Fyre Festival Promoter Billy McFarland Should Get 15 Years, U.S. Says

Billy McFarland should get at least 15 years in prison for defrauding investors in the disastrous 2017 Fyre Festival, and for running a separate sham ticket business while out on bail, prosecutors said.

The festival, set on an island in the Bahamas, began with promises of music and luxury. Instead, concert-goers found badly constructed tents, cold cheese sandwiches and a lack of sufficient bathrooms on arrival. Some paid as much as $12,000 to attend.

McFarland admitted in a March guilty plea that he lied to investors who bought a $1.2 million stake in his company, Fyre Media Inc. Authorities said he provided false documents which inflated Fyre’s revenue and altered a stock ownership statement to make it appear that shares he owned that were worth less than $1,500 were valued at $2.5 million, allowing him to personally guarantee an investment, prosecutors said.

Organizers borrowed as much as $7 million in a last-minute bid to fund the doomed festival.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-03/fyre-festival-promoter-mcfarland-should-get-15-years-u-s-says