A New York man whose business ventures targeted super-rich, status-seeking millennials was sentenced to six years in prison for defrauding investors of $27.4 million in the disastrous 2017 Fyre Festival and then, while out on bail, running a separate concert-ticket scam.
Billy McFarland, 27, appeared with family members in a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday as U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald delivered the sentence. He pleaded guilty in March and July to the separate scams, which the government said were orchestrated to help fund an extravagant lifestyle.
“I can’t believe how wrong I was,” McFarland told the judge before the sentence was handed down. “I can’t believe how stupid I was. I betrayed the trust of my investors, customers, family and the court. My mistakes were severe and they hurt a lot of people.”
Prosecutors had urged a combined sentence of 15 to 20 years, saying McFarland personally profited from fraud schemes that caused "substantial harm to many victims." His defense team asked for substantially less prison time, without making a specific suggestion, largely blaming the scams on McFarland’s mental health and possible delusions of grandeur.
“For the past five years, the defendant has been the consummate con artist,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum to the judge. “He betrayed and deceived his investors, customers, and employees while he was living the high life at his luxury apartment, traveling to exclusive locales, staying at luxury hotels, being chauffeured in his Maserati, and entertaining himself and his friends at restaurants, bars, and casinos.”
McFarland admitted in March that he lied to investors who bought a $1.2 million stake in his company, Fyre Media Inc. Authorities said he provided false documents that inflated Fyre’s revenue and altered a stock-ownership statement to make it appear that shares he owned were worth $2.5 million when they were actually valued at less than $1,500.
The ruse allowed McFarland to convince investors he would personally guarantee their investment. Organizers borrowed as much as $7 million in a last-minute bid to fund the doomed festival.
“Whenever he needed more money, he lied to investors to get it,” prosecutors said in a court filing. “Whenever he wanted more money, he gave it to himself from business accounts. Whenever one scheme began to falter, he hatched a newer and more elaborate one.”
In July, while he was out on bail, McFarland pleaded guilty to new charges that he ran a fraudulent ticket business called NYC VIP Access. Prosecutors said he took in more than $100,000 from at least 15 people for tickets to such events as the Met Gala, Coachella and the Super Bowl. He told a judge that he "did not in fact have those tickets in hand."
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