The scheme was designed to generate cash quickly to preserve his extravagant lifestyle, the prosecutors said. “He found young and naive employees to interact with customers, accept ticket sale proceeds into their bank accounts, and provide McFarland with cash,” according to the prosecution memorandum.
Before the hearing, McFarland’s lawyer, Randall Jackson, filed a sentencing letter with the court that said his client had been “led astray by poor judgment and by untreated mental illness.” The attorney also highlighted McFarland’s prompt guilty pleas.
“There can be no question that Billy McFarland is guilty of a number of very grave errors,” Jackson said in the court filing. “We can only suggest to the Court that, despite his errors, the available evidence strongly suggests that Billy is a young man who is redeemable.”
Disorder, Alcohol
In seeking leniency for McFarland, Jackson noted that a clinical psychologist who examined the defendant said he may be manic and have a bipolar-related disorder.
Cheryl Paradis, the defense-hired psychologist, “observes that Billy’s behavior has been at least in part fueled by a substantial pattern of severe alcohol abuse, perhaps as a form of self-medication,” according to the defense filing.
McFardland’s lies to investors stemmed from an unrealistic belief that the festival would succeed and a fear of letting down people who had already invested, according to a separate report by forensic psychiatrist Andrew Levin, who also was hired by the defense.
His successful ventures prior to the festival "reinforced his grandiosity and distorted sense that there were ‘no boundaries,’" Levin’s report said. "It was in this context that he developed the unrealistic plans for the festival."
The case is U.S. v. McFarland, 17-cr-00600, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
This article provided by Bloomberg News.