Fyre Festival Merchandise To Be Auctioned Off To Payback Scammed Investors


(AllHipHop News) It appears some of the people that were swindled out of money as a result of the failed Fyre Festival will be compensated for their losses. A Vulture article claims Fyre Fest merchandise is being auctioned to pay back part of the $26 million debt accrued by the event’s founder Billy McFarland.

“We have an assortment of the ‘real thing’ Fyre Festival-branded tee-shirts, sweatpants, sweatshirts, hats, wristbands and medallions,” stated a spokesman for the United States Marshals Service’s Manhattan office. “We know that there is tremendous interest in these items in the NY metro area in particular.”

McFarland was sentenced to six years in federal prison for multiple counts of wire fraud and bank fraud in connection to the Fyre Fest. He was accused of scamming investors out of $24 million and a ticket vendor out of $2 million.

Organizers of the ill-fated Fyre Festival, including rap artist Jeffrey “Ja Rule” Atkins, were exposed in two 2019 documentaries. Netflix’s Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened and Hulu’s Fyre Fraud caused a significant public backlash against McFarland and Ja Rule.

In particular, viewers of The Greatest Party That Never Happened were upset that Bahamian restaurant owner Maryann Rolle allegedly lost around $50,000 when the concert was canceled at the last minute. Over 9,000 people raised more than $227,000 for Rolle via a GoFundMe campaign.

“My heart goes out to this lovely lady… MaryAnne Rolle we’ve never met but I’m devastated that something that was meant to be amazing, turn out to be such a disaster and hurt so many ppl… SORRY to anyone who has been negatively effected [sic] by the festival,” posted Ja on Instagram.

It’s still not clear if Ja Rule donated any money to any of the victims. However, McFarland, Ja, and Fyre Media were named as defendants in several lawsuits for fraud, breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation, false representations, material omissions, negligence, and unjust enrichment.

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