Promoter of Bahamas Music Festival Fiasco Arrested on Fraud Charge – Caribbean360.com (subscription)

Billy McFarland was arrested in New York City last Friday and faces up to 20 years behind bars if convicted.

NEW YORK, United States, Monday July 3, 2017 The promoter of the shambolic Fyre Festival in the Bahamas has been arrested on a federal fraud charge for allegedly bilking business investors.

Billy McFarland was arrested in New York City last Friday and faces up to 20 years behind bars if convicted.

The 25-year-old is alleged to have cheated his media company, as well as investors who backed the aborted music festival, out of more than US$1 million.

The collapse of the Fyre Festival, which had been billed as an ultra-luxurious event with headliners including rockers Blink-182 and the hip-hop act Migos, alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigations.

Slated to take place on the Bahamian island of Exuma over two weekends in April and May, the festival was cancelled after performers bowed out. Furious would-be festival goers vented their anger on social media, posting pictures on Facebook and YouTube showing blue porta potties, half-constructed plywood structures, rows of white tents, and bland cheese sandwiches in Styrofoam containers.

According to acting Manhattan US Attorney Joon Kim: William McFarland promised a life-changing music festival but in actuality delivered a disaster.

McFarland allegedly presented fake documents to induce investors to put over a million dollars into his company and the fiasco called the Fyre Festival, Kim said. Thanks to the investigative efforts of the FBI, McFarland will now have to answer for his crimes.

Together with his partner, rapper Ja Rule, McFarland already faces more than a dozen lawsuits filed by ticket buyers and investors in the festival.

Ja Rule (real name Jeffrey Atkins) has not been arrested.

A lawsuit filed in May in Los Angeles said the festival was nothing more than a get-rich-quick scam akin to a Ponzi scheme.

McFarland was freed on US$300,000 bail on Saturday.

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Promoter of Bahamas Music Festival Fiasco Arrested on Fraud Charge - Caribbean360.com (subscription)