THE Fyre Festival ordeal is a scandal that rocked the online world.
The man behind the con, Billy McFarland, was sentenced to six years behind bars in 2018, but released on May 18, 2022, more than two years ahead of time.
Who is Billy McFarland?
Billy McFarland, 30, is a convicted fraudster, best known for co-founding the infamous Fyre Festival.
In 2013, McFarland founded a card-based social club named Magnises using $1.5 million of investor funding.
After that, he set up Fyre Media along with rapper Ja Rule, which then founded its own festival.
The business was a con from the start. In a term sheet sent to investors, Fyre Media claimed to be worth $90 million, despite the fact it had only done $60,000 in business.
Fyre was a brand new festival that ran in 2017 and promised festival-goers a VIP experience. It was promoted by a host of supermodels and celebrities.
However, customers were shocked at the dismal situation they were stranded in when they arrived.
How long did Billy McFarland serve in prison?
In 2018, McFarland was sentenced to six years in jail.
In June 2018 he was arrested for a separate fraud case.
He was charged with earning $100,000 (£77k) from selling fake tickets to events like Coachella and the Met Gala through his company NYC VIP Access.
In July, he pleaded guilty to the ticket scheme he ran.
He also pleaded guilty to wire-fraud charges in relation to Fyre Festival in March 2018.
During his trial, a judge described him as "a serial fraudster" who had been dishonest for "most of his life".
The US Attorney for Manhattan, Geoffrey Berman, said at McFarland's hearing: "Today, McFarland found out the hard way that empty promises don't lead to jet-setting, champagne and extravagant parties - they lead to federal prison."
Where is Billy McFarland now?
On Wednesday, May 18, 2022, McFarland was released from federal prison more than two years before the end of a six-year sentence, according to TMZ.
He was transferred to a halfway house in New York City, according to his lawyer, Jason Russo.
In a statement, the Bureau of Prisons said they expect the Fyre founder and CEO to remain at the halfway house until August.
He was originally serving his sentence at Elkton prison in Ohio but was then transferred to a low-security federal prison in Michigan on March 30, 2022.
He was convicted of defrauding festival investors out of US$26 million in November 2018.
In October 2020, McFarland was placed in solitary confinement after participating in a podcast about his crimes.
He discussed his crimes on a show titled “Dumpster Fyre" via a prison phone.
In April 2020, McFarland made an unsuccessful attempt to get early release, after 60 inmates from his prison tested positive for COVID-19.
McFarland’s lawyer has pleaded to a US district court judge that he had pre-existing conditions that make him “particularly vulnerable to catching and suffering from severe or fatal consequences of the virus,”
“Mr. McFarland is not a risk to the community nor a threat to public safety,”
“The crime to which he pled guilty for was the non-violent financial crime of wire fraud.”
