The struggle that was the Fyre Festival is still very much alive in the news cycle and new developments in the matter could spell heavy jail time for its organizers. A new report suggests that the FBI is looking to investigate the festival for fraud and other charges, adding to list of issues to plague the event.
The New York Times reports:
Ja Rule, the rapper and Mr. McFarland’s celebrity business partner, looked on the bright side. “The whole world knows Fyre’s name now,” he said. “This will pass, guys.”
Their company, Fyre Media, however, was already facing the first of more than a dozen lawsuits seeking millions and alleging fraud, breach of contract and more.
The endeavor has also become the focus of a criminal investigation, with federal authorities looking into possible mail, wire and securities fraud, according to a source with knowledge of the matter, who was not authorized to discuss it. The investigation is being conducted by the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York and the F.B.I.; it is being overseen by a prosecutor assigned to the complex frauds and cybercrime unit. (A spokesman for the United States attorney’s office and a spokeswoman for the F.B.I. declined to comment.)
While Ja Rule has been implicated in the investigation as the business partner of Billy McFarland, the rapper’s legal team contends that he was unaware of the potentially illegal happenings on the back end.
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