That said I don't think it was an intent to defraud people or else they would not have even tried to put the event together. Why would all of this merch have been created if they just wanted to bilk investors and festival attendees? This is hubris and ignorance more than fraud.
I think he didn't really set out to defraud anyone, but he has an incredible ego and sense of entitlement, and he got used to living a jetsetting lifestyle and didn't want to downgrade, so he defrauded people (in his newer business, after the festival). Given how naturally he did it, I'd be surprised if he hadn't been running ticket scams on and off for years.
google "fuckjerry fyre festival"
https://decider.com/2019/01/15/fyre-festival-fuck-jerry/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandrasternlicht/2019/10/24/...
From what I understand, Making a Murderer is basically one big lie-by-omission so my faith in other Netflix funded documentaries to value truth over sensation is quite low.
- https://time.com/4167699/netflix-making-a-murderer-evidence-...
I do think McFarland was a scam artist. His past history of scams shows he's one of these hustle culture people who commits outright fraud, and he deserves more jail time than he got.
The median fund manager sending fake statements isn't cynically trying to fleece people, he's desperately trying to earn their money back before anyone notices.
The Hulu documentary, especially, gave me the impression that McFarland just wanted to be successful and though he could turn it around at the last minute. What I liked most about that one is that we've all had situations where we overstated our prowess, or put off a project that we committed to doing, etc. and then realized way too late that everything would have to go perfectly for us not to fail. It was that, but on a larger scale and impacting significantly more people. (Not at all to excuse what McFarland, JaRule, etc. were doing.)
Of course, none of this means McFarland was in any way innocent. But the difference between "scam artist" and "successful startup entrepreneur", while not at all illusionary, might be one more of degree than kind.
Billy McFarland has a long history of exploiting the benefit of the doubt. It would be self-destructive for society to continue extending it without taking that into account.
Sometimes with these people you really do wonder if they believe their own lies. I think he had a pretty good idea how it was gonna go.
> Why would all of this merch have been created if they just wanted to bilk investors and festival attendees?
What was he supposed to do say? "we're not gonna do merch, because this things fake" Other people were involved. It would be suspicious not to. They might have told themselves that there's a chance it would work, but that doesn't mean they weren't setting out to defraud. You don't get to finance your moonshot with lies to investers. Not these kinds of lies, at least. Maybe some of the main guys behind Enron thought it would work, but they still engaged in blatantly illegal transactions.
Whether they intended to defraud anyone or not, they had ample warning that they were way in over their heads. After a certain point, it was criminal.
He falsified bank and brokerage statements to make it look like he had millions of dollars in the bank, and falsified transaction data, in order to defraud investors.
Go read the Federal indictment. This was intentional fraud all the way through.
Setting aside what others are saying about other examples of more obvious fraud, we must, at some point, believe that a reasonable person[1] would notice the misadventure and do something about it.
[1] A questionable but important legal concept.
Compare it to lots of financial fraud like ponzi schemes - the perpetrators often don't think it will fall down all around them until it does.
It's actually impressive if they're auctioning off failed-festival merch at Supreme prices.
“Hey is that hat from Fyre festival?” “Yeah it’s real, I got it online for $500”
Clearly there’s a limit to how much I’m willing to pay but those are amazing novelty gifts.
Ja Rule was in the vicinity of such items, we are lucky they're so cheap considering ;)
I'm wondering if anyone is actually going to pay for this stuff or if it's just a bunch of K-Pop fans driving up prices only to abandon them.
Seriously - if any more hilariously incompetent festivals come along, remember to watch the liquidation auctions.
Maybe though.
There are several tokens listed, all appear identical, but one has a current bid of $187 [1] and another $78 [2].
[1]https://txauction.com/lots/24143 [2]https://txauction.com/lots/24175
What did you think this was, a Fyre sale?
SDNY got to get paid, son.
Now some of it makes an awesome talk piece at the office, or at least it did when we still had one. :)
(Enron pulled some shenanigans that were quite an annoyance to my dad at work. He had a greuling month working with them.)
He had no clue that he could sell his little trinket on eBay.
It seems people are just determined to keep throwing money into the Fyre.
Tough choice.
Name: WILLIAM MCFARLAND
Register Number: 91186-054
Age: 28
Race: White
Sex: Male
Release Date: 08/30/2023
Located At: FCI ElktonHis bio/profile and location of incarceration. I'll also add he tested positive for Corona virus [1] after confirming the prison location he was in.
1: https://nypost.com/2020/07/04/fyre-fest-fraudster-billy-mcfa...
Fees for Lawyers and accountants dealing with the bankruptcy will be deducted first. Any money owed to banks will be paid next. If there is any left, it will go to pay any taxes owed to the government or the local authorities. Eventually whatever is left will be divided proportionally between whoever is left owed money, but this will probably be a tiny fraction of the amount they are owed, if anything at all.
However, I think that the bids are probably mostly earnest.
As streetware a lot of this could probably be considered collector’s items among the hype beast crowd. The prices seem to be in a range similar to supreme and similar.
There's a couple documentaries on the whole thing which I can recommend watching, it's almost impressive how monumentally poor everything got planned. The whole thing of course strikes a chord with the ironic-fashion crowd.
Presumably it's given to creditors of the fyre festival? What if there is an excess?
"Fyre Media" was the talent-boooking app/startup that Billy was trying to get off the ground in parallel with the festival :P
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/fyre-media-inc
> Fyre Media, an app that ostensibly allows customers to book performing artists for private events, and the Fyre Festival was intended to be an extension of that brand.
https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/qvz5m3/fyre-festivals-25-...
Here you go guys, you're welcome.
From the docos the interesting thing is they seemed like they almost would have became Cameo.
Just like Riot-E also almost became 100 millionaires through their outrageous fake it till you make it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0lrIi0ce5E (NSFW)
Also, if those caps get major media attention, I can see them going for thousands of dollars to a celebrity (someone like Kanye West). I’d bet wearing the cap alone would generate several articles and other press coverage.
also hacker news: "i need this hat" [pays $700 to u.s. marshalls]