Infamous Fyre Festival Founder Ordered To Forfeit 26 Million And Is Facing 10 Years In Prison

He also told the court that in coordinating the festival, he “grossly underestimated the resources that would be necessary to hold an event of this magnitude.” He was arrested in June of last year for misleading investors in the Fyre Festival regarding the amount of money Fyre Media had taken in. According to a statement from the Southern District of New Yorks’ acting US attorney Joon Kim at the time of the arrest, McFarland told investors that his company had made millions from artist bookings numbering in the thousands in 2016 and 2017, when the real figure was less than $60,000, made from around 60 bookings in that period. McFarland’s goal with the Fye Festival was to create an upscale music and culture event that catered to an affluent clientele, with $1,200 as the starting price for tickets. What happened instead was a day-long ordeal of delayed flights, half-finished domiciles, cold cheese sandwiches, and eventually patrons expecting the VIP treatment instead being stranded on an island in the Bahamas with no food or water. In addition to the possible prison time, McFarland was ordered to forfeit $26 million as part of a monetary judgment handed down by the court. He is currently out on bail and living in his parents’ New Jersey home.