Fyre festival organizers hit with $100 million fraud and breach of contract lawsuit

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/05/01/fyre-festival-organizers-hit-w.html

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“I truly apologize as this is NOT MY FAULT…”

Well, I’m good then…

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I kinda’ think that these idiots should still get paid.
Sure discomfort, inconvenience and danger and all, but also the story of the plaintiffs young lives.

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Idle rich on idle rich crime.

I do feel bad for the person who blacked out. Hopefully no one falls for these matchstick men’s con again next year.

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But didn’t the organizers do extensive studies on Woodstock and Altamont? Did they ask “What Would Mick Jagger Do?”?

Of course, the “slobs” who attended those weren’t wealthy-as-Croesus, for the most part; they were either “stupid” (Woodstock) or “angry” (Altamont), according to Grace Slick, who performed at both.

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I have some thoughts here, and will OFC preface that they are consumers who paid for a service and were mistreated by the expectation of what the service was supposed to be. Simply put: they got jobbed. Fine. No one deserves that.

  1. I do not feel sorry for them. The very notion that they all paid from $4,000-$100,000 per person for this thing makes me feel they are all spoiled/privileged and the money is a drop in the bucket. I don’t know that this perception is truth, it may only be in my head, but it doesn’t bring me to feel sympathy.

  2. Ja Rule is one of the funders/organizers of the event is my understanding. Him claiming “Its not my fault” is akin to a CEO of a company claiming “It’s not my fault”. While in both cases the top level role probably had little to do with actually causing the issue and could probably have done little to prevent it…we still like to hold the perosn in charge accountable (buck stops here and all that). I wonder though…while the 1%er white CEO gets a golden parachute or no repercussion at all…what will happen to the black “thug rapper” in this case? If the lawsuit destroys Ja Rule while we’ve watched wealthy white elites get golden tickets into “retirement” it will be a fairly disgusting reality check. (yes a lot of ifs in this)

  3. this kid in the vlog BEFORE getting to the bahamas stated “Its apparently a disaster there” so he knew before getting there of the terrible conditions but went anyway? Can you really sue for getting burned when you ran into the building that’s already on fire?! Was there an element of rubber necking here? Did he just have to see it for himself?

  4. While there was clearly little or no food…and it wasn’t what was advertised…that was still food and capable of sustaining life. And the lack of food didn’t seem to translate into a lack of alcohol…nor did it translate to good judgment to not consume said alcohol!

This entire thing gives me pause. I see many levels of poor decision making. Do I wish this on anyone…no. I just am not sure I am empathetic to anyone here.

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If you want to choose a group of people to blatantly rip off and scam, rich kids whose parents can afford the best lawyers are probably not the best group to target.

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Agreed the incompetence bordered on blatantly ripping them off, and the incompetence was criminally negligent (not that I feel particularly bad for those defrauded here); but I have not yet seen evidence of intent to scam them.

But the reporting has been extensive, and I’ll admit to not having perused every angle. If I missed something, I’ll retract.

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Agreed that most likely the bulk of what happened there was simply terrible planning and unpreparedness, which isn’t the same as intending to scam someone. From the stories that’ve come out, it sounds like they fully intended to put on a great, legendary music festival and sincerely thought they could make it happen in about four weeks by just throwing money at it.

But then there’s things like the map of their “private island”, which was blatantly fake once you look at Google Maps. That alone will be an important exhibit in court, I imagine.

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It also occurs to me that some of these people were probably the less-well-off guests of rich elites who bought them their tickets. While that’s questionable judgement, I would have more sympathy for anyone who perhaps doesn’t have quite so cushy a life as the people who could afford tickets.

Regardless, this will be a bonanza for the lawyers.

I will say that my shortage of sympathy doesn’t really have much to do with them being rich. It’s a combination of them being rich, being dull vacuous brats, and not taking cash or common sense with them. That said, I hope no one was seriously hurt and maybe even learned a lesson that the the silver platter on which the world is served to them has all the authenticity of a Hollywood set.

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Benefit of the doubt - but I suspect the organizers didn’t really have the capital needed in the beginning, and were trying to use ticket sales to catch up.

The vlogger’s group seemed to keep a positive attitude, though.

As for me, I would have kept it to strictly carry-on luggage. A couple of years of ACL Fest showed me people always anticipate an easier time of lugging stuff around, but it changes dramatically after fatigue sets in.
I might have even tried to go swimming if there wasn’t any shark danger.

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The lawsuit failed to mention the appalling lack of supermodels.

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That locked door with all the people inside? That there’s a Fyre hazard.

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That tweet:

We have been locked indoors with no air NO FOOD and NO water

Impressive. She ded?

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I’m most impressed with your empathy for someone who was calling for help after being locked in a room without food or water.

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We will donate $1.50 [per ticket] to the Bahamian Red Cross.

Tickets for it ranged from $2,000 to $12,000. So $1.50 donated to Red Cross per sold ticket…

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Cry me a river …

I’m on the same page (again).

Billy McFarland and Ja Rule shouldn’t be so down. After they lose the case they’ll still be able to experience the lifestyles of the rich and famous for the rest of their lives – as the plaintiffs’ butlers.

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This is untrue. The tickets cost between $450 to $12,500. From what I’ve read it seems people were paying in the $1500-$3000 range. Which is pretty standard for mid-to-upscale all inclusives. I paid more than $4,000 per person for a Caribbean cruise this past winter. If I had shown up to my luxury cruise and been shown a barge with tents and cheese sandwiches I would have raised holy hell.

But I’m not “young” so I guess I deserve getting what I paid for and these “youth” deserve to get ripped off. Oh, I’m not rich, and I don’t think these kids were either. The actual rich people got told to stay home, the rubes got on the plane to Hunger Games.

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