The financial flaying continued Friday for Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland, who was ordered by a Manhattan judge to pay $2.9 million to EHL Funding, an investment company he screwed over.
It was an easy, default win for EHL: McFarland remains behind bars serving a six-year prison sentence for wire fraud and “failed to appear, answer or otherwise move in this action,” Justice Joel M. Cohen noted.
McFarland must pay back $2,891,600 plus interest, the balance that loan organizers borrowed from the New York-based company but then defaulted on. A judicial hearing officer will further decide if he must pay the investment company’s attorney fees.
EHL has also sued rapper and fellow Fyre organizer Ja Rule, plus a third organizer, Robert Nemeth. That part of the EHL case is proceeding; if they are found liable, they would have to chip in on paying back the loan arrears.
The failed festival has already been the subject of competing lawsuits from creditors ranging from vendors to individual ticket-buyers.