How Billy McFarland Pulled Off the Biggest Festival Scam — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:01For a brief moment in December 2016
2. 0:04the whole internet focused on this image of an orange square.
3. 0:10Instagram's most followed celebrities all  posted it simultaneously,
4. 0:13and within 24 hours,
5. 0:15more than 300 million people had seen it.
6. 0:19The square led to an announcement trailer for the infamous Fyre Festival:
7. 0:23a music event unlike anything the world had ever seen.
8. 0:27The actual experience exceeds all expectations and is something that's hard to put in words.
9. 0:33my agency contacted me and was like
10. 0:35Hey there is this new Festival coming up  it's really exclusive
11. 0:40Pablo Escobar's Private Island
12. 0:42and that they were flying in thousands  of people on private jets
13. 0:46The most insane Festival the world has ever seen
14. 0:49Exclusivity with unbelievable access to Premier Talent
15. 0:53Biggest event in the decade I promise you, I'll  be there.
16. 0:56It promised the best of food, art, music
17. 1:00an adventure with some of the world's most famous  supermodels partying alongside you. on a private
18. 1:05island once owned by Pablo Escobar. it looked  like a lot of fun but of course it was all too
19. 1:12good to be true. instead of a glorious weekend  getaway with private flights luxury villas and
20. 1:19aess performers the Fyre Festival became the  single greatest hoax in the history of live
21. 1:25entertainment a multi-million dollar fraud that  ended up with people sleeping in disaster relief
22. 1:32tents Fyre festival and this thing was a  complete disaster a hostage situation and
23. 1:38this sandwich becoming one of the internet's most  viral memes new details that we're learning this
24. 1:43morning about that epic Fyre music festival  going viral with the # dumpster Fyre luxury
25. 1:49getaway quickly spiraling into chaos and  organizers released a statement saying we
26. 1:54thought we were ready but then everyone arrived  it's an absolute circus an absolute disaster I am
27. 2:00stranded in the Bahamas but who was behind the  Fyre Festival was it a scam or a mistake and why
28. 2:07if the first one was such a mess are they doing it  all over again well to answer that we need to talk
29. 2:13about the man who orchestrated This Disaster  Billy McFarland so we're taking the dream for
30. 2:20your average person in America or wherever they  are and saying for 3 days you could become papes
31. 2:34Billy McFarland was always ambitious but perhaps  a little too much when he was 19 Billy dropped
32. 2:41out of college to build a company called spling  and since he was quite charismatic he managed
33. 2:46to squeeze $400,000 from a few Venture Capital  firms Billy thought that he was going to be Mark
34. 2:53Zuckerberg and that he was on the road to be Mark  Zuckerberg and that nothing would stop him however
35. 3:00spling was not a success I'm Billy McFarland the  CEO of spling it was meant for sharing links to
36. 3:06sites like Facebook and Twitter which you could  already do pretty much anywhere but most people
37. 3:11thought it was kind of useless and soon it shut  down but this didn't stop Billy. Billy McFarland
38. 3:18came of age with the internet as this young man is  growing up there's a huge boom I was literally at
39. 3:24dinner with friends and we all split the bill  and we all had our introductory depit cards
40. 3:30and this idea struck me and I'm like wow what if  I can make these cooler in 2013 he launched a new
41. 3:37business Magnises' this time it was an invite only  black card for Millennials that cost $250 a year
42. 3:46what is Magnises. it's a card but it's more than  that card it's a card it's more than that so we
43. 3:51take everybody who has a card and create a lot of  great networking opportunities and second is we're
44. 3:55partners with local Merchants so fashion stores  restaurants gyms and they could use it just like
45. 4:00a regular credit card except it wasn't one instead  Billy found a way to take the magnetic strip from
46. 4:06the actual credit cards and put it into Magnises  cards it was pretty shady and several Magnises'
47. 4:12customers have said they never received any of  the benefits Billy promised some of them got
48. 4:17unauthorized charges on their cards and even  though Billy claimed he had tens of thousands
49. 4:21of customers no one's really sure how the company  made any money so Magnises was also a failure but
50. 4:29it did lead to some interesting connections Billy  often threw huge parties for Magnises' members with
51. 4:35celebrities like Shaggy guns and roses and Rick  Ross and for one of the parties Billy booked a
52. 4:40show from rapper and actor jaw rule it didn't take  long for them to go from acquaintances to friends
53. 4:46and soon enough business partners you see whenever  Billy tried to hire an artist for the Magnises
54. 4:53parties he always had to pay lots of people so  they could introduce him so what if with jaw rules
55. 4:59Network and Billy's experience in Tech they cut  off the middleman and built an app where people
56. 5:04could pay for access to celebrities directly  in 2016 Billy and Ja Rule set out to build this
57. 5:11thing and so they started a new business Fyre  media now they knew that for the Fyrefest app
58. 5:19to be successful they needed something to catch  people's attention and it didn't take long for
59. 5:24them to find an idea during a trip to the Bahamas  Billy and jaw rule stopped by an island called
60. 5:30Norman's K it was beautiful secluded and it had an  interesting bit of lore the Island used to belong
61. 5:38to the infamous Kingpin of the Medan cartel Pablo  Escobar and that was irresistible to Billy in his
62. 5:48mind he saw a Tropical Paradise ripe for a party  bigger more exclusive and luxurious than he'd ever
63. 5:53thrown before and with jaw ru's help he could get  some of the biggest stars in the world to attend
64. 6:00Billy didn't really know how he'd make any  of this happen but that was a problem for
65. 6:04tomorrow for now the Fyre Festival was on  Billy leased out the island from the owners
66. 6:11and set out to promise the world's greatest  event in the history of live entertainment
67. 6:17this was Billy's most ambitious idea yet  and it would also be his most disastrous
68. 6:30[Applause] in 2016 Billy and jaw rule made a  guest appearance at the web Summit one of the
69. 6:35biggest Tech conferences in the world we are  here at the web Summit well I'mma let my my
70. 6:42partner in crime here Billy McFarland give y'all  an introduction of what Fyre is so gutter asked
71. 6:48for $1,000 and he said I'll get you J roll so I  gave gutter $1,000 and gutter called me a week
72. 6:53later saying JW roll hates your offer so one  of the problems that we're really really tack
73. 7:00is the nastyy business of booking now that he'd  explained what the Fyrefest app was Billy just
74. 7:06needed the entire world to know about it that's  where the Fyre Festival came in and to promote
75. 7:11it he launched an undeniably genius marketing  campaign in December 2016 over 400 of Instagram's
76. 7:19top celebrities and influencers posted an  ominous orange square with a link to the
77. 7:25Fyrefest announcement trailer it was everywhere  and and it did exactly what Billy wanted the
78. 7:32actual experience exceeds all expectations and  is something that's hard to put everyone thought
79. 7:38the Fyre Festival would be an event like no other  before it the most insane Festival the world has
80. 7:44ever seen I mean everyone's supposed to be here  like Bella hiid kenzel Jenna all these models
81. 7:50like in the Bahamas there is this new Festival  coming up it's really exclusive on a deserted
82. 7:56island owned by Pablo Escobar it's like history  in the making there was music private planes and
83. 8:02beautiful women this is the first weekend this  has ever happened so literally I was excited get
84. 8:08ready baby Fyre Festival coming in April the  Fyrefest trailer starred top supermodels like
85. 8:13Bella Hadid and Emily Rakowski and when you  look at their Instagram posts it looks like
86. 8:18they'd be attending but it wasn't just them  hundreds of artists actors and models made
87. 8:23it seem like they would be there even though none  of those celebrities were actually planning to go
88. 8:29in reality Billy had paid them to promote Fyrefest  he paid Kendall Jenner $275,000 alone and the
89. 8:37total came to around $5.2 million the public had  no idea so for now the idea of partying alongside
90. 8:45massive celebrities was irresistible and with  Fyrefest just a little over 4 months away the
91. 8:51money started coming in right after the launch  now of course when the time for the festival came
92. 8:56around some people might be disappointed if they  they didn't get to party alongside their celebrity
93. 9:01crush but this was the least of Billy's problems  you see he promised Fyre Festival would have any
94. 9:07luxury you can name charter flights luxury villas  exotic foods unlimited drinks daytime activities
95. 9:15and 33 music acts for major artists like Blink 182  major laser good music tiger and Lil yachty some
96. 9:23of the packages even included private homes and  Catering from celebrity chefs and this is actly
97. 9:29why things fell apart Fyrefest was a logistical  nightmare firstly Billy hadn't even paid any of
98. 9:37the artists who were set to perform until just  weeks before the event so many of them announced
99. 9:42they would no longer attend considering that  Fyrefest was promoting an app meant for booking
100. 9:47music Talent it wasn't looking good but Billy's  most pressing issue was with Fyrefest main selling
101. 9:54point the private island in the Bahamas see the  Island's owner had leased it out to Billy under
102. 10:00only one condition he could not for any reason  disclose the connection to Pablo Escobar but just
103. 10:07look at Fyrefest launch trailer on a deserted  island owned by Pablo Escobar this was Pablo
104. 10:16Escobar's Island uh 25 years ago so we're taking  the dream for your average person in America or
105. 10:21wherever they are and saying for 3 days you could  become Pabo escar when the Island's owner saw this
106. 10:26he immediately pulled out of his deal with  Billy who suddenly found himself without a
107. 10:30venue now the Bahamas has no shortage of beautiful  islands but it just so happens that their biggest
108. 10:38National event was right around the date of the  Fyre festival and every other possible location
109. 10:42was taken the only place Billy could find was  an abandoned development called great eczema
110. 10:49but it was far from a tropical island paradise  instead it was another nearby Resorts parking
111. 10:55lot the team was shocked at the sheer amount  of work it would take to make it livable not
112. 11:02to mention luxurious great eczema didn't  even have running water so it definitely
113. 11:08wasn't suitable for History's Greatest musical  festival but Billy didn't seem to care he brought
114. 11:13in a team of Festival experts and just told  them to turn this parking lot into a luxury
115. 11:18resort complete with a concert stage and luxury  villas but that was easier said than done even
116. 11:26though Fyrefest tickets were selling out and  in fact being oversold the cheapest tickets
117. 11:31sold for $500 and only a handful of people  bought the more expensive ones which went
118. 11:36well into the $100,000 range according to the  experts the total cost of Fyre Festival would
119. 11:42be somewhere around $42 million probably more  and they simply couldn't afford it not even by
120. 11:49selling $100,000 tickets at this point though  Billy was already way too deep he had promised
121. 11:55people the greatest music festival in history  and now he had to find a way to to pay for it
122. 12:00and this is how Fyrefest turned from a simple  mistake into a deliberate multi-million dollar
123. 12:06scam with just a few weeks left until Fyrefest  everyone around Billy was starting to get
124. 12:19concerned they were way behind on construction  deadlines people were getting paid late or the
125. 12:24wrong amounts and ticket sales clearly did not  cover the cost of putting on this massive event
126. 12:30we were a month and a half out I don't know how  they thought that we were going to be able to
127. 12:35do that to do a proper Music Festival I would  say you should try to start the design and the
128. 12:40fundraising everything at least 12 months  out it was a mess but somehow Billy would
129. 12:45go away for a few days and come back with a few  million just in the nick of time but where was
130. 12:49he getting the money well in the leadup to Fyre Festival Billy had been busy siphoning millions
131. 12:55of dollars from investors especially by lying to  their faces no matter how cash strapped he was
132. 13:01Billy always projected the image of a successful  entrepreneur flying private jets and driving
133. 13:07luxury cars whenever he met a potential investor  he claimed that Fyre media had made thousands of
134. 13:12bookings and generated millions in Revenue in  reality they had only ever done 60 bookings and
135. 13:18made a little over $55,000 but he just sent his  investors fake bank statements even fabricated
136. 13:24loans from two different banks so between 2016  and 2017 Billy convinced people to invest $26
137. 13:31million into Fyre media all of which went into  funding his fake lifestyle and the Fyre Festival
138. 13:38but still the festival was just too expensive  to put on and when investor money wasn't enough
139. 13:43Billy came up with a last ditch effort to keep  things going during festivals people inevitably
140. 13:48end up spending money on food drinks and merch  usually they paid directly to the vendors but
141. 13:54Billy had a different idea he sent out an email  telling attendees that they had to pay for quote
142. 13:59unquote Fyre bands which let them pay for add-on  experiences and other festival related expenses
143. 14:05on location now Billy hadn't done any testing on  the Fyre bands but he pressured people to put a
144. 14:11decent chunk of money on them and it worked a lot  of people bought them and they were prepaying an
145. 14:17average of $33,000 even though there wouldn't be  anything to buy the Fyre bands were a total scam
146. 14:24but they gave Billy a little more cash to work  with unfortunately though no M how much money
147. 14:29he threw at his problems they just kept piling on  to each other apart from the Fyre bands Fyrefest
148. 14:37attendees hadn't gotten an update from Billy  in months they had no idea about the location
149. 14:42change where they'd be staying or even where  they'd be flying from so they started getting
150. 14:47concerned however Fyrefest's customer service  wasn't responding to anyone's questions and the
151. 14:53team began deleting social media comments and even  turning off comments altogether because of this
152. 14:59entire social media accounts were popping up to  investigate what was going on and they exposed
153. 15:04how Fyrefest had photoshopped the new location  to make it look like a private island someone
154. 15:10even flew down to the Bahamas to investigate and  of course instead of the luxury Paradise Billy had
155. 15:15promised they found an active construction site  littered with leftover emergency relief tents
156. 15:20from a hurricane when that information reached  social media it went absolutely viral staff were
157. 15:27under immense stress with only a few days to  go and Mark Weinstein who worked with Fyrefest
158. 15:32emailed the team and said they had to cancel some  bookings finally I had convinc them to cancel some
159. 15:39of the influencers who had been promised free  accommodations for posting that little orange
160. 15:45Square on their Instagram accounts M and we  were promised a villa by the beach me and two
161. 15:51guests and so that's when I realized like we had  about 200 of these people who were all promised a
162. 15:57three-person bill on on the beach and those just  didn't exist Mark was told that his smiling face
163. 16:03and yoga classes would make everything better  and work carried on you know it's one thing to
164. 16:08try to find solutions to problems it's another  thing to not take advice of the people that you
165. 16:12hired around you because they have the experience  that you don't and Billy refused to Face Reality
166. 16:18he just pushed his staff to work even harder and  to give the Fyre team credit they did everything
167. 16:23they could and sometimes way more one team member  named Andy King admittedly had forgotten about an
168. 16:29incoming shipment of drinking water and since he  never showed up to receive it Bahama's Customs
169. 16:34seized it as if Fyrefest financial situation  wasn't bad enough the only way to get the water
170. 16:40back was to pay $175,000 in cash or Andy could do  the Customs officer a very personal very intimate
171. 16:49favor Andy only told this story later on it was a  tough choice but he prepared himself mentally to
172. 16:56do whatever it took bil he called and said Andy  we need you to take one big thing for the team
173. 17:01and I said oh my gosh I've been taking something  for the team every day he said Andy if you will
174. 17:07go down and suck Cunningham's who's the head of  customs and get him to clear all of the containers
175. 17:14with water you will save this festival and I  literally drove home took a shower and I got to
176. 17:21his office fully prepared to suck his di luckily  though the Customs officer was just joking around
177. 17:29he let Andy take the water with him if he promised  Fyrefest would pay for the import fee on time with
178. 17:34no cash penalty and no special favors needed  Andy what happened I didn't have to do it no
179. 17:42I got down there he was the nicest guy he like  Andy I like you I'm like oh God where's this
180. 17:46conversation going and he said you know uh you  have brought such you know incredible Integrity
181. 17:53to this event and I said okay cool well I didn't  have to do it so water was taken care of but the
182. 17:59rest of the festival was still just as much of a  disaster and it was now only a day away the team
183. 18:05braced themselves for one final allnighter to fix  whatever they could before customers arrived they
184. 18:11had endured months of chaos but unfortunately it  would only get worse before we continue with the
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198. 19:32story on the morning of April 27th 2017  the day before Fyrefest the great eczema
199. 19:44Islands were hit with a devastating storm tents  were flooded equipment was ruined and whatever
200. 19:52work the team could do before people arrived  had to stop people had been telling Billy to
201. 19:57cancel Fyrefest for months now and even after  a storm destroyed weeks of progress he simply
202. 20:03wouldn't listen unfortunately this just meant  everyone would have a terrible experience just
203. 20:10imagine being a Fyrefest attendee you might be an  influencer looking to have a good time get some
204. 20:16content and maybe even make some connections you  may have saved up money for day passes or dropped
205. 20:22thousands to get access to an exclusive  Villa either way you're going to Fyrefest
206. 20:29it's been a bit weird in the weeks leading up to  it you're flying from Miami but you weren't given
207. 20:34any information until the day of the flight from  all the promo videos you've seen you're going to
208. 20:39be chartered on a Fyre branded private jet to  begin your luxury Adventure so you show up at
209. 20:46the airport and finally it's time to board  mamas we're coming for you baby the first
210. 20:52thing you notice is that there is no private  jet no party in the sky taking you to Paradise
211. 21:01instead it's a regular 737 and it's  pretty cramped odd it's actually
212. 21:06worse than like really like being like  low low economy class I makes the good
213. 21:12news about this plan if we want to leave  we can just take the window off we head
214. 21:17out also you hear that your favorite band Blink  182 has pulled out of the festival at the last
215. 21:25minute apparently they can't deliver the type of  show that they would like like to for their fans
216. 21:30bummer but it happens hours later you finally  touch down in the Bahamas it's sunny and you're
217. 21:37with dozens of fellow partygoers eager to get to  your fancy Villa but instead you're taken to a bar
218. 21:43on a repurposed School Bus this is just strange  but hey you can drink and dance and take in a view
219. 21:52so maybe you're happy to start having some fun or  maybe you're tired from your flight maybe like the
220. 21:58rest of the crowd you're starting to get the  feeling that all is not what it seems you see
221. 22:04if the guests saw the damage the previous day  had caused at the campsite it would be chaos
222. 22:11so Billy tried to stall for time while he and the  team rushed to fix the mess here's the situation
223. 22:16it rained last night no one can go to the camp  so they told everybody to come here on eczema
224. 22:22Beach and get drunk for like 4 hours after 6 hours  though they had made little in the way of progress
225. 22:28but the attendees simply needed to go to  their accommodations which didn't exist
226. 22:34this was the moment everyone had warned him  about there was no one from Fyre Festival on
227. 22:40the bus the bus driver just knew where to go  and he's telling us oh yeah like they didn't
228. 22:45start construction on any of this until maybe a  month ago or oh yeah like you're you're really
229. 22:50in for for something just wait until you see  what you're getting yourselves into oh Jesus
230. 22:59turn around turn this bus right around we didn't  have enough drivers we didn't have enough houses
231. 23:06we didn't have enough beds we didn't have  enough sight we didn't have enough staff
232. 23:10it was just we were overwhelmed this this  Festival is never happening again I hope
233. 23:15they know [Music] that against all advice Billy  had refused to postpone or cancel the festival
234. 23:25and now he couldn't stall anymore when the  guests arrived at the campsite all their
235. 23:30suspicions were finally confirmed the conditions  at Fyrefest were unacceptable and they demanded
236. 23:35answers someone asked Billy where to go if  they paid for a villa but when he said that
237. 23:43they should claim a tent the safe luxurious  Paradise these people had paid thousands of
238. 23:48dollars for turned into a riot welcome to the  crazy ridiculous awful crazy ridiculous life
239. 23:55of DL uh where today's episode I am stranded  in the Bahamas none of us know what to do now
240. 24:01it's getting late someone took our our room um  they told us it was a free-for-all so we have
241. 24:08nowhere to stay nowhere to stay some people  are missing bags it's we're just trying to
242. 24:11get our bags pitch black out there's there's  trucks craziness going on everywhere this is
243. 24:18an absolute disaster hundreds of confused angry  drunk festivalgoers immediately rushed into the
244. 24:25campsite and began looting and vandalizing it  people would poke holes in others tents damage
245. 24:30mattresses and steal everything from toilet  paper to other people's luggage it was too
246. 24:35much the team couldn't do anything about it and  behind the scenes Billy was reportedly crying
247. 24:42his eyes out I could see that they were tears  in his eyes but that was the first time that
248. 24:47any of us had seen that through thick and thin  he stayed so positive and it wasn't until that
249. 24:52day things started to crumble he had completely  lost control over the situation but only a third
250. 24:59of the attendees had arrived and the others were  already flying in what would happen when the crowd
251. 25:05tripled at the very height of the chaos everyone  except Billy seemed to accept that Fyrefest was
252. 25:12beyond saving so the staff actually started going  against his orders they shut down future plans
253. 25:18announced that the festival had officially been  cancelled but this morning the organizers of the
254. 25:23failed Fyre Festival are feeling the heat  we took a big jump here and a big risk and
255. 25:28uh V1 has failed uh Fyre Festival is officially  cancelled we just got the news guys officially is
256. 25:38it really that's what Mick said apparently there's  no food on the island they're not letting people
257. 25:43in people who just landed here have to go back to  Miami and they even sent the incoming attendees
258. 25:49straight back to the United States from the  airport as for the crowd at the campsite the staff
259. 25:54would have liked to send them home as quickly  as possible too but in the meantime they had to
260. 25:58feed them and it was an embarrassment when people  paid thousands of dollars for Fyrefest they were
261. 26:04probably expecting a five-star dining experience  but Billy had to cut down the food budget from
262. 26:09$6 million down to $1 million which obviously  meant that the Caribbean style Sushi was off
263. 26:16the menu instead attendees got this stale looking  sandwich with plasticky cheese and a dry salad on
264. 26:23the side when this picture reached the internet  the Fyrefest disaster became a global sensation
265. 26:29there was a brutal onslaught of memes on social  media and even mainstream media had a field
266. 26:34day with it new details that we're learning this  morning about that epic Fyre music festival going
267. 26:38viral with the #dumpsterfyre a luxury getaway  quickly spiraling into chaos and organizers
268. 26:45released a statement saying we thought we were  ready but then everyone arrived the team was
269. 26:49overwhelm slice of cheese on bread for 48 hours  was the number one trending story on the news
270. 26:55we had no electricity there was no showers there  was no bathrooms there's no like running water you
271. 27:00know this like tsunami of shod androy some people  are calling it rich people's problems and also J
272. 27:06Rule is going to be there of course I'm going be  there who am I not to be there this is J Rule in
273. 27:14his comfort zone and this is J Rule outside of his  comfort zone these are other things Kendall Jenner
274. 27:21has been promoting the mount e active volcano Rave  what do you think of the Fyre Festival uh a week
275. 27:29and a half ago the people who got trapped in there  in the uh danger zone I don't want greatest things
276. 27:33that's ever happened I mean it's terrible I mean I  know I I know it's terrible but as if the sandwich
277. 27:37wasn't bad enough for the poor Fyrefest attendees  once they finally made it to the airport things
278. 27:43got even worse on a small island like eczema  there's a limited number of flights coming
279. 27:49in at any given moment so they were stranded at  the airport waiting for a plane with free space
280. 27:54to take them home now waiting at the airport is  bad enough but the poor Fyrefest attendees had
281. 28:00no food no water some of them were drunk and for  some reason the eczema airport staff physically
282. 28:06locked everyone inside a tiny room okay how long  till water comes and food what do we get her money
283. 28:14back it was practically a hostage situation and  some people even passed out due to the stress it
284. 28:21took hours but thankfully the Fyre team eventually  managed to fly everyone back home safely we made
285. 28:28it success America We are Alive come none of us  passed out after months of chaos and one night of
286. 28:36absolute Insanity The Nightmare was finally over  and to no one's surprise there were going to be
287. 28:42consequences in May 2017 barely a month after  Fyrefest the first class action lawsuit was
288. 28:53filed against Fyre media for a whopping $100  million the documents perfectly sum up how
289. 28:59Fyre fest's customers felt they describe  it as something closer to the Hunger Games
290. 29:04or Lord of the Flies than Coachella in 2018 the  courts awarded two attendees $5 million 3 years
291. 29:13later 277 ticket holders from another class action  lawsuit received a $2 million settlement although
292. 29:19their legal fees left them with just $281 each  however apart from the lawsuits against Fyre
293. 29:25media there was also a huge legal storm directed  personally towards Billy in order to fun Fyre Fest
294. 29:32he had lied to investors about everything from  the value of his companies to having insurance
295. 29:38and he even tricked a ticket vendor into paying  $2 million for advanced tickets for the next 3
296. 29:43years of Fyrefest in total he defrauded investors  of upwards of $26 million but that's not all when
297. 29:52Billy was awaiting trial he ran yet another fraud  he started a company called NYC V IP access that
298. 29:59claimed that they could get customers access to  exclusive events like the 2018 Met Gala Burning
299. 30:06Man 2018 Coachella 2018 the 2018 Grammy Awards  and Super Bowl 52 never mind that tickets for
300. 30:14many of these events can be bought by anyone or  that the Met Gala is Invitation Only before he
301. 30:19was caught Billy targeted former customers  of Magnises' and Fyrefest cting them out of
302. 30:24$150,000 so in October 2018 Billy was sentenced  to 6 years in prison in ordered to Forfeit 26
303. 30:31m913 28 cents which he didn't have  but we'll get to that for now all
304. 30:41of the influencers who helped  promote Fyrefest were being held
305. 30:44accountable what do you think why people  buy that much tickets who would want to
306. 30:56miss seeing Kanye in the with Kendall  Jenner we talk about the fomo moment
307. 31:01like it elevated it to a 10 I had  influencers begging to go because
308. 31:07all the other influencers are going after all  the event couldn't be as big as it was without
309. 31:13them Kendall Jenner actually ended up paying  $90,000 to settle a lawsuit although she said
310. 31:21Fyre media had also misled her jaw ru's name was  also thrown around in the lawsuits co-founder
311. 31:27jaw rule defend himself on social media and  now saying he was also a victim of the scam
312. 31:31as dueling documentaries put the failed event  back in the spotlight Twitter users not mincing
313. 31:36words fraud liar manipulator demanding to know  what jaw rule knew and when he and Billy were
314. 31:43supposedly organizing the event together but  actually the courts concluded that he was not
315. 31:47influential enough to have gotten anyone to  attend Fyrefest that must have hurt his ego
316. 31:53a little bit but either way since jaw rule also  wasn't involved in the scheme to defraud in ERS
317. 31:58the courts let him off without any consequences  and now anytime people ask him about Fyrefest he
318. 32:04always says Billy screwed him over just like  everyone else but many people don't believe
319. 32:08him the music mogul firing back tweeting I too  was hustled scammed Bamboozled Hood weaked LED
320. 32:15astray Fyrefest was a clear sign that Regulators  had to do more to protect online consumers ever
321. 32:21since organizations like the advertising standards  Association and the Federal Trade Commission have
322. 32:26been stricter about celebrities promoting products  and events online but really this went Way Beyond
323. 32:31internet shopping a few years before Fyrefest a  restaurant owner from the Bahamas revealed that
324. 32:37during the preparations she had been paying  dozens of workers out of her own pocket so
325. 32:42when Billy disappeared from the Bahamas she and  her husband found themselves in a dire financial
326. 32:46situation thankfully though once her story went  public she was able to raise $250,000 through a
327. 32:52GoFundMe which let her cover her losses and helped  other Bahamian locals who got scammed by Billy
328. 32:58Fyre Festival was a disaster I were there  preparing hundreds and hundreds of meals
329. 33:04and I was not able to be paid out of savings  I sure I've spent more than $50,000 in bills
330. 33:11that I am still trying to you know will come  at this time Fyrefest consequences stretched
331. 33:17Way Beyond just a few partygoers but now it  was finally over except Billy was now behind
332. 33:22bars and while you would think he would  use his time for some honest introspection
333. 33:28this is Billy McFarland we're  talking about he had bigger
334. 33:31plans hey guys it's Billy McFarland as you might  know I fed around and because of that I definitely
335. 33:46found out you might have guessed but I'm working  on something new this time it's a little crazier
336. 33:57but a whole lot bigger anything I've ever  tried before Billy was released from prison
337. 34:02on March 30th 2022 he served less than 4 years  every second of which he had spent planning his
338. 34:08comeback Billy immediately appeared on podcasts  and media platforms because for one he wanted
339. 34:15to reintroduce himself to the world and Salvage  his reputation so I I I I messed up and I was so
340. 34:22driven by this desperate desire to prove people  right but also so he wanted to introduce his new
341. 34:29business pirate were you thinking about okay this  is what I need to do when I get out or this is
342. 34:34plans that I have to start when I get out yeah  so working on a company now it's called pirate
343. 34:40put it together during my this the new game plan  pirate pirate the idea behind pirate was to put
344. 34:46on a treasure hunt of sorts where people had to  find 99 bottles with secret messages and Billy
345. 34:51would produce a TV show out of it it's a weird  idea and the location of course was the Bahamas
346. 34:59when I go back to the Bahamas for the first time  I don't know what's going to happen I have to ask
347. 35:04permission to go but I'd love for you guys to be  there to capture the content and be the first on
348. 35:09to return boots in the ground I think fend getting  the reaction from the locals this is actually
349. 35:15hilarious when Billy announced this people felt it  was just disrespectful even the government of the
350. 35:21Bahamas officially said they considered Billy a  fugitive and if he ever set foot in their country
351. 35:26again he'd be arrested what did the statement say  that I'm a fugitive of the Bahamas so if you go
352. 35:33to the Bahamas they would arrest you it it sounds  like it needless to say Billy won't be showing up
353. 35:38to the Bahamas anytime soon but pirates still got  him sued again for defrauding investors see when
354. 35:44Billy was in prison he allegedly sold a third  of the shares of pirate to another inmate for
355. 35:49$740,000 but when he was released he didn't give  the guy his shares or his money back and now he's
356. 35:56suing Billy for it so there was never a pirate  treasure hunt but that was never really Billy's
357. 36:03main move after all he owes $26 million  and there's only one way he's going to pay
358. 36:08this it has been a long seven years but Fyre is back this is our first step of many let's F
359. 36:19go that's right we're getting fir Fest 2 on April  25th 2025 Fyre Festival 2 is happening April 25th
360. 36:28uh of 2025 so we're 7 and 1 12 months away we have  a private island off the coast of Mexico in the
361. 36:34Caribbean Billy announced Fyrefest 2 in late 2023  and the tickets actually sold out we announced our
362. 36:41first pre-sale on Sunday they sold out very  very quickly the first batch of tickets went
363. 36:46for $500 and the subsequent drops have included  tickets ranging from $2,500 to $250,000 and even
364. 36:54a ticket for $1.1 million which comes with access  to a luxury condo in Miami we received over $110
365. 37:02million applications for people who wanted to come  to Fyre 2 and that included a number of people who
366. 37:07are bidding on or applying to buy a million dooll  Fyre ticket as for the location the Bahamas are
367. 37:12off the table so this time the festival will take  place on an island off the coast of Mexico the
368. 37:18team is on the island and it is safe to say things  are already looking better than Fyre one according
369. 37:25to Billy there are already hotels built there so  it seems like he's learned from his mistakes but
370. 37:30he hasn't booked any artists yet we haven't booked  any talent for Fyre 2 it's not going to be just
371. 37:35music given his reputation and how disastrous the  first Fyre Festival was it's truly incredible that
372. 37:41Billy has managed to sell any tickets for Fyre  Fest 2 influencers aren't clamoring to promote it
373. 37:47corporate Brands want nothing to do with it and  news outlets are dying for it to become another
374. 37:52Scandal but despite all the red flags people  are lining up for Fyrefest 2o because maybe
375. 37:58just maybe it might be the greatest time  of their life that hope is what Billy has
376. 38:03always sold but he knows it's false we  selling a pipe dream selling a pipe dream
377. 38:09to hopefully though Billy learned his lesson
378. 38:17these days in the leadup to Fyrefest 2  Billy keeps his fans regularly updated
379. 38:21on Instagram whether it'll be a success or  an even bigger disaster than Fyrefest 1 is
380. 38:27still uncertain but there is one thing we can  say for sure we haven't seen the last of Billy
381. 38:35mcfar thanks again to delete me  for sponsoring this video get a
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