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Billy McFarland, grundare av Fyre Festival (Mark Lennihan / AP)

Fyre Festival-grundaren släppt från fängelse

Fyre Festivals ena grundare Billy McFarland har släppts ur fängelse två år i förtid, rapporterar amerikanska TMZ.

Sedan i slutet av mars har McFarland bott på ett utslussningsboende där han blir kvar innan han helt släpps fri 30 augusti.

McFarland dömdes 2018 till ett sexårigt fängelsestraff för flera fall av bedrägeri, bland annat efter att ha marknadsfört den exklusiva lyxfestivalen Fyre Festival på Bahamas. Besökare lovades boende och mat i toppklass och världsartister. En vip-biljett kostade motsvarande 100 000 kronor. När besökarna anlände till ön möttes de av ett tältläger efter en naturkatastrof utan mat och musik.

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Fyre Festival
Wikipedia (en)
The Fyre Festival was a fraudulent luxury music festival founded by con artist Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule. It was created with the intent to promote a music talent booking app for their company Fyre Media. The festival was scheduled to take place on April 28–30 and May 5–7, 2017, on the Bahamian island of Great Exuma. The event was promoted on Instagram by social media influencers and models including Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Hailey Baldwin, and Emily Ratajkowski, many of whom did not initially disclose they had been paid to do so. During the Fyre Festival's inaugural weekend, the event experienced problems related to security, food, accommodation, medical services, and artist relations, resulting in the festival being postponed indefinitely and eventually cancelled. Instead of the luxury villas and gourmet meals for which festival attendees paid hundreds or thousands of dollars, they received boxed plain cheese sandwiches and FEMA/UN tents as their accommodation.In March 2018, McFarland pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud to defraud investors and ticket holders, and a second count to defraud a ticket vendor that occurred while out on bail. In October 2018, McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to forfeit US$26 million. The organizers became the subject of at least eight lawsuits, several seeking class action status, and one seeking more than $100 million in damages. The cases accused the organizers of defrauding ticket buyers. Two documentaries about the events of the festival were released in January 2019: Hulu's Fyre Fraud, and Netflix's Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened. It was also the subject of an episode of the CNBC series American Greed in 2019, and an episode of the ABC series The Con in 2021.
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