Flight Centre Travel Group has been drawn into a lawsuit over funds used to promote and organise the failed and fraudulent Fyre Festival.
Dubbed as a luxury music event, Fyre Festival was founded by Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule with the intention of promoting a talent booking app belonging to Fyre Media Inc, of which McFarland was CEO.
The festival was promoted by celebs such as Kendall Jenner and Emily Ratajkowski on social media, with tickets costing upwards of $1,200, according to court documents.
However, the festival, which was scheduled to be held during April and May 2017 in the Bahamas, suffered problems relating to security, food, accommodation, medical services and artist relations right from the get-go, forcing it to be postponed indefinitely.
The failure of the festival has subsequently been the subject of not one, but two documentaries. You can check out their respective trailers below:
Last year, McFarland was sentenced to six years’ jail after pleading guilty to fraud and ordered to forfeit US$26 million, with Fyre Festival organisers hit with several lawsuits accusing them of fraud and seeking millions in damages.
Now, Flight Centre Travel Group’s US subsidiary has been taken to court by the trustee for Fyre Festival’s failed entity, which is seeking to reclaim $US121,400 ($179,000) over travel arrangements it allegedly never provided despite being paid to do so, according to The Australian Financial Review.
It’s been alleged that Flight Centre was transferred sums totalling $30,629 and $90,800 in April 2017 to “provide flights for the various music acts that were supposed to perform”.
Among those acts advertised to play at the festival were Blink-182, Major Lazer, Disclosure, Pusha T, Tyga, Desiigner, Migos, Kaytranada, Lil Yachty, Skepta, and Claptone.
The lawsuit alleges that the flight services were never provided by Flight Centre, according to the AFR.
A Flight Centre spokesperson told Travel Weekly that the company will defend the case.
“We were asked to book travel-related [services] to the event, which we did,” the spokesperson said.
