Fyre Festival founder sentenced to 6 years in prison
Remember the disaster that was the Fyre Festival? Well, its founder, 26-year-old Billy McFarland, was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to pay $26,182,386 on Thursday.
McFarland was found guilty of multiple counts of fraud that included the Fyre Festival debacle in which he scammed his investors out of $26 million, according to a Vice News report.
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Hundreds of millennials traveled to the Bahamas in April of 2017 to attend the Fyre Festival. Once there, it was clear they had been duped out of the experience promised by McFarland and his numerous celebrity endorsers—Ja Rule, Bella Hadid, Kylie Jenner—as a part of his elaborate ticket scam. Tickets to the festival were sold for $450 to over $12,000.
Here's a little taste of what attendees endured:
So Fyre Fest is a complete disaster. Mass chaos. No organization. No one knows where to go. There are no villas, just a disaster tent city. pic.twitter.com/1lSWtnk7cA
— William N. Finley IV (@WNFIV) April 27, 2017
#FyreFestival update, photos from the ground! pic.twitter.com/Z7fn9cKaz3
— FyreFestivalFraud (@FyreFraud) April 27, 2017
The dinner that @fyrefestival promised us was catered by Steven Starr is literally bread, cheese, and salad with dressing. #fyrefestival pic.twitter.com/I8d0UlSNbd
— Tr3vor (@trev4president) April 28, 2017
“The remorse I feel is crushing,” McFarland said during his sentencing, according to Vice News. “I lived every day with the weight of knowing that I literally destroyed the lives of my friends and family.”
McFarland's legal team asked for leniency during his sentencing as he was recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder, claiming he wasn't fully aware of his wrong doings. Judge Naomi Buchwald remained unconvinced, and said that the diagnosis was not an excuse for his past actions.
McFarland pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud in March related to his Fyre Festival scamming, according to Business Insider. In June he was arrested for another ticket scam: NYC VIP Access, where he sold people $150,000 worth of fake tickets to events, like the Met Gala and the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.
In July, two Fyre Festival attendants won a $5 million lawsuit against McFarland. He is also in the midst of a multi-million class action lawsuit filed by multiple ticket holders, according to Vice.
It's unclear if McFarland has any of the funds left to pay back these large sums of money.
Seems like McFarland hasn't seen the last of the court room, yet.
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