Fyre Threatened to Sue Twitter Critics for Potentially Inciting Riots, Sixth Lawsuit Claims

Legal challenges keep mounting for the ill-fated Fyre Festival. The tally of lawsuits against co-founders Ja Rule and Billy McFarland is now up to at least six. The latest, a class-action lawsuit brought by a pair of unhappy ticket buyers, alleges fraud, negligence, breach of contract, and other violations, and it seeks an unspecified amount in damages. It also adds another claim to the long list of grievances against the organizers: that people who criticized the event via social media have been receiving cease-and-desist letters. 

Kenneth and Emily Reel filed their suit in Florida federal court on May 5. “As for those individuals who elected to speak negatively about the Defendants on social media, they are now being threatened with legal action via cease-and-desist letters,” according to their complaint. “Specifically, if the social media comments were not taken down, the Defendants claim they could ‘incite violence, rioting, or civil unrest,’ with the caveat that if ‘someone innocent does get hurt as a result … Fyre Festival will hold you accountable and responsible.’”

Another new wrinkle in the Reels’ lawsuit: Along with Ja Rule, McFarland, and their Fyre Media business, PR company 42West and marketing agency Matte Projects are named as defendants. The two firms “did nothing to ensure that what they were marketing … was or even could be true,” the complaint asserts. The lawsuit also takes aim at Fyre’s refund process, which requires people to fill out an application. “The vague and deceptive refund ‘application’ is just another illusory promise by Defendants designed to mislead distressed ticketholders,” the plaintiffs claim. 

Representatives for the parties in the case didn’t immediately respond to Pitchfork’s requests for comment.

Meanwhile, new court documents have emerged in the first Fyre lawsuit, a $100 million class action brought by celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos. The documents claim the festival was close to a Bernie Madoff-style pyramid scheme all along. “Our preliminary investigation has exposed that the festival itself was merely a front for a massive financial fraud akin to a Ponzi scheme” in which the founders and potential investors “misappropriated funds from attendees,” an amended complaint asserts.

“Whereas Ponzi schemes of the past rely on well-heeled individuals with disposable incomes, oftentimes from elderly populations, here, Fyre Media, Inc. marketed their scheme to seemingly successful millennials as their mark.”

The new documents assert the legal team’s investigation has uncovered several notable “seed series” investors who provided Fyre Media’s initial funding. Though unnamed, they allegedly include a financial firm that was recently bought by a publicly traded bank, a venture capital firm whose managing director was named one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World,” “a socialite” married to a prominent banking executive, and “a social media personality.”

Find our coverage of the first five lawsuits here, and read “Searching for Answers in Fyre Festival’s Viral Disaster” over on the Pitch.

Find the full text of both suits below:

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