out on $300,000 bail, living with his parents in New Jersey. According to the Justice Department, McFarland "pled guilty to two counts of wire fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and consented to a forfeiture order in the amount of $26,040,099.48" (the amount he swindled out of investors and a ticket broker). His actual sentence will be determined on June 21 by US District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald. We think forcing him to spend several days on a private island without plumbing or hot food would be a good place to start.
