Fyre Festival Organizer Caught Scamming Attendees Once Again

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Fyre Festival’s Billy Mc Farland Gets Busted Yet Again

The promoter of the disastrous Fyre Festival of last year went right back to defrauding people after he was arrested in 2017.

Billy McFarland was rearrested on Tuesday after earning $100,000 by selling fake tickets to exclusive fashion, music, and sporting events through NYC VIP Access, a company that was controlled by him. He was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, and now faces a maximum of 40 years in prison, if convicted.

Manhattan federal prosecutors say that the 26-year-old began running the ticket scheme in late 2017 — which was just a few months after his June 2017 arrest for defrauding investors out of $24 million via his Fyre Media company.

While on pretrial release over the scandal, McFarland targeted the same attendees of Fyre Festival to purchase tickets to exclusive events that didn’t actually exist–including tickets to the 2018 Met Gala. According to the feds, he used a spreadsheet identifying the former festival attendees with the highest salaries.

A magistrate judge ordered him detained Tuesday after prosecutors said they have evidence that McFarland may have also committed bank fraud and identity theft while out on bail.

The feds began looking into McFarland’s company, Fyre Media, after he made headlines in April 2017. Billy famously lured wealthy, young, white people to the Caribbean by promising them a weekend-long music festival, then canceled the whole event as soon as planes with attendees arrived. Festival-goers complained that they arrived to leaky tents, cheap cheese sandwiches and inadequate toilets.