Billy McFarland Facts: Fyre Festival Founder Gets 6-Year Prison Sentence

Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland, found guilty of defrauding investors, was sentenced to six years in prison Thursday. He was found guilty of multiple frauds including the failed Fyre Festival in the Bahamas in 2017 where he lured hundreds of millennials with the help of celebrity investors.

In April last year, the 26-year-old tried to create a two-weekend luxury music festival for millennials in the Bahamas, and failed, ultimately defrauding investors out of $24 million. He had partnered up with rapper Ja Rule to run an Instagram campaign with the help of models like Kendall Jenner. He also got investors on board with doctored financial documents. However, he did not manage to secure space for the festival until weeks prior.

Several bands like Blink-182 dropped out at the last minute because they weren’t “confident that we would have what we need to give you the quality of performances we always give fans.”

McFarland and his team failed to make proper arrangements and the festival-goers were left stranded on an island without enough food, water or accommodation. The festival was eventually canceled and hundreds of people were evacuated. The ticket cost was between $1,200 and $100,000.

“The organizers assured us that all measures were taken to ensure a safe and successful event, but clearly they did not have the capacity to execute an event of this scale,” the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism said in a statement in 2017.

He was arrested in June 2017. While out on bail, he ran another scam selling fake tickets to various exclusive events, defrauding buyers of about $150,000. He pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud, one count each of bank fraud and making false statements, Vanity Fair reported.

Manhattan federal judge Naomi Reice Buchwald said on Thursday, "The defendant is a serial fraudster. Mr. McFarland is a fraudster and not simply a misguided young man. Bad intent was longstanding,” ABC News reported.

McFarland “betrayed and deceived his investors, customers, and employees while he was living the high life at his luxury apartment, traveling to exclusive locales, staying at luxury hotels, being chauffeured in his Maserati, and entertaining himself and his friends at restaurants, bars, and casinos,” the prosecution wrote in a sentencing memorandum, the New York Times reported.

Apart from the Fyre Festival, he was involved in several other scams. In 2014, he released Magnises, a credit card, and its members were expected to pay a yearly fee of $250 to get invited to a range of events and parties in their home city.

The card also gave members access to a West Village townhouse where they could indulge in some causal cocktails and oysters. In 2016, he threw a 500-person party at the house that caused $100,000 worth of damage to the property. He was sued for by his landlord for the party. In January last, several people demanded their money back as they didn't get any of the amenities promised earlier, Mashable reported.

In a statement via Variety last year, McFarland said there would be a make-up 2018 festival in the United States for all attendees of the 2017 Fyre Festival.

“We will make sure there is infrastructure in place to support us,” he said.

“I know that I betrayed the trust of my investors, my customers, and my family. This is an extremely bitter reality,” McFarland said in the court Thursday.