The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

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.

Documents filed on Friday with the southern New York federal bankruptcy court, which have been obtained by Tribune Business, reveal that Gregory Messer is seeking a court order to serve subpoenas on both Bahamian and US entities that supplied services/goods to a festival that became a chaos-stricken debacle threatening the Bahamas’ tourism reputation in April 2017.

Mr Messer wants to examine those named, including Mr Archer and CF Butler & Associates, to determine why they received payments worth more than $90,000 from the Fyre Festival and if they provided sufficient in return to justify the payments.

The subpoena requests come as Mr Messer’s efforts to trace the $26m investors handed to the festival’s main organiser, now-convicted fraudster, William McFarland, appear to be moving into high gear given the pace of recent court filings.

Besides Mr Archer and CF Butler & Associates, another entity on Mr Messer’s examination list, “Chef Ellis Duff Pastries Catering”, is thought to be the Bahamian company, Chef Ellie’s Duff Pastries Catering. It allegedly received $170,000 in March 2017, probably for providing catering services, and is described in court documents as a “food/pastry vendor”.

Also named is N. C. Macduffs Ltd, which received $115,351 from McFarland and his Fyre Media entity between November 2016 and December 2017, and is described as a “bar/restaurant”. Although unclear from the court filings, this could be MacDuffs Cottages and Restaurants on Norman’s Cay.

Mr Archer last night replied to Tribune Business’s messages, saying he was in church and would call back. No call was received and, after this newspaper’s subsequent call was not answered, Mr Archer messaged: “I understand that they are trying to pay or cure or settle. I do not want to upset or disturb what they are trying to do at this time.”

When asked by Tribune Business to explain what he meant, Mr Archer responded again by text message, saying: “For which product was purchased and shipped to the Exuma Fyre Festival.” He did not explain further.

However, several sources - speaking on condition of anonymity - confirmed that Mr Archer had been working as a consultant to specific events and their planners since leaving the NSA in early 2016. They also confirmed that one of those events was the Fyre Festival.

Court documents allege that Mr Archer received a $100,000 payment for his work in April 2017, the same month that Fyre Festival fell apart, describing him as a “festival consultant/investor”. C. F. Butler & Associates, which was also labelled as a “festival consultant”, allegedly received $131,500 from organisers.

There is nothing to suggest that any of the Bahamians or local companies named by the Chapter 7 trustee have done anything wrong in relation to the Fyre Festival, or that they did not deserve the payments made to them.

They are also in good company, because the list of those Mr Messer wishes to examine includes the likes of social media sensation, Kendall Jenner, and the management agencies for fellow models and social media influencers, Bella Hadid and Emily Rajtakowski.

All were allegedly paid significant sums, up to $1.215m, by McFarland and Fyre Media to promote the festival on social media, which bolstered the event’s credibility and convinced many that it was for real and to part with their money.

Mr Messer, in court filings, said his probe of the Fyre Festival to-date “has been challenging” due to a combination of McFarland’s six-year imprisonment, lack of help, and absence of any financial record and documents detailing what had happened to investor monies.

All information so far has been obtained “from third parties”, and the payments to the Bahamian individuals and companies were said to be among “significant transfers” totalling $5.2m that were made by Fyre Media, the festival’s parent company.

“In order to gain a full understanding of the reasons for these transfers and the consideration provided for them by the examinees, if any, the trustee respectfully requests that the court enter an order.... authorising the trustee to serve a subpoena upon each of the examinees,” Mr Messer explained of the rationale for his latest filing.

“Each of the examinees is either a company or individual who provided promotional services, advertisements, social media posts, musical performances, logistical support, vendor services or guidance to the debtor in connection with the preparation for the Festival.

“The Trustee has uncovered transfers made to each of the examinees and, due to the lack of information currently in the trustee’s possession, it is unclear whether any consideration was ever provided in exchange for the same,” he continued.

“The debtor [Fyre Festival] maintained only one bank account of its own, which it used exclusively in connection with booking air travel. All of the debtor’s funds were run though Fyre Media or other non-debtor accounts, including Billy McFarland’s personal accounts.”

Recalling the background to the Fyre Festival’s collapse into infamy, Mr Messer said: “In 2016, the debtor [Fyre Festival] and its principal, Billy McFarland, conceived of and began promoting the Fyre Festival as a unique concert experience that would take place at Great Exuma, The Bahamas, over the course of two weekends in April and May of 2017.

“Tickets to the festival were billed as “‘exclusive’ and cost between $1,200-$100,000 per ticket or ticket package. In promotional materials, the Festival was called ‘the cultural experience of the decade’ which included travel via private jet from Miami to Exuma, VIP accommodations and A-list musical performances from talents such as Blink-182, Major Lazer and Migos.

“The debtor spent tremendous amounts of time and borrowed money promoting the Festival through YouTube videos and social media promotions featuring famous celebrities. As a result of this advertising and promotional blitz, thousands of people purchased tickets to the Festival. Unfortunately, the debtor’s management failed to ensure that Exuma was adequately prepared to host the Festival.”

Chaos quickly descended after McFarland failed to deliver on anything he had promised, with most festival-goers immediately demanding their money back and seeking the quickest way off Exuma. Class-action lawsuits from attendees swiftly followed at federal courts throughout the US.

Besides being totally out of his depth, and possessing none of the experience and expertise required to organise such an event, McFarland also induced investors to part with a collective $26m through a series of lies and fruadulent misrepresentations that effectively sold them a $26m mirage. Among the falsehoods was a claim the Festival owned significant landholdings in The Bahamas.