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f13.net General Forums => Serious Business => Topic started by: calapine on April 28, 2017, 11:10:10 AM



Title: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: calapine on April 28, 2017, 11:10:10 AM
I guess this fit's here perfectly.

'Rich kids of Instagram meets Hunger Games': Guests at luxury festival where tickets cost $12,000 'mugged, stranded and hungry'  (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/news/fyre-festival-instagram-friendly-music-event-12000-tickets-turns/)


Fyre Festival Has Descended Into Utter Chaos And The People Who Paid Serious Cash For It Are Livid
 (https://www.buzzfeed.com/tamerragriffin/fyre-festival-shitshow?utm_term=.qwbRD36zw#.iq9w4PrVG)

(http://i.imgur.com/LQoLfXz.jpg)

(http://i.imgur.com/9DkSENl.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/IFyogkN.png)



(http://i.imgur.com/ZprrOmw.png)


Title: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: calapine on April 28, 2017, 11:15:31 AM
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-gWtGcUIAE0MpS.jpg)(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-gWtGZVYAAF4YQ.jpg)


Title: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: calapine on April 28, 2017, 11:17:32 AM
Video apparently showing festival goers being locked in:  :uhrr: :ye_gods:

https://twitter.com/LamaanGallal/status/857915550566981634


Title: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Trippy on April 28, 2017, 11:18:56 AM
Wrong thread?


Title: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: calapine on April 28, 2017, 11:23:37 AM
Wrong thread?


I thought rich people being scammed is appropriate. Maybe start a new thread? Or useless convo?


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: calapine on April 28, 2017, 11:46:20 AM
Video showing the festival grounds:

https://twitter.com/FyreFraud/status/857660012122058752

And to compare, this is how it was promoted:

https://youtu.be/mz5kY3RsmKo

 :oh_i_see:


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Khaldun on April 28, 2017, 11:57:43 AM
It's like a LARP of what "going Galt"  would be like in the real world.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: 01101010 on April 28, 2017, 01:35:27 PM
Video showing the festival grounds:

https://twitter.com/FyreFraud/status/857660012122058752

And to compare, this is how it was promoted:

https://youtu.be/mz5kY3RsmKo

 :oh_i_see:

While this is extreme, having gone to Ultra in Miami Beach each year I lived down there, the way they promote and what it actually ends up looking like are way different every year.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Nebu on April 28, 2017, 02:12:31 PM
It's surprising to discover just how little sympathy I have for rich people.  I learned something new about myself today!


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: HaemishM on April 28, 2017, 02:26:55 PM
It's surprising to discover just how little sympathy I have for rich people.  I learned something new about myself today!

Yeah, I'm not feeling the milk of human kindness over this.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Reg on April 28, 2017, 02:46:56 PM
I wouldn't object too strongly if Trump was annoyed that they weren't at Mar-A-Lago and decided to drop a nuke on them.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Trippy on April 28, 2017, 08:42:02 PM
I Worked at Fyre Festival. It Was Always Going to Be a Disaster. (http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/04/fyre-festival-exumas-bahamas-disaster.html)

Quote
My job as a talent producer was to coordinate travel and on-site logistics with the artists who would be performing: Blink 182, Major Lazer, Disclosure, among others, had already signed on. I would be working with an 11-person team and a few of the festival executives. The production team was all new hires and, before we arrived, we were led to believe things had been in motion for a while. But nothing had been done. Festival vendors weren’t in place, no stage had been rented, transportation had not been arranged. Frankly, we were standing on an empty gravel pit and no one had any idea how we were going to build a festival village from scratch.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Sir T on April 28, 2017, 10:12:32 PM
So have they been taken hostage, and are the kidnappers threatening to release one an hour till their demands are met?


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Riggswolfe on April 28, 2017, 10:13:21 PM
This is a bit unreal. I am curious to see how this all plays out in the long run. Though like the rest of you I have trouble feeling sorry for the rich kids who got scammed by this.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Shannow on April 29, 2017, 04:54:22 AM
This is par for the course for Billy McFarland, the real organizer of the thing  (http://www.spin.com/2017/04/fyre-fest-billy-mcfarland-magnises/).  Do we yell shame or bravo for his efforts at defrauding stupid ppl?.. :why_so_serious:


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Sky on April 29, 2017, 07:11:35 AM
Let's start a gofundme to send them juiceros.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: schild on April 29, 2017, 09:31:25 AM
Everything about Fyre Fest is hilarious. And anyone that would travel to the Bahamas got a festival deserves what they get.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Nebu on April 29, 2017, 10:15:24 AM
Can they hold it in Haiti next year?  Please?


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: calapine on April 29, 2017, 11:37:51 AM
Haha:


(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-mVbqgVoAErlKT.jpg)(http://i.imgur.com/g60cb3P.png)


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Sir T on April 29, 2017, 12:45:07 PM
I bet in 6 months there will me more people claiming to be at this thing than could actually fit 2 person deep on the island, because it will be the latest "in" thing to have survived.

And lol at the price of those Tee shirts.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Trippy on April 29, 2017, 01:13:02 PM
So have they been taken hostage, and are the kidnappers threatening to release one an hour till their demands are met?
There were reports some of them were locked inside a room of the airport by airport workers for some reason. Hence my title.

E.g.:

https://twitter.com/WNFIV/status/857914441752604672
Quote
They've now locked us in the airport. No rules, just right. Welcome to the Bahamas!

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/jia-tolentino/the-fyre-festival-was-a-luxury-nightmare:
Quote
"At 7 a.m., the Bahamian airport workers locked the whole group, with a huge chain and a padlock, into a room in the airport—a single gate."


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Kail on April 29, 2017, 01:15:37 PM
I'm waiting for the rest of Far Cry 3 to happen.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Mandella on July 02, 2017, 12:09:46 PM
Arise!!

So they got around to arresting MacFarland for the whole Festival Fiasco.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/01/us/fyre-festival-founder-charged/index.html

Typically, he's being charged not with ripping off his customers, but with investor fraud. He is accused of misrepresenting his company's worth while securing investments, even up to the point of altering financial documents.

I didn't realize the guy is just 25. I'm sure he was certain "this is just how it's done" but now the dumbass might actually get jail time.

I know, some here will think that's impossible, but he's a young punk who may well get thrown to the wolves as an example. He's made a couple of high profile enemies here.

Should have stayed with app-making...


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Strazos on July 02, 2017, 01:09:59 PM
There's a pending class action lawsuit filed on behalf of the customers, so there may be more to come.

The unfortunate part is that there may not be much money left for such a lawsuit to claw back.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: jgsugden on July 02, 2017, 01:38:57 PM
There's a pending class action lawsuit filed on behalf of the customers, so there may be more to come.

The unfortunate part is that there may not be much money left for such a lawsuit to claw back.
Yes, those unfortunate kids may have to ration their caviar, truffles and Cristal.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Strazos on July 02, 2017, 02:40:24 PM
Yes, I should have put unfortunate in quotations.  :why_so_serious:

caveat emptor, etc etc.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Sir T on June 13, 2018, 07:39:04 AM
Quote
Organizer of infamous failed Fyre Festival arrested for allegedly duping ticket buyers again

    By Mark Osborne

Jun 13, 2018, 4:04 AM ET

The organizer of the infamous Fyre Festival, a failed concert in the Bahamas in 2017 that went viral for its lack of success, has been charged with duping customers again.

William McFarland, who is still awaiting sentencing for the failed festival, has now been charged by the Southern District of New York with selling tickets that did not exist to marquee sports and music events. McFarland ran the company NYC VIP Access, which advertised tickets to events such as the Met Gala, Burning Man, Coachella, the 2018 Grammy Awards and Super Bowl LII, despite not actually having any tickets to the events, according to the complaint unsealed Tuesday.

McFarland was trying to sell the tickets in March, the same month he pleaded guilty to defrauding investors for the Fyre Festival, prosecutors allege.

He has been charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. Both carry sentences of up to 20 years in prison.

"In March of 2018, William McFarland pled guilty to defrauding investors and vendors of the Fyre Festival, but it is apparent that he did not stop there," FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney Jr. said in a statement. "McFarland allegedly went on to sell fraudulent tickets to many grand events, totaling almost $100,000."

According to the filing, McFarland tried to cover up his involvement in NYC VIP Access by using a then-employee's email account instead of his own, according to the filing. He tricked at least 15 people into buying the nonexistent tickets.

The Fyre Festival garnered national headlines in April 2017 after being advertised as an idyllic getaway to the Bahamas, complete with gourmet food, luxury accommodations, performances by Ja Rule and Blink-182. The event was advertised on social media by Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and other high-profile social media influencers. Tickets for the event cost thousands of dollars, but when attendees arrived they found poorly built tents, a lack of food and clean water and an insufficient number of public toilets.

McFarland pleaded guilty in connection to the Fyre Festival fiasco on March 6 to one count of wire fraud after defrauding over 80 investors out of $24 million, and another count of wire fraud for lying to the company selling tickets, which took over $2 million in losses, according to the Southern District of New York. He faces up to 10 years in prison on those counts.

Hulu announced in April it was producing a documentary series about the Fyre Festival.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/organizer-infamous-failed-fyre-festival-arrested-allegedly-duping/story?id=55855742

 :oh_i_see:


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Sky on June 13, 2018, 09:07:26 AM
So he's running for president in 2024?


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Paelos on June 13, 2018, 01:43:50 PM
Shit, he's going to real jail now. The feds won't let him off now that he's proven he's learned nothing.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Trippy on July 24, 2018, 04:18:50 PM
McFarland charged with $27.4 million offering fraud:

https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-141


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Rendakor on January 15, 2019, 03:15:02 PM
Hulu has a documentary out about this clusterfuck, described as a true-crime comedy documentary. Netflix has one coming as well, and while I don't think I care enough to watch both, one might be entertaining.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Khaldun on January 15, 2019, 04:36:17 PM
The Hulu one is apparently more about the con and the conman, the Netflix one about the horror of being rich and stuck on an island where the only food is two dirty slices of bread and a piece of lettuce.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Brolan on January 15, 2019, 06:33:56 PM
That might have some entertainment value.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Sir T on January 16, 2019, 06:48:44 AM
I'm down for Netflix.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: 01101010 on January 16, 2019, 09:28:49 AM
Meh. I'm not down with either... esp the Netflix one. Fuck those attention whores.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: TheWalrus on January 16, 2019, 12:24:12 PM
The real story here is that we missed a prime opportunity to solve a lot of humanity's problems by firebombing an island.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Brolan on January 29, 2019, 08:26:45 AM
I watched the Netflix doco and it is only somewhat interesting.  


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Samwise on January 29, 2019, 02:57:57 PM
Spoiler: none of the Instagram influencers died or had their lives ruined.  At least one of them won some kind of lawsuit.

The actual victims in the whole thing were the local workers who by and large didn't get paid for doing their jobs (and they were clearly the only ones in the whole story who have ever done an honest day's work in their lives) and in some cases are now mired in debt.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Khaldun on January 29, 2019, 07:45:21 PM
The restaurant owner in the Netflix doc has now gotten $200,000 from donors, so while I'm sure being taken for a ride for a couple of years was bad, I bet she has gotten ahead now. Not sure she's gonna pay off the workers further down the food chain, but there you go.

The people that interest me are the mid-level app-designer types who are part of a universe where everybody's a fluffer for somebody but at least a lot of the time everybody gets paid. More than anything else, the doc reinforces: don't ever do anything where you aren't getting paid at least partially in advance.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Brolan on January 29, 2019, 10:52:22 PM
She mentioned spending $50,000 of her own money to cover the wages that should have been paid to the workers.  She came across as one of the few people who actually took any responsibility even though she was not at fault herself.

Meanwhile I'm sure the sleazebag Billy McFarland will be out of jail in a few years and running a new scam.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Khaldun on January 30, 2019, 04:24:50 AM
100% certain. That's a guy who doesn't ever learn his lesson. More's the pity, neither will some of his future marks.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: IainC on January 30, 2019, 05:34:03 AM
100% certain. That's a guy who doesn't ever learn his lesson. More's the pity, neither will some of his future marks.

The lesson that he will learn is 'don't grift from people who have a bigger number in their Instagram followers count than most people see in their annual salary.'


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: Brolan on January 30, 2019, 08:03:29 AM
I saw the Hulu version last night.  This version nails McFarland as a con-man right from the beginning while the Netflix one leaves open the chance he just aggressively/accidentally got in over his head.  That is until the last 20 minutes when they show him running more cons while out on bail.


Title: Re: Rich kids held captive in the Bahamas -- send help
Post by: TheWalrus on January 30, 2019, 12:08:14 PM
So, McFarland 2024?