Fyre Festival Organizer Gets 6 Years In Prison

In April of 2017, an outdoor music festival, the Fyre Festival, was held on an uninhabited island off the coast of the Bahamas. The event was a catastrophic failure, with patrons suffering sub-standard housing, food, and staffing, as well as being effectively trapped on the island for several days due to multiple travel-centric miscommunications. Now, over a year later, the man behind this fraudulent event, Billy McFarland, is paying for his crime.

McFarland was arrested in June of 2017 for both the events of the Fyre Festival and several related crimes, including wire fraud from his company Fyre Media and selling fraudulent tickets to various music and entertainment events. McFarland’s lawyers attempted to keep the sentencing to a minimum, proposing, in addition to a sizable fine, community service and house arrest. Prosecutors had a counter proposal including up to 14 years of jail time.

Eventually, with McFarland’s myriad crimes and questionable mental health taken into consideration, the court reached a verdict, sentencing McFarland to six years in federal prison, three years of probation, and over $26 million dollars in restitution to those affected by his actions.

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5 years ago
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