Billy McFarland, convicted felon and disgraced Fyre Festival founder is teasing a new project.
In addition to his prison sentence, McFarland was ordered to pay roughly $26 million in restitution for his crimes. In May, Russo toldthat McFarland was focused on finding “the best way to generate income to pay this restitution back and make amends,” adding, “Any new projects that he does become involved in will be done solely for the purpose of generating the restitution for paying back his victims.
In addition to his criminal victims, McFarland also owes nearly $11 million to the creditors of Fyre Festival LLC as part of a default judgement won by the trustee of the festival,. A separate $3.4 million judgement is owed to the state by the now defunct Fyre Media Inc.Curtis Briggs , a California criminal attorney. Briggs notes that the federal government’s reach into the financial system, coupled with rules that allow collection from retirement accounts and supersede state and federal bankruptcy protections, makes the feds a “super creditor” with the “most intrusive methods” available to it for collecting debt.
“Anything he legitimately declares as income” will be subject to collection by the government to repay his victims, says Briggs, who successfully defended one of two Oakland men prosecuted in the Ghost Ship fire and currently represents Black Lives Matter activist Tianna Arata. Without any tangible assets to seize or a salary to garnish, collecting a judgement will likely mean scrutinizing McFarland’s annual tax return and monitoring his bank accounts. McFarland will be granted a modest court-monitored income and if he is operating a business, he will be allowed to write off certain expenses, but “his finances will be closely scrutinized by attorneys for the families of the victims” and FBI agents assigned to him, says Briggs.