Ja Rule’s lawyer has claimed that it was his business partner, tech entrepreneur Billy McFarland, who was to blame for the failure of the ill-fated Fyre Festival that took place in the Bahamas earlier this year.
Earlier this week, a hearing for the class action suit from festival goers saw Ja Rule’s lawyer Thomas Herndon claim that McFarland ran the organisation of the festival, while Ja Rule, the co-organiser, allegedly got pushed out of the process.
Festival-goers paid between $1,500 and $12,000 to attend Fyre Festival on the Bahamas island of Exuma at the end of April, with the promise of great music, yacht parties, luxury accommodation and gourmet food.
However, the event was a disaster with headline act Blink 182 pulling out, and patrons who had no way of leaving the island claiming that they were going without basic essentials such as secure accommodation, food, drink and electricity.
The event was postponed after organisers admitted “we didn’t think security could keep up”.
“Billy McFarland ran the show. My client got wrapped up in this unintentionally,” Herndon told the judge, adding that “his ideas got hijacked by McFarland.”
McFarland was arrested in July and charged with operating a “scheme to defraud investors” out of almost $1.2m. He has since been released on bail, and is reportedly in a plea-bargain negotiation with the US government.
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