Fyre Festival paid 400 influencers to promote a fraud — most never disclosed it

On 12 December 2016, Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski and dozens of other models and influencers simultaneously posted an Instagram video: an orange square, a flame logo, models running on a tropical beach. The caption promised 'an immersive music festival' on a remote private island. Kendall Jenner was paid $275,000. A later class action alleged more than 400 social media personalities were paid to promote the event. Most did not disclose the payment. Emily Ratajkowski was reportedly the only one to use #ad.

The festival, scheduled for April 2017 on Great Exuma in the Bahamas, was a fraud. Attendees paying up to $12,000 for VIP packages found disaster-relief tents, foam-container cheese sandwiches, no running water and unfinished grounds. The 'private island once owned by Pablo Escobar' was a parking lot at an abandoned resort. Blink-182 pulled out. The festival was cancelled. Attendees were stranded at Exuma Airport. About $2 million loaded onto RFID 'FyreBands' was partly used to pay off a short-term loan.

Billy McFarland was arrested in June 2017, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud in March 2018, and was sentenced to six years in prison with $26 million in forfeiture. The SEC charged McFarland and Fyre Media with securities fraud in a separate action involving $27.4 million raised from investors; both settled, with McFarland paying a $1 million penalty and accepting a permanent officer-and-director bar. Kendall Jenner paid $90,000 in a settlement related to her promotion. The FTC stated that #ad must appear at the beginning of a paid post to count as disclosure.