Fyre Fest Founder Billy McFarland Announces Bahamas Treasure Hunt, Government Says He’s Not Welcome There
Back in May, the disgraced Fyre Fest founder Billy McFarland got out of prison early. He’d been sentenced to six years in prison for wire fraud, and he’d served four. So what do you do after your hilarious boondoggle con-job makes you the laughingstock of the entire internet and you spend years in prison for defrauding people? Naturally, you attempt to return to the scene of the crime with a whole new scheme.
Right now, Billy McFarland is planing to return to the Bahamas for a “treasure hunt” that he calls PYRT — one that he’s naturally been teasing on TikTok. According to Deadline, this whole project is happening so that someone can make a documentary about McFarland coming back to the Bahamas. Producer Ample Entertainment and distributor Fremantle are planning a documentary called After The Fyre, and the site describes the doc like this:
The film will feature the disgraced entrepreneur as he launches his next business venture and attempts to pay back the $26 million dollars he still owes after scandalously defrauding investors, partners and attendees of the promised-but-botched luxurious music event that took place in 2017.
Sounds like a true emotional journey. But there’s a problem. According to Billboard, Billy McFarland is still considered a fugitive in the Bahamas. Chester Cooper, the Bahamas Deputy Prime Minister for Tourism, says that the country has approved no business activities from Billy McFarland and that people should report McFarland’s location to the Royal Bahamian Police Force.
McFarland has responded by writing a letter to Chester Cooper, and Billboard has reprinted that letter. In the letter, McFarland writes:
I’ve now served my punishment in prison and now that I am out, my main focus is how I can right my wrongs and how I can make the Bahamas and Family Islands, a region I care so deeply about, whole again…
I truly acknowledge the hurt I caused to the people, and region, and I will spend the rest of my life working to right my wrongs.
Presumably, that letter will make everything better.