Fyre Festival Founder Is Leaving His Luxe Chelsea Penthouse

CHELSEA, NY — The founder of the disastrous Fyre Festival, who was charged in June with wire fraud, is moving out of his fancy Meatpacking penthouse, according to multiple media reports.

Bill McFarland, the 25-year-old entrepreneur who is now facing a criminal charge and more than a dozen lawsuits in the wake of the failed Fyre music festival in the Bahamas, is also apparently leaving his Chelsea digs. His penthouse apartment was listed on the market for $7.495 million, the Wall Street Journal was first to report. McFarland had been renting the spacious pad before moving out, the Journal reported. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

McFarland was charged with wire fraud in June, after federal prosecutors alleged that he defrauded at least two investors of $1.2 million and wildly overstated his company's earnings to get funding for this year's Fyre Festival, the much-hyped music festival that turned out to be a flop, according to the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan. McFarland faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

McFarland launched Fyre Media in 2016, after which he got the idea to organize the now infamous Fyre Festival in the Bahamas in April.

The music event, which was billed as a high-end, luxury retreat and promoted by celebrities, dissolved almost as soon as it started as it became clear that Fyre Media hadn't properly planned or prepared. In the months leading up to the festival, which was the brainchild of McFarland and his partner Ja Rule, it was advertised as an extravagant two-weekend getaway with top-of-the-line food, lodgings, music and ocean views. The cheapest package cost about $1,100 per person for a weekend, but more high-end accommodations were sold for between $12,4999 and $50,000 per person, according to one of multiple lawsuits filed against McFarland by outraged customers.

Ticket holders showed up on the island at the end of April and, instead of festival grounds and housing, they found that the "accommodations were little more than a FEMA-style tent lined up with hundreds of others on the beach, barely standing up against the wind and rain," according to another suit. The festival was canceled on April 28.

On top of the federal charges and multiple legal claims seeking millions, Fyre Media has left its trendy TriBeCa office space after falling nearly $35,000 behind in rent payments to its landlord, according to a legal notice posted outside the company's headquarters in May.

Read Patch's previous coverage of the Fyre Festival here:

• Fyre Festival Organizer Owed $35K In Rent For TriBeCa Office, Legal Notice Claims
• Fyre Festival Founder Charged With Wire Fraud

Lead image via Ciara McCarthy / Patch. Photo caption: The empty TriBeCa storefront that previously housed the headquarters of Fyre Media.