Fyre Festival bankruptcy trustee wants McFarland lawyer to stay on the case

By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 2 July 2018

The trustee overseeing the bankruptcy of the Fyre Festival company has requested that the lawyer representing its co-founder Billy McFarland be forced to continue working for his client until at least certain documents’ have been handed over.

McFarland, of course, has faced a flurry of litigation as well as criminal charges of fraud ever since his supposedly luxurious music festival in the Bahamas collapsed just as ticket buyers were arriving.

He was due to be sentenced last month over the fraud charges, which relate to him misleading investors about the Fyre event and a talent app it was designed to launch. However, sentencing was postponed after new charges were filed accusing McFarland of fraudulently selling non-existent VIP tickets to a series of real events to rich kids on the database built for the Fyre Festival. He denies those new allegations.

But it was in the wake of the new charges that attorney Tallen Todorovich requested to be removed from McFarland’s bankruptcy case.

According to Law 360, the lawyer stated that: “Mr McFarland has indicated that any and all funds he once had available to pay the law firm … are either frozen or no longer available due to his second arrest. Therefore, Frye Festival is unable to pay the fees agreed upon with my firm”.

But the trustee appointed when the Fyre company was forced into bankruptcy last year, Gregory Messer, says that he is still waiting for some crucial documentation to allow him to proceed. To that end, he reckons that Todorovich should not be released from McFarland’s case until those documents have been handed over.

Says Messer: “This case was commenced nearly one year ago on July 7, 2017, and no schedules or statements have been filed, McFarland has not appeared at a meeting of creditors, and despite the firm’s representations to the contrary, the trustee still has not obtained a turn over of the debtor’s books and records”.

Messer’s motion to the court added: “While the trustee does not wish to tether the firm to this case indefinitely, the trustee believes that requiring the foregoing is fair and appropriate and should have been contemplated by the firm prior to appearing in the case and accepting the engagement”.

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