The man allegedly responsible for first major festival flop of 2017 has been detained and released on bond. American entrepreneur and Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland was arrested on a single charge of wire fraud on Friday, June 30th, and released the next day after putting up $50,000 on a $300,000 bail.
The prosecutors on the case have alleged that McFarland falsified important documents and exaggerated his company’s net worth to win over investors. Among other discrepancies, they claim that he boasted 2016 earnings in the millions when, in fact, the total fell closer to $57,000.
Fyre Festival had been the brainchild of McFarland and ’90s rapper Ja Rule, and was supposed to feature performances by electronic music artists like Lee Burridge, Disclosure and Major Lazer in addition to rock, hip-hop and pop artists like Blink 182 and Lil Yachty. When attendees arrived on April 27th, it came to light that tents had not been set up and garbage had been strewn across the festival grounds in the Exhumas Islands.
Ja Rule also faces a number of charges for his part in Fyre Festival’s breakdown, but he has not been arrested as of this writing. Judge Kevin N. Fox of the United States District Court in Manhattan has set the preliminary hearing of Billy McFarland’s case for July 31st.
Source: Dancing Astronaut
