Fyre Festival Founder Pleads Not Guilty To Fraud

TRIBECA, NY — The founder of the disastrous Fyre Festival is pleading not guilty to wire fraud.

Billy McFarland, the 26-year-old entrepreneur behind the failed music festival in the Bahamas, was charged with wire fraud by prosecutors in June. He entered a not guilty plea in court on Monday.

McFarland defrauded at least two investors of $1.2 million and wildly overstated his company's earnings to get funding for this year's Fyre Festival, the much-hyped music festival that turned out to be a flop, according to the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan. McFarland faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

The 25-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.

The federal charges were spurred in part by an FBI investigation. Joon Kim, the acting U.S. attorney for Manhattan, announced the indictment in June.

"As alleged, William McFarland promised a 'life changing' music festival but in actuality delivered a disaster," Kim sad at the time. "McFarland allegedly presented fake documents to induce investors to put over a million dollars into his company and the fiasco called the Fyre Festival."

Federal prosecutors say that McFarland "perpetrated a scheme to defraud" to get funding for the festival, convincing at least two people to invest $1.2 million by vastly overstating his company's revenue and income. He claimed that his company had earned millions of dollars in artist bookings; Fyre Media had actually earned less than $60,000 from about 60 artist bookings, prosecutors said in a statement.

On top of the federal charges and multiple legal claims seeking millions, Fyre Media has left its trendy TriBeCa office space after falling nearly $35,000 behind in rent payments to its landlord, according to a legal notice posted outside the company's headquarters in May. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Read previous Patch coverage of this story here:

• Fyre Festival Organizer Owed $35K In Rent For TriBeCa Office, Legal Notice Claims
• Fyre Festival Founder Charged With Wire Fraud

Image credit: Mary Altaffer / AP Photo