The Fyre Fest Thread

[AdamK47]

I feel bad for the Fyre Media employess in Portland. They work hard on developing something only to have a mess like this not only ruin the launch of the app, but also force them to quit. They had nothing to do with the festival.

 

[Skel]

I hadn't really paid attention to the saga of this train wreak until I saw they weren't paying employees anymore. Man, the story is better than a music fest, and it keeps going and going

 

[clamum]

Billy McFarland seems rather douchey and steeped in Fail.

 

[AdamK47]

I wouldn't have worked if there wasn't a written and singed employment agreement. A verbal agreement is also binding. It's just harder to prove.

 

[Darwin333]

https://news.vice.com/story/audio-fyre-festival-founders-reveal-to-employees-nobodys-getting-paid

this just keeps getting better

Daaaamn.

As fucked up as that is, a later question is about as bad.

"Should we be concerned about the FBI, Billy?" to which he responded "that's more of an individual thing"... WTF kind of answer is that to a question which is basically "Are we being investigated by the Feds for breaking fucking federal laws because of shit you fucked up, asshole"?

 

[Darwin333]

I wouldn't have worked if there wasn't a written and singed employment agreement. A verbal agreement is also binding. It's just harder to prove.

All the written agreements in the world won't help you when the corporation has no money to pay and no assets. Doesn't matter how much the people behind the corporations have, one of the big benefits of companies of all forms. You can sue, and you can win, but if the company itself has no money or assets then the only thing you get is lawyer bills.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

All the written agreements in the world won't help you when the corporation has no money to pay and no assets. Doesn't matter how much the people behind the corporations have, one of the big benefits of companies of all forms. You can sue, and you can win, but if the company itself has no money or assets then the only thing you get is lawyer bills.

Depends on the State, my State has unusually strict laws regarding unpaid time worked but yes if there is truly zero left then you're f'd however I'd bet 99.99999% of the time there is money that can be clawed back or someone gets jail time for embezzlement

 

[Ruptga]

#15. It would be an ATOTers dream come true. All the popular guys leave and then it's just you and the ladies.

Truth.

 

[Darwin333]

Depends on the State, my State has unusually strict laws regarding unpaid time worked but yes if there is truly zero left then you're f'd however I'd bet 99.99999% of the time there is money that can be clawed back or someone gets jail time for embezzlement

Depends on how good the accountants are and it sounds like they truly ran out of money. They owe everyone and their mother right now, I'm not sure how states make employers prioritize payments but I'd imagine if a "favorable" vendors invoice became due before payroll and they used the last of their funds to pay it that it wouldn't be criminally illegal. The other thing is the cost in legal fees to recoup the lost wages is probably many many times more than the lost wages are. Would you really go up against what I am pretty darn sure are big time lawyers to recoup hundreds, or even very low thousands, of dollars in lost wages?

The various subcontractors and vendors have MUCH larger claims and if they were contracted by Fyre then it makes what the CEO said about "growing the company" absurdly foolish. I can't possibly see how they do anything but declare bankruptcy.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

^^^you'd report them & the State will do it for you.
I'm assuming the two ass clown organizers still have cash, I'll assume some cash was removed from the festival and I'll assume a senior executive knew funds were running out but still had people work

 

[Skel]

I'm a little confused (and too lazy to Google) was the group a booking company that was in the middle of making some app and decided to try to put on a festival, or were they a new app that helped with booking making company that tried to put on a festival? I've seen conflicting things. The only thing for certain is that they had no clue what to do with festivals.

 

[Darwin333]

^^^you'd report them & the State will do it for you.
I'm assuming the two ass clown organizers still have cash, I'll assume some cash was removed from the festival and I'll assume a senior executive knew funds were running out but still had people work

Now if they removed cash and put it in their personal accounts or something of the sort that would be something they could go after. Otherwise, I don't see how they could go after the two organizers personally. That's the entire point of setting up a corporation is to limit your own personal liability.

 

[Ns1]

Bloomberg just lit Fyre up.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...d-under-millions-in-debt-before-it-even-began

 

[Ns1]

Ticket vendor also sues. Only saved 10% in escrow for chargebacks and etc. oops.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...endor-Tablelist-Sues-Fyre-Festival-Organizers

 

[twinrider1]

Ticket vendor also sues. Only saved 10% in escrow for chargebacks and etc. oops.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...endor-Tablelist-Sues-Fyre-Festival-Organizers

Not excusing the d-bag McFarland, but it seems like Tablelist fell for the celebrity endorsements just like the ticket buyers. This age of young entrepreneurs creating app businesses is fine, but the old rules of business still apply. No sign of due diligence, they left themselves exposed and got burnt. They'll learn, if they survive.

 

[Ns1]

HOLY SHIT

Pemberton may have taken the crown from Fyre - Pemberton 2017 was cancelled (after the lineup dropped) and the promoter declared bankruptcy. NO REFUNDS FOR YOU.

IN THE MATTER OF THE BANKRUPTCY OF PEMBERTON MUSIC FESTIVAL LIMITED PARTNERSHIP AND 1115666 B.C. LTD. (Collectively the “PMF”)

TAKE NOTICE:

On May 18, 2017, PMF made an assignment into bankruptcy pursuant to Section 49 of the Bankruptcy
and Insolvency Act (the “BIA”). Ernst & Young Inc. (“EYI”) was appointed as the trustee in bankruptcy (the “Trustee”).

As a result of PMF’s assignment in bankruptcy:

The 2017 PEMBERTON MUSIC FESTIVAL IS CANCELLED.

The 2017 Pemberton Music Festival scheduled for July 13 – 16, 2017 is cancelled and will not proceed as scheduled. The Trustee will issue formal notice of the bankruptcy proceeding to all known creditors of PMF within 5 days of its appointment.

Unfortunately there are no automatic refunds from PMF. As PMF is now in bankruptcy, it has no ability to provide refunds for tickets purchased. However ticketholders may file a proof of claim form as an unsecured creditor with EYI in accordance with the claims process. Proof of claim forms will be mailed to known PMF creditors in due course and made available on the Trustee’s website. A determination of recovery, if any, on the claims of ticket holders from the estate will not be known for several weeks. The Trustee will provide an update to creditors in due course.

Refunds may be available to ticketholders from third parties if tickets were purchased using a credit card. As each bank and credit card issuer have their own specific policies, ticketholders are to contact their bank or credit card issuer directly to determine whether a refund can be obtained. The Trustee will provide further details concerning contact information for the various credit cards and financial institutions on its website.

Important information pertaining to the PMF bankruptcy proceeding is available on the Trustee’s website at: www.ey.com/ca/pmf or by calling the EYI representatives noted below:

For General Inquiries: Mr. Jason Oliveri at (604) 891-8493

http://pembertonmusicfestival.com/

 

[Exterous]

Bloomberg just lit Fyre up.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...d-under-millions-in-debt-before-it-even-began

I'll admit I got distracted by this article picture and where her hand is placed...

 

[Darwin333]

Not excusing the d-bag McFarland, but it seems like Tablelist fell for the celebrity endorsements just like the ticket buyers. This age of young entrepreneurs creating app businesses is fine, but the old rules of business still apply. No sign of due diligence, they left themselves exposed and got burnt. They'll learn, if they survive.

In all fairness they had a metric capton of people fooled, including multiple people/entities who invested literally millions of dollars. As a vendor, seeing the investors alone would give them reason to believe that they everything was on the up and up.

 

[Svnla]

Latest update, the founder of the company was arrested on federal charges - https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fyre-festival-founder-mcfarland-arrested-015321316.html

 

[Darwin333]

Latest update, the founder of the company was arrested on federal charges - https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fyre-festival-founder-mcfarland-arrested-015321316.html

Just like normal. Defraud thousands of people out of thousands each and you aren't charged with anything. Defraud a few rich people out of a million or two and the Feds pounce on you and you get charged. Well at least the asshole is being charged.

 

[AdamK47]

It seems like this guy had built his whole life around lies.

 

[zinfamous]

It seems like this guy had built his whole life around lies.

next up: Run for POTUS!

 

[Svnla]

Driving a $100K+ car and renting a penthouse for $21K/month - http://www.businessinsider.com/fyre-festival-founder-billy-mcfarland-has-a-lavish-lifestyle-2017-7

 

[PottedMeat]

Driving a $100K+ car and renting a penthouse for $21K/month - http://www.businessinsider.com/fyre-festival-founder-billy-mcfarland-has-a-lavish-lifestyle-2017-7

nice, now he's getting defense on the public dime

He is currently being represented by a public defender. At the time of his arrest, he had $5,000 in cash on him.

McFarland's "lavish lifestyle" was a cause of concern for the court, said Assistant US Attorney Kristy Greenberg. She questioned whether McFarland was of the limited means typically required to be appointed a public defender.

McFarland had retained both a crisis public relations firm and a legal team to defend him from several pending lawsuits, but his previous lawyers had not been paid enough to continue to represent him, his current lawyer said, according to The Times.

 

[Skel]

Both Netflix and Hulu released documentaries on this train wreak. I ended up watching both this past weekend. The Netflix dealt more with what happened to the festival itself, while the Hulu one went after McFarland more. The Hulu one does have McFarland himself giving an interview as well as goes much farther with what happened afterwards.

The stupidity is staggering in how these idiots thought they could pull this all off. McFarland himself wins the award of most stupid as he attempted to pull a scam while being out on bail from the Fyre fallout. Not sure what he was thinking, but hey, in the Hulu doc they show part of a statement where his mother says something on the lines of "He was always cursed with being only able to think big".