Olivia PowellThe trustee overseeing the Fyre Festival bankruptcy has filed 14 lawsuits in a bid to reclaim money from a number of parties including the agencies that manage Blink-182, Pusha-T and Migos.
The infamous 2017 festival, which was co-founded by Ja Rule and Billy McFarland – who was sentenced to six years in prison in 2018 following fraud charges– made headlines across the world after its disastrous debut event in The Bahamas was cancelled following a series of serious organisational and logistical problems.
Gregory Messer is the trustee overseeing the Fyre Media bankruptcy. This week, Billboard reported that Messer and New York attorney Fred Stevens have launched 14 lawsuits seeking a return of the $14.4m (£10.9m) that Fyre Media and McFarland paid to various parties when organising the festival.
The goal of the lawsuit is to recoup the losses made by Fyre’s creditors and investors during that organisational and booking period.
The subjects of the lawsuits include a number of talent agencies, including International Creative Management (ICM), United Talent Agency (UTA) and Creative Artists Agency (CAA), who represent artists including Blink-182, Pusha-T and Migos.
Some of the lawsuits are aiming to recoup money from artists who didn’t turn up to Fyre Festival. For example, the suit against CAA alleges that Blink-182 were paid $500,000 (£380,000) to perform at the festival, before the band announced the cancellation of their set.
The suit alleges: “The band has retained those funds. In its cancellation tweet, the band did not disclose to its fans and others any of the problems that it was having with Fyre Festival and its management, or that the Festival appeared to be in serious trouble.”
ICM along with another talent agency, Paradigm, have begun settlement negotiations.
Other subjects being sued in the legal action include influencers like Kendall Jenner and Emily Ratajkowski, who helped promote Fyre Festival on social media before tickets went on sale, and Matte Productions who co-produced the Netflix documentary Fyre.
In August of this year, a similar legal action was launched by another Fyre Festival trustee, who demanded that Blink-182, Ratajkowski and Jenner return the fees they were paid for playing or promoting the festival.
Ja Rule recently released a song called ‘Fyre’ in which he addressed the ill-fated festival.