The effects of the infamous 2017 Fyre Festival are still being felt, and for some celebrities, it’s hitting their bank accounts. Billy McFarland, the now incarcerated producer of the supposed luxury festival, charmed his way into the pockets of investors. He paid a host of social media influencers, musician, and cleebrities to perform at or post about Fyre Festival, but in the end, it was all a disastrous scam.

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Back in August 2019, trustee Gregory Messer issued a complaint to bankruptcy courts to seek a return on monies paid out to performers, agents, and anyone else who made money from the fraudulent event. Rae Sremmurd, Blink-182, Migos, Lil Yachty, Pusha T, and Kendall Jenner are just a few names who were sued.

Jenner shared posts to her social media pages promoting the event, including mentioning G.O.O.D. Music since her brother-in-law Kanye West reportedly scheduled to hit the Fyre Festival stage. In the lawsuit against her, it’s asserted that she received upwards of $275K for her involvement in promoting the outdoor concert, but she’s only been ordered by a judge to repay $90K. So, in the end, she still made a profit.

Last year, The New York Times asked Kendall about her involvement with Fyre Festival and why she supported the event. “You get reached out to by people to, whether it be to promote or help or whatever, and you never know how these things are going to turn out, sometimes it’s a risk.” She added. “I definitely do as much research as I can, but sometimes there isn’t much research you can do because it’s a starting brand and you kind of have to have faith in it and hope it will work out the way people say it will.”

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The Fyre Festival is still dealing with the repercussions over the failed luxury event at the hands of Billy McFarland. Though he’s behind bars, there’s still a lot of creditors that are owed money. The trustee looking over the Fyre Festival’s bankruptcy has been chasing down many artists and celebrities involved in the festival as a means to obtain the cash they were paid.

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According to The Blast, Rae Sremmurd just settled the score with the Fyre Festival over an $18K advance for their performance. A lawsuit was filed against an array of artists and celebrities that were paid to promote the event as a means of getting money to return to the creditors. Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi were sued for over $100K that they were actually paid for the performance with the group agreeing to cough up a fraction of that in the settlement.

“The Defendant shall pay the total sum of $18,000.00 (the “Settlement Payment”), as full and final settlement and complete satisfaction of all claims the Trustee has against the Defendant,” the documents read.

Migos recently went through a similar situation recently when they settled a suit with Fyre Festival. The ATL trio were reportedly paid $100K to perform but later settled their case with the trustee for Fyre Festival for $30K. 

There was not a single way that Billy McFarland was going to get out of the Fyre Festival scandal scratch-free. And he didn’t. McFarland’s expected to be released in August 2023 on wire fraud charges but he’s already made a case that he’d be eligible to be released on home confinement in 2021. With the coronavirus pandemic becoming a serious threat in prison, McFarland is seeking to get a “compassionate release” just like Tekashi 6ix9ine.

According to TMZ, McFarland has requested that he’s released on “compassionate release” due to several factors including the coronavirus outbreak in conjunction with their preexisting health conditions and the fact that he’s not a violent offender. Elkton federal prison has been prone to several COVID-19 cases with Congressman Bill Johnson describing the prison as a “breeding ground for the virus.”

In documents filed, McFarland used Tekashi 6ix9ine’s recent release as an example as to why he should also be granted a compassionate release. Again, McFarland didn’t commit any violent acts of crime so his legal team compared his situation to a “former gang member who pleaded guilty to an array of charges including weapons possession, armed robbery and dealing fentanyl and heroin.”

His team said that he’s the perfect candidate for a compassionate release since he’s not only kept out of trouble in prison but also because he suffers from health issues stemming from his 20s.

Should Billy McFarland be released on home confinement? Sound off in the comments. 

Folks are still feeling the effects of Fyre Festival. The luxurious festival was supposed to take place on the Great Exuma island in the Bahamas back in 2017. Artists like Migos, Pusha-T, Tyga, Blink-182, Lil Yachty, Skepta, Rae Sremmurd, and over two dozen others were slated to perform. In the end, Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland was found out to be a fraud. His partner for the festival, Ja Rule, wasn’t named in his crimes. McFarland was tried and convicted of mail and wire fraud. He’s currently serving out his six-year sentence.

Following the fallout, it was announced last year that Gregory Messer, the bankruptcy trustee for the festival, was coming after performers and Instagram influencers on the grounds that they aided in defrauding investors. Anyone who was paid to perform or promote the event was named in a lawsuit, and according to The Blast, Migo recently agreed to dish out $30K to settle the legal drama.

The publication states that the rap trio was paid $100K to hit the Fyre Festival stage, but of course, it never happened.  “The Defendant shall pay the total sum of $30,000.00 (the ‘Settlement Payment’), as full and final settlement and complete satisfaction of any claims the Trustee has raised against the Defendant,” a court document reportedly reads.

All they need now is for a judge to sign off so they can put it all behind them.

If there’s one thing that we can all agree on, it’s that we’re only three months in 2020 and it’s been an already f*cked up year. The Australian bushfires and the scares of WW3 are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes down to headlines of 2020 but with the rise in Coronavirus, it appears that 50 Cent has a hunch that Ja Rule might have something to do with all of this.

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Even as many fear the world coming to an end, 50 Cent still has time to be petty as hell. With everything that’s gone on in the past two and a half months, 50 Cent suggests there’s only one group of people that can possibly be behind the madness of 2020 and that is the organizers of Fyre Festival. Sharing a meme to Instagram that stated this year is being managed by the Fyre Festival organizers, Fif captioned it, “Now this shit is starting to make sense LOL.”

Of course, this includes Ja Rule who’s fed up with his name being dragged through the mud. Even though he was dismissed from the lawsuit, Ja Rule is still forced to respond to trolls who’ve attached his name to the failed festival. Just last month, he took aim at a few users, threatening to “slap the earth wind and FYRE out you clowns!!!”

Andy King was the unsung hero of the Fyre Festival documentary that dropped on Netflix last year. His loyalty to the festival and his boss, Billy McFarland, was hilarious but also well-received by audiences. The documentary was already going to be huge on social media, but Andy discussing what he almost did in order to secure some water bottles put it over the edge. 

The sincerity in which King commented on the situation had him go viral, but not necessarily for the wrong reasons. Recently, Andy King announced that he would be using his new-found “fame” to hold tour dates. In an aptly titled “Fyre-side Chats with Andy King” series, King will be touring from city to city sharing his story with audiences, while also conducting Q&A’s at every location. Like many of the others that were working on the Fyre Festival, he wasn’t proud of the way things turned out, however, he is now hoping to leverage that low point of his career into something much more important. 

King also plans to launch a production sustainability initiative, which would help give more opportunities for future generations. If you thought the Fyre Festival was done… you were right, but Andy King won’t let us forget without trying to make something good out of it. 

The Fyre Festival fiasco continues to haunt Ja Rule. His involvement, and optimism to properly reproduce the failed festival, has made him a target on Twitter for trolls and jokes. Add to that the residual effects of the 50 Cent and Eminem feuds, Ja Rule's immuned to take a few blows from trolls... or is he?

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It appears that the trolls have finally crawled their way underneath Ja Rule's skin. Although he's managed to brush off them off over past few years since the festival went viral, the Twittersphere's harmless puns have made him put out a PSA halting to any future jokes. Ja went to the XFL launch this past weekend, later showing his support on Twitter, but all he was met with was more trolling about his venture with Billy McFarland.

"Let me let all you fucking clowns know something it’s all cool wit the Fyre jokes but there ain’t no fucking sucker over here... BE CLEAR!!! FOH," Ja Rule tweeted at sports reporter, Benjamin Allbright.

TJ Carpenter's small jab also prompted a pretty forward response from Ja Rule. "Watch your mouth before you get parked punk... keep playing with me I’m a get to slapping earth wind and FYRE out you clowns!!!" Ja wrote on Twitter.

Despite the jokes, Ja Rule was officially dismissed from the Fyre Festival debacle in 2019. 

Andy King, who became a viral sensation after his appearance on Netflix's Fyre documentary, is now partnering with En to promote water "so good, you'd do anything for it," as noted by Complex.

No charges were filed against him and he was cleared of any wrongdoing, but Ja Rule can't seem to escape the Fyre Festival criticisms. While his former partner Billy McFarland sits behind bars, Ja has expressed interest in revamping the Fyre Festival; only this time, it would be a real concert with booked acts and edible food.

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That isn't the only business move that the rapper has been working on, because on Tuesday he shared that he has an accounting company that helps people clean up their credit, build their credit, and complete their taxes. While this is something that he's reportedly had going on for years, Ja couldn't help but find himself the target of social media trolls.

In response, the rapper stated in a since-deleted tweet, "Social media is for clowns... if all the celebs left social media there would be no more social media!!!" Accomplished actress Jackée Harry replied, "If all celebs left social media who would promote fraudulent music festivals?" She wasn't the only one to poke fun at the rapper and soon Ja found himself going back and forth with the public.

"Everyone gets on social media to follow celebs to get a glimpse of the lives you so desperately want but will probably NEVER live... ?" he said, adding that "Black ppl would be so f*cking strong if we stuck together support one another sh*t sad..." Ja also stated that all of the heat is free promo while also mentioning that he's been hated on "since 03... I ain’t stop getting money yet lol I’m good!!!" Of course, he threw in a few clown gifs for good measure. Check out a few of his tweets below.

Ja Rule just can't get a break, even when he's trying to give others one. Whenever he makes the news, it's probably not for good reasons and this time isn't an exception. The rapper took to social media to promote Value Tax, a tax company that he owns. "IT’S TAX SEASON!!! It’s simple walk in let us do your taxes, walk out with cash in hand... we also do credit repair!!!" Ja wrote in a since-deleted tweet. There's still a flyer on his Instagram page posted but the world of Twitter, as ruthless as it is, did not let Ja have this one.

Considering his role in the Fyre Festival debacle, as well as his aspirations to create a new Fyre Festival, you could understand why someone wouldn't trust Ja to do their taxes. However, he insisted that he isn't the person who actually does the taxes, it's his employees. To which I say, Thank you, Ja. We really appreciate the transparency. 

"Everything that’s funny ain’t a joke value tax over 40 locations Ja Rule BEEN DOING YA’LL TAXES FOR YEARS!!!" He wrote on Twitter. "All y’all thinking y’all gonna be stars better go learn how to diversify your portfolio..."

So, not to bring up, old sh*t, but it was previously reported in April 2019 that Ja Rule himself owed the IRS $2M in back taxes. If true, perhaps Ja Rule isn't the person to be getting tax advice from, after all.