Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that WILLIAM McFARLAND was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to 6 years in prison for the following criminal conduct to which he had pled guilty: one count of wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud investors in a company controlled by McFARLAND, Fyre Media Inc. (“Fyre Media”), as well as its subsidiary (“Fyre Festival LLC”), which was formed to organize a music festival over two weekends in the Bahamas; one count of wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud a ticket vendor for the Fyre Festival; one count of wire fraud, in connection with his operation of a sham ticket scheme in which he purported to sell tickets to exclusive fashion, music, and sporting events though NYC VIP Access, a company controlled by McFARLAND; one count of bank fraud for writing a check with the name and account number of one of his employees without authorization; and one count of making false statements to a federal law enforcement agent in which McFARLAND, among other things, falsely denied the wire fraud and bank fraud conduct to which he pled guilty. They can also allegedly be used to hide their identities from law enforcement. Once an applicant obtains a GDN license, they can buy, sell or exchange used cars and create temporary buyer tags for the transaction through the TxDMV’s online eTag portal. According to the charges, the scheme involved the use of fictitious car dealerships to issue and sell hundreds of thousands of Texas temporary buyer tags without selling cars. According to the charges, these three knowingly participated in the scheme to issue and sell more than 580,000 fraudulent tags to buyers across the United States. The three also allegedly used email accounts to communicate with each other and to deliver the fraudulent tags to purchasers throughout the United States.
On one occasion, McFARLAND sent an investor a snapshot of an email purporting to be from a Bank-1 banker (“Banker-1”) to McFARLAND approving a $3 million dollar loan. Not only had Banker-1 not sent that email, Bank-1 had not approved McFARLAND’s loan application. To the contrary, a VC Firm employee communicated to McFARLAND that the VC Firm would not invest in Fyre Media without first completing its due diligence, which the VC Firm had not done due to McFARLAND’s failure to provide many of the requested Fyre Media documents. A defendant is presumed innocent unless convicted through due process of law. Attorney’s Office and its law enforcement partners prioritize prosecution of large-scale, complex fraud in all its forms. The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced that on July 18, 2019, a federal grand jury returned a 12-count indictment against Arleigh Louison, 53, of Brooklyn, New York, charging him with running an immigration fraud scheme that included the filing of false statements with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, including over 1,800 fraudulent applications for over 1,000 petitioners within the last four years. Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) agents arrested Louison today in Brooklyn, New York, and executed a federal search warrant at his office. United States Attorney Christina E. Nolan commended the investigative efforts of agents of the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nikolas Kerest represents the United States.
§ 515, announced that JOHN GALANIS, a/k/a “Yanni,” DEVON ARCHER, and BEVAN COONEY were each convicted today of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud, following a five and half week trial before U.S. NYC VIP Access purported to be in the business of obtaining and selling for profit tickets to various exclusive events such as fashion galas, music festivals, and sporting events, including the following events, among others: the 2018 Met Gala, Burning Man 2018, Coachella 2018, the 2018 Grammy Awards, Super Bowl LII, and a Cleveland Cavaliers game and team dinner with Lebron James. Any claims of risk-free investments should be met with skepticism and further investigation. Instead, at the direction of McFARLAND, Employee-1 met and spoke with customers to solicit ticket sales. McFARLAND, while on pretrial release, perpetrated a scheme to defraud attendees of the Fyre Festival, former customers of Magnises (another company operated by McFARLAND), and other customers by soliciting them to purchase tickets from NYC VIP Access to these exclusive events when, in fact, no such tickets existed. McFarland also falsely stated to certain of Fyre Media’s investors that a group of acquiring partners were forming a new company to purchase Magnises, when in fact, no such group existed. Po st w as c re ated with the he lp of GSA Con tent Generator Demov ersion .
In a prominent example of cryptocurrency phishing, one criminal group conducted a campaign that copied the front of Ethereum wallet website MyEtherWallet and encouraged users to enter their login details and private keys. Government and private citizens in the United States provide more than half of the Internet activity that might lead to identity theft, the report stated. McFarland also made materially false statements to certain of Fyre Media’s investors about Magnises, a credit card and private club for millennials that was founded and run by McFARLAND. University Federal Credit Union. On or about June 20, 2018, in an in-person interview with a federal law enforcement agent about his involvement in NYC VIP Access, McFARLAND falsely stated, among other things, that (i) McFARLAND did not think that he would defraud customers from his prior businesses, Magnises and Fyre Festival, when he solicited them to buy tickets for NYC VIP Access; and (ii) Employee-1 authorized McFARLAND to write a check from Employee-1’s bank account for $25,000 in the name of Employee-1 to the Driver for the Driver to deposit into the Driver’s bank account. The charges allege the illegal tags pose a danger to the public and law enforcement because purchasers use them to avoid obtaining registration, safety inspections and liability insurance. The FBI conducted the investigation with assistance from Travis County Constable Precinct 3, Houston Police Department, Texas Department of Public Safety, Harris County Sheriff’s Office, New York State Police and New York Police Department. In 1992, then Police Inspector Bidhu Bhushan Dvivedi who was with the state vigilance department submitted a detailed report highlighting the inclusion of high-profile persons including Chief Minister and others. McFARLAND was the founder and chief executive officer of Fyre Media. In addition, McFARLAND did not personally meet or speak with customers.
