Fyre Festival founder pleads guilty to wire fraud, faces up to 40 years in prison

Fyre Festival organizer Billy McFarland pleaded guilty to wire fraud in federal court on Tuesday, CNBC reports. McFarland faced two counts of wire fraud stemming from his efforts to secure financial backing for his company Fyre Media: one for misrepresenting the company's financial health to investors, and a second for misrepresenting it to a ticketing vendor. Prosecutors had accused McFarland of falsifying documents such as emails and financial records in order to exaggerate Fyre's value. In court, McFarland reportedly acknowledged engaging in "fraudulent behavior," apologizing to employees, investors, and family, but suggested he'd acted in good faith and had simply "grossly underestimated" the scale of the undertaking. Heavily promoted on social media with images of models and jet skis, Fyre Fest promised promised a luxe Bahamas resort experience with "villa" accommodations, gourmet catering, and live music by acts like Migos and Blink-182 (for whom McFarland apparently spent

The millennial entrepreneur whose 2017 Fyre Festival began with promises of music and luxury in the Bahamas and descended into a chaos of badly constructed tents, cold cheese sandwiches and a lack of sufficient bathrooms may soon find himself in the no-frills accommodations of a federal prison.

The media giant almost gave the company $25 million for its app. Now employees want answers, after the disaster in the Bahamas.

One of the first signs that last year's Fyre Festival was in trouble came the Thursday night before the disastrous Bahamas getaway was set to begin, when headliners Blink-182 abruptly dropped out. At the time, the band said they were that concerned festival producers wouldn't be able to provide everything required to perform. They were almost certainly right—but they missed out on a sweet yacht, according to documents reviewed by the New York Post's Page Six. Fyre Fest founder Billy McFarland reportedly spent more than $150,000 to secure the boat for Blink as a "perk," the gossip outlet reports. Other reported Fyre Fest expenses include $18,208 in towels and $260,000 in carpet, part of a total $470,000 spent on promised luxury accommodations that turned out to be partially furnished emergency tent shelters. It's not clear what happened to all the goods. “There was gross mismanagement and a general misunderstanding of how events like this unfold and that purchases weren’t being vetted,”