Fyre Festival’s Billy McFarland Arrested For Wire Fraud

Authored by stereogum.com and submitted by MikeTythonChicken

Fyre Media founder Billy McFarland, who organized the disastrous Fyre Festival alongside poor Ja Rule, has been arrested by the FBI on charges of wire fraud. Variety reports that McFarland was taken into custody yesterday and is expected to face a judge today.

“As alleged, William McFarland promised a ‘life changing’ music festival but in actuality delivered a disaster,” said the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York in a statement. “McFarland allegedly presented fake documents to induce investors to put over a million dollars into his company and the fiasco called the Fyre Festival. Thanks to the investigative efforts of the FBI, McFarland will now have to answer for his crimes.”

Wire fraud can carry a sentence of up to 20 years. McFarland is also still facing 11 civil lawsuits, and the civil and criminal investigations will proceed together, sharing evidence and resources.

00093293 on July 1st, 2017 at 21:25 UTC »

I read about this guy when Fyre was going down, seems like every business he comes up with is centered around ripping rich kids off. Like, I can see that being part of his pitch to investors for every business he starts lol

plagues138 on July 1st, 2017 at 20:43 UTC »

They would have arrested ja rule again, but feared that going to prison may actually give him some street cred, and make him want to record a new album. No one wants that.

shafe4141 on July 1st, 2017 at 19:21 UTC »

More like WYRE fraud.