Disgraced Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland owes the IRS $7 million in back taxes, on top of another $26 million owed to the festival’s victims.
The 32-year-old said that The American Sun in an exclusive interview, still hoping for another iteration of the festival, despite the mountain of debt he’s dealing with.
McFarland spent four years in prison for his part in defrauding investors for the failed music after initially being sentenced to six years behind bars.
According to the outlet, McFarland is also paying back $6,887,435 in back taxes to the IRS.
He told The Sun: ‘There’s restitution, there’s taxes, there’s everything from the pre-Fire days that we’re working on.’
In this March 6, 2018 file photo, Billy McFarland, the promoter of the failed Fyre festival in the Bahamas, leaves federal court after pleading guilty to fraud charges in New York
The Fyre festival was canceled on the opening day, leaving people stranded on the island without many basic amenities
According to the 32-year-old, he’s also living a more frugal lifestyle these days and hopes Fyre Festival 2 will help his financial woes
He added: ‘When I was in prison I was given a debit card form to pay $7 million – in prison. I joked, where am I going to get my debit card from here with a $7 million bill?
‘Restitution is about $26 million. And I pay that every month, so no matter what I earn, I go and literally give a physical check or pay online.
‘Then there are various other people involved in Fyre one that I also pay back on a monthly basis.’
Despite the high numbers, McFarland tells the outlet, ‘It’s all just numbers at this point.’
According to the 32-year-old, he’s also living a more frugal lifestyle these days and hopes Fyre Festival 2 will help his financial woes.
McFarland added: ‘(Fyre Festival 2) is the most tangible way to pay back the $26 million that I owe, and having real partners gives an opportunity in the next five to seven years to actually pay that $26 million back.
‘And unfortunately no one is offering me $26 million to work somewhere else.’
Last year, he claimed that the first batch of tickets for the festival had already sold out and the event was set to take place in December this year.
McFarland attends the ONE.1 Hosts Dinner to celebrate the opening of Magnises Townhouse at Magnises, 22 Greenwich Ave on March 6, 2014 in New York City
The event was met with harsh criticism, with people arriving on the island of Great Exuma to find much less than they expected
Festival goers were left with nowhere to stay or store their luggage, and when the festival was canceled on day one, they were stranded
McFarland was the focus of two different documentaries produced by Netflix and Hulu in 2019
McFarland was convicted of fraud in 2018 after selling 8,000 tickets – with price tags between $1,000 – $12,000 – for the original flawed Fyre Festival.
It was canceled on opening day, leaving people stranded on the island without many basic amenities.
A year later, McFarland pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud and was sentenced to six years in prison, in addition to being ordered to pay back about $26 million to his investors.
He was also barred from ever serving as an officer or director of a public company after defrauding investors by altering a shareholder declaration to increase the number of shares he allegedly owned in a publicly traded company to make it appear that that he could personally guarantee the investment. .
McFarland was released in March 2022. It took him a little over a year to announce Fyre Festival II.
Ticket holders who thought they were heading to a ‘luxury music festival’ held on Pablo Escobar’s former private island were actually lured to a disastrous event mired in problems with everything from food to accommodation.
Guests — who paid as much as $13,000 for luxury packages — were left stranded, with unfinished shelter, no transportation and no food except cheese sandwiches served out of Styrofoam boxes, photos of which quickly went viral.
McFarland attends The 23rd Annual Watermill Center Summer Benefit & Auction at The Watermill Center on July 30, 2016 in Water Mill, NY
Guests – who paid as much as $13,000 for luxury packages – were left with no food except cheese sandwiches served out of Styrofoam boxes, photos of which quickly went viral
The first Fyre Festival had seen McFarland team up with rapper Ja Rule to attract millions in investment with the promise of hosting a first-of-its-kind luxury music festival event in the Bahamas featuring models, DJs, luxury accommodations and extravagant meals.
McFarland paid the likes of Kendall Jenner to promote the event on Instagram, blasting promo content to entice people to buy tickets at thousands of dollars each.
But the event was met with heavy criticism, with people arriving on the island of Great Exuma to find much less than they expected.
Court documents described the scene as ‘total disorganization and chaos.’ The ‘luxury accommodations’ were FEMA disaster relief tents, the ‘gourmet food’ was less-than-ideal cheese sandwiches served in styrofoam containers, and the ‘hottest musical acts’ were nowhere to be seen.
McFarland was the founder and CEO of Fyre Media, launched in 2016, which aimed to build an app that would allow people organizing large events to bid on artist and celeb bookings.