‘Fyre Festival’ Organizers Ja Rule and Billy McFarland Are Reportedly Under Investigation by the FBI for Mail, Wire, and Securities Fraud

BY: Denver Sean

Published 8 years ago

Ja Rule and Billy McFarland could be looking at federal charges for their disastrous Fyre Festival. According to reports, they’re both being investigated for mail, wire, and securities fraud.

via NYDN:

The failed music festival was supposed to be a two-weekend long music event in the Bahamas; tickets ran about $12,000 and scheduled performers included Blink-182, Desiigner, Pusha T and Tyga.

Advertisement

Instead, the millennials promised an Instagram-perfect festival arrived to a canceled festival, a tent city and meals well below expectations.

Employees reportedly haven’t been paid, including a local restaurant owner who claims to be owed $134,000.

Blink-182, who was supposed to headline the festival, have their equipment stuck in “customs limbo,” according to the Times.

In early May, the Fyre Festival organizers were slapped with a $100 million federal class-action lawsuit that claimed the hosts knew ahead of time that the festival would be a disaster — and dangerous.

Advertisement

“The festival’s lack of adequate food, water, shelter and medical care created a dangerous and panicked situation among attendees — suddenly finding themselves stranded on a remote island without basic provisions — that was closer to ‘The Hunger Games’ or ‘Lord of the Flies’ than Coachella,” says the suit.

A second class-action lawsuit, filed days later, accused the organizers of tricking ticket-holders into spending ludicrous amounts of money with “false promises.”

Advertising for the Fyre Festival centered around celebrities including Kendall Jenner, Hailey Baldwin, Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski.

A third lawsuit, from money-lending company EHL Funding, claims that the founders were late on their $3 million loan payments.

Advertisement

In the days following the disastrous event, Ja Rule issued a personal apology, but deflected blame.

“I’m heartbroken at this moment. My partners and I wanted this to be an amazing event. It was NOT A SCAM as everyone is reporting,” he wrote on Twitter.

“I don’t know how everything went so left but I’m working to make it right by making sure everyone is refunded… I truly apologize as this is NOT MY FAULT… but I’m taking responsibility. I’m deeply sorry to everyone who was inconvenienced by this.”

This mess keeps getting bigger and bigger…

Advertisement
Share This Post