Two men have been found guilty of committing fraud after collecting over $1 million for a festival they fabricated that was to feature artists such as Post Malone, Billie Eilish, and Justin Bieber. Blake Kelly and Terrence Morris made their plea deal on February 13 after being charged with fraud by the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. According to EDM.com, the two will face “up to 20 or more” years in prison for their crimes.
Digital Music News reported that Morris and Kelly fraudulently took approximately $1.3 million from a concert promoter and the president of two companies in 2019 and 2020. The victim was promised half of the profits from ticket, merchandise, and food sales they funded. Morris and Kelly produced fake festival contracts and emails from the headliners and prepared a video call featuring a Justin Bieber lookalike.
The victim published a press report about the festival and released news of the planned event, which attracted attention from Bieber’s team. The scam’s true nature became known, and Bieber’s lawyers quickly sent a cease-and-desist letter.
Morris and Kelly reportedly used the illegally obtained money to enjoy a lavish lifestyle, including travel, buying luxury goods, paying for luxurious services, and dining at high-end restaurants. Sentencing for the two men is scheduled for May.
Billy McFarland, the fraudster behind the Fyre Festival, perpetrated one of the most infamous festival scams, resulting in numerous festival-goers being left stranded without enough food, water, or shelter on an island in the Bahamas. McFarland has been released from his six-year sentence less than four years in, and he now appears to promote Fyre Festival II
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