Fyre Festival Founder Admits To Fraud

TRIBECA, NY — The founder of last year's disastrous Fyre Festival has pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud, prosecutors said.

Billy McFarland admitted to using fake documents to lure investors into investing in his music festival in the Bahamas, prosecutors confirmed on Tuesday.

McFarland defrauded at least two investors of $1.2 million and wildly overstated his company's earnings to get funding for Fyre Festival, the much-hyped 2017 music festival that turned out to be a flop, according to federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

The 26-year-old entrepreneur launched Fyre Media in 2016, after which he got the idea to organize the now infamous Fyre Festival in the Bahamas in April.

The music event, which was billed as a high-end, luxury retreat and promoted by celebrities, dissolved almost as soon as it started as it became clear that Fyre Media hadn't properly planned or prepared. In the months leading up to the festival, which was the brainchild of McFarland and his partner Ja Rule, it was advertised as an extravagant two-weekend getaway with top-of-the-line food, lodgings, music and ocean views.

Instead, guests who shelled out thousands of dollars found ramshackle tents and food packaged in styrofoam containers, not the luxury residences and gourmet meals they had paid for.

The cheapest package cost about $1,100 per person for a weekend, but more high-end accommodations were sold for between $12,4999 and $50,000 per person, according to one of multiple lawsuits filed against McFarland by outraged customers.

Ticket holders showed up on the island at the end of April and, instead of festival grounds and housing, they found that the "accommodations were little more than a FEMA-style tent lined up with hundreds of others on the beach, barely standing up against the wind and rain," according to another suit. The festival was canceled on April 28.

McFarland is scheduled to be sentenced in June. He faces up to 20 years in prison for each count of fraud, a spokesman said.

Image credit: Ciara McCarthy / Patch. Image caption: The ground-level windows of Fyre Media's now vacant Tribeca headquarters.