Fyre Festival Co-Founder Ordered To Pay $26 Million In Restitution

Billy McFarland, a co-founder of the schadenfreude-rich, hospitality-poor debacle known as the Fyre Festival, has been sentenced to six years in prison and three years on probation; he also will have to pay restitution of just more than $26 million. Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald presided over McFarland's sentencing in the U.S. Southern District Court in Manhattan on Thursday.

During the sentencing, Judge Buchwald called McFarland a "serial fraudster," adding that he has "been dishonest for most of his life."

In a statement to the court, McFarland, dressed in a grey-green prison jumpsuit, said, "The thing that pushed me more than anything was fear" of the Fyre Festival collapsing and of "letting everyone down."

It's been a tumultuous year for McFarland and his defense team. After McFarland pleaded guilty to Fyre Festival-related charges in March, the business of sentencing McFarland was underway. In June, his defense team submitted its arguments for his sentencing, asking that along with paying just more than $26 million, McFarland should serve 1,000 hours of community service and either six months of house arrest or "a minimal period of incarceration."

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