Fyre Festival founder sentenced to 6 years in prison
Fyre Festival founder has plead guilty to fraud.
Remember Fyre Festival? The luxury festival deemed a “complete disaster” by fans? Well its founder, 26-year-old Billy McFarland has been sentenced to 6 years in jail by a US judge.
Last year May he held a festival that reached for the stars, where tickets ranged from $4000 to $12000 and included chartered flights to the Bahamas island venue, luxury cabanas and top-notch musical acts.
None of it panned out and the event had to be cancelled with hundreds of people evacuated due to adverse weather.
“Today, McFarland found out the hard way that empty promises don’t lead to jet-setting, champagne and extravagant parties – they lead to federal prison,” said US Attorney for Manhattan, Geoffrey Berman.
A remorseful McFarland addressed the court, saying he knew he had “betrayed the trust of my investors, my customers, my family”.
Liar liar pants on Fyre
In March, McFarland plead guilty to two counts of wire fraud related to Fyre Festival, but then in July admitted to a further 2 counts of fraud relating to a different ticket-selling scam he set up while ON BAIL.
Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald said McFarland was “unique in this court’s memory”.
“The defendant is a serial fraudster and to date his fraud, like a circle, has no end,” she told the court in Manhattan. “Mr McFarland has been dishonest most of his life.”
Though prosecution pushed for a 11 to 14-year sentence, 6 years will hopefully teach him not to lie.
As for Ja Rule, who was originally pinned as a co-organiser of the event, he has not been charged in connection with the fraud.
Fyre Festival founder gets a fire lit under his ass with the reality of his sentencing.
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