The organiser of the ill-fated Fyre Festival has been charged with fraud

You might recall the ill-fated Fyre Festival that (almost) occurred in April. How can you not? It was such a disaster that its name is starting to become synonymous with large-scale failures, similar to how Edsel is synonymous with failed cars. Now, to add the next chapter the story, the festival’s organiser, Billy MacFarland, has been arrested and charged with fraud.

The Fyre Festival failed spectacularly at the end of April, with big name bands like Blink-182 pulling out before it was due to start, charted flights not arriving or even taking off as anticipated, and accomodation for attendees being woefully inadequate. Attendees who actually made it to the event (which by that point had been cancelled), described the entire situation as a “shit show”.

As Pitchfork reports, Billy MacFarland, who founded the festival and headed it alongside Ja Rule, has been arrested, charged with one count of wire fraud, and faces a potential penalty of up to 20 years in prison. A statement made by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York stated that “McFarland allegedly presented fake documents to induce investors to put over a million dollars into his company and the fiasco called the Fyre Festival. Thanks to the investigative efforts of the FBI, McFarland will now have to answer for his crimes.”

It came to light last month that the FBI were looking into MacFarland for potential breaches of the law, but now that charges have been brought against him, it sounds like this is starting to get pretty serious. We’re going to have to wait and see how this one turns out.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.