Billy McFarland (fraudster)

McFarland was raised in the Short Hills section of Millburn, New Jersey.[7] His parents are real estate developers.[8] McFarland told the New York Times that at age 13, he founded an online outsourcing startup that matched clients with web designers.[7] He graduated from the Pingry School in 2010.[9] He then attended Bucknell University, where he would have studied computer engineering, but dropped out in May of his freshman year.[7][10][11]

McFarland dropped out of college toward the end of his freshman year and founded the short-lived online advertisement platform Spling where he served as CEO.[7][12] Techcrunch described Spling as a content sharing network, criticizing its similarity to other services which existed at the time.[13]

In August 2013, McFarland seeded payments company Magnises with $1.5 million of investor funding,[14][15][16] aiming to create an exclusive "black card" with social perks, such as club membership, targeted at status-oriented millennials in certain big cities.[17][18] McFarland also launched Fyre Media Inc., the parent company of the Fyre Festival. In a term sheet sent to investors, Fyre Media claimed to be worth $90 million.[19] By contrast, authorities allege the company did only about $60,000 in business.[20]

On July 23, 2018, The New York Post reported that Anna Sorokin, a fraudster and would-be socialite, may have lived at the SoHo loft owned by McFarland for four months after asking to stay for only a few days. The loft was also used as the headquarters for the defunct club card company Magnises.[21][22]

McFarland with Ja Rule at the 2016 Web Summit

McFarland founded Fyre Media and publicized a luxury music festival in the Bahamas, called Fyre Festival, to promote the Fyre music-booking application.[5] The festival, to be held in April 2017, was advertised by a video which included a bevy of Instagram models including Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski who, along with Kendall Jenner, were all expected to be at the festival. However, the festival experienced a number of serious management, administration and misrepresentation issues and was canceled after guests had begun to arrive on Great Exuma island. Guests were met with tents and pre-packaged sandwiches instead of the lavish villas and meals they were promised.[23] The festival subsequently became the focus of U.S. federal investigations and multiple lawsuits.[24]

McFarland borrowed as much as $7 million in an effort to fund the festival, taking one loan with an effective annualized rate of 120 percent.[25] McFarland defaulted on the loan and the lender sued.

The controversy around Fyre Festival were detailed in two documentaries in 2019: Hulu released Fyre Fraud on January 14, and Netflix released Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, directed by Chris Smith, on January 18.[26]

On May 1, 2017, Fyre Festival organizers Billy McFarland and Ja Rule were sued for $100 million in a class action lawsuit in relation to the failed Fyre Festival that left attendees stranded on the island of Great Exuma without basic provisions.[27] In addition to the class action lawsuit filed in May 2017, six federal and four individual lawsuits were filed in relation to the scheme.[28] McFarland was arrested by federal agents on June 30, 2017, and charged with wire fraud in relation to Fyre and Fyre Festival. He was released on $300,000 bail on July 1.[29] McFarland faced up to four years and nine months under U.S. sentencing guidelines, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristy Greenberg. She added that McFarland's short but eventful career showed a "pattern of deception" and "overpromising luxury experiences that were not delivered". In July 2017, McFarland was represented by a public defender at a bail hearing after his previous legal team "had not been paid enough to continue to represent him".[29] McFarland later hired the private firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner as representation.[30]

In March 2018, McFarland pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud in Federal Court in Manhattan and admitted to using fake documents to attract investors to put more than $26 million into his company.[31] He agreed to forfeit over $26 million.[32] On June 12, 2018, McFarland was charged with selling fraudulent tickets to events such as the Met Gala, Burning Man, and Coachella while out on bail.[33] On October 11, 2018, McFarland was sentenced to six years in federal prison.[34]

McFarland is currently incarcerated at FCI Elkton, in Lisbon, Ohio. In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, McFarland requested compassionate release from prison to avoid contracting the virus. His request was denied the same month.[35] In July 2020, it was reported that McFarland tested positive for COVID-19 at the facility.[36]