*The organizers of last month’s Fyre Festival fiasco promoted by Ja Rule can now add a federal criminal investigation to the mountain of lawsuits that are already on their doorstep.
The New York Times reports that the FBI and the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District Of New York are looking into possible mail, wire, and securities fraud in an investigation overseen by a prosecutor assigned to the complex frauds and cybercrime unit.
During a conference call earlier this month, one Fyre Media employee asked founder Billy McFarland if they should be concerned about the FBI. “That’s more of an individual thing,” McFarland replied.
According to the Times, it’s McFarland who is in their crosshairs:
Ja Rule was Fyre’s famous face, but at the center of the controversy is Mr. McFarland, a brash, 25-year-old entrepreneur with a gift for networking and buzzy social media. In his short career, he has persuaded people, over and over, to buy or invest in whatever he was selling, leaving behind a trail of aggrieved customers and business partners. He could be the Wolf of Wall Street for the selfie set, or Gatsby run through an Instagram filter.
Mr. McFarland and his lawyers declined to address specific allegations. But in a statement, he said: “I cannot emphasize enough how sorry I am that we fell short of our goal,” adding, “I’m committed to, and working actively to, find a way to make this right, not just for investors but for those who planned to attend.”
Stacey Richman, a lawyer for Ja Rule, said that he “would never participate in anything fraudulent; it’s simply not in his DNA.”
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