Fyre Festival Organizer Legend Is Getting 6 Years In Prison And A $26 Million Fine
Vice - Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison Thursday for multiple counts of fraud, including the failed festival in the Bahamas last year where the 26-year-old lured hundreds of millennials with the help of celebrity investors like Ja Rule and Instagram celebrities like Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid.
“The remorse I feel is crushing,” McFarland said in the New York federal court, wearing a khaki prison jumpsuit and glasses before a packed courtroom of his family and victims. “I’ve lived every day with the weight of knowing that I literally destroyed the lives of my friends and family.”
McFarland said “I’m sorry” multiple times during his sentencing hearing and begged U.S. District Court Judge Naomi Buchwald for leniency as his sister and mother wept and his father held his head in his hands. McFarland said he had faced violence in prison so far and that “the best way to be sorry is through my future actions.”
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Yet in the end, the sentence was not as harsh as it could have been. Buchwald had the freedom to go as high as 20 years for convictions on three counts of wire fraud, one count of bank fraud, and one count of lying to investigators.
Instead, she allowed sentences for multiple counts of fraud to be served concurrently, meaning he got six years in prison and three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to forfeit $26,182,386, though it’s unclear how much of that, if any, he currently has.
I’ll say this about Billy McFarland, he came a legend. He set out to become a legend, and by golly he became one, albeit for all the wrong reasons. But nobody will ever forget the Fyre Festival. It will always be remembered for the A+ lodging and accommodations,
The incredible food provided,
And the amazing emails that came out after
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Pretty close to how he advertised it. Can barely tell the difference!
And now after defrauding investors out of millions upon millions upon millions of dollars, he is serving 6 years of hard time. I would say he should have gotten more for the number of times he used the word “influencers” in his emails, but I’m not a judge.
So shout out to the legend that is Billy McFarland. I don’t know what he will do when he gets out of prison, but I’m excited to find out. Remind me in 10 years or so and I’ll follow up on him.