Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland gets early release from prison

Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland has been released early from prison.

McFarland was serving a six-year sentence after pleading guilty to multiple counts of fraud, including for the disastrous festival in the Bahamas in 2017.

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He spent six months of his sentence alone in solitary confinement after taking part in the recording of a podcast.

According to TMZ, McFarland has now been released from the Milan Federal Correctional Institution in Milan, Michigan, where he was being held.

He is now under the management of Residential Reentry Management New York – the administrative office overseeing halfway houses located in southern New York, eastern New York and New Jersey, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

McFarland’s release date from the halfway house is currently set for August 30.

Back in 2020, he requested an early release from his six-year prison sentence due to concerns over the coronavirus pandemic, but his request was turned down.

McFarland’s release comes after Martin Shkreli, the disgraced “pharma bro” who famously bought Wu-Tang Clan‘s ‘Once Upon A Time In Shaolin’ for $2million (£1.4m), was also released early from prison.

Shkreli was serving a seven-year sentence after being found guilty of securities fraud following claims he defrauded investors in former hedge funds in 2017. He has also been transferred to a halfway house, according to his lawyer Ben Brafman.

Earlier this year, he was barred from the drug industry and ordered to return the $64.6million (£47.2million) in profits that he made by price-gouging the drug Daraprim in 2015.

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