Ticketholders of the ill-fated Fyre Festival back in 2017 are pushing to get Ja Rule listed as a defendant on a $100m (£79m/€90m) lawsuit seeking damages.
The rapper, who is also known as Jeffery Atkins and was initially presented as a co-founder of the so-called luxury music festival in the Bahamas, was removed from the lawsuit by a judge in July. It was concluded that there was no evidence that he was aware the promises he was making over social media would not be honoured by founder Billy McFarland and his team.
McFarland, the main founder and promoter of the festival was jailed for six years in October 2018. A judge described the 26-year-old, who pleaded guilty to several counts of fraud, as “a serial fraudster” who had been dishonest for “most of his life”.
In February this year, McFarland, who has taken much of the fallout so far, was also ordered to pay back $3m to an investor who sponsored the event.
With McFarland in jail, ticketholders are seeking other people to hold responsible and sue for damages, with Ja Rule being the obvious choice.
According to Law360, the amended complaint, which was apparently prepared shortly after the original ruling back in July, but was only properly filed last week due to an administration error, also references the two Fyre Festival documentaries that came out earlier this year.
It claims that the documentaries “provide additional new information showing that Atkins knew full well the festival was destined for failure even as he continued to promote it”.
Back in July, in addition to removing Atkins as a defendant, the judge also removed Fyre Festival’s chief marketing officer Grant Margolin from the lawsuit. The plaintiffs were given the option to submit an amended complaint in regards to Atkins, but not in relation to Margolin.
The lawyer representing the ticketholders has now asked that the judge allow him to put Margolin back onto the lawsuit.
Image: WebSummit
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