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.
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.
“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.
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…