The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

SUPERMODELS and social media influencers will be forced to disclose information about the payments they received to promote the ill-fated Fyre Festival.

A New York judge granted an ex-parte order on Monday morning seeking subpoenas for celebrities who helped to build up the hype around the failed festival. The celebrities include models Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Hailey Bieber and Emily Ratajkowski.

Convicted fraudster Billy McFarland, organiser of the festival, raised $26 million from investors and officials are trying to determine how that money was spent.

Netflix’s documentary, “FYRE: The Greatest Party that Never Happened”, exposed the murky world of social media influencers and how money influences their decision to promote projects and products they may otherwise have no connection to.

The documentary disclosed how Ms Jenner was paid $250,000 to promote the festival on Instagram. Supermodels were similarly paid to participate in videos promoting the festival and to promote the event on Instagram. At the time of the postings, they did not disclose that they were paid to promote the event.

According to Billboard, McFarland paid out $11.3 million in the weeks and months leading up to the doomed festival.

George Messer, the trustee overseeing the bankruptcy of Fyre Media, requested the subpoenas for models and social media influencers.

McFarland is serving a six-year federal prison sentence after pleading guilty to multiple counts of fraud.

The UK Daily Mail reported that Mr Messer is requesting to subpoena artists who were paid to promote the Fyre Media app, “which was intended to allow fans to book celebrity and musician appearances directly, cutting out the booking agent middle man.” Fyre Festival was intended to promote that app.

“(Mr Messer) is specifically looking into a $115,000 payment to Soulja Boy in August 2016 and a $150,000 payment to Wake Flocka Flame around the same time,” the Daily Mail reported. “United Talent Agency, which was paid $90,000 in February 2017, is expected to be subpoenaed along with cruise ship charter company Laundry & King, private aviation Aircraft Services and (Bahamian) pastry chef Ellis Duff.”

Tribune Business reported on Monday that a Bahamian law firm and the National Sports Authority’s (NSA) former chairman are among the local persons and companies being targeted for examination by Fyre Festival investigators.

CF Butler & Associates, the law firm headed by attorney Craig Butler, who once unsuccessfully sought the PLP’s Nassau Village nomination, and LeRoy Archer, ex-NSA head and former managing director of BISX-listed Commonwealth Brewery, have been named among those that the Fyre Festival’s Chapter 7 trustee wants court permission to interrogate.

On Monday, Mr Butler told Tribune Business his firm has “nothing to hide” and “will do everything to clear our name” in relation to its involvement with the Fyre Festival debacle.