fraud

Cancelled Thunder Beats Promoters Sued for Lack of Refunds
Earlier this year, Thunder Ranch Entertainment Group announced the Thunder Beats Music Festival to take place April 22nd through 24th in Pensacola, Florida. The festival came with an impressive lineup for a first-year event including Marshmello, Kaskade, deadmau5, Steve Aoki, Adventure Club, Dillon Francis, RL Grime and more. In March the promoters released the following …

XO Festival (aka Fyre Festival 2.0) canceled
The XO Festival set for (and we use those words loosely) this upcoming weekend has been canceled after the venue, the Contra Costa Event Park, proactively canceled the event after the promoters did not live up to the terms of the contract. Various industry parties have been quoted for months their skepticism that the event …

Fyre Festival founder arrested by FBI on wire fraud charges tonight
The gift story that keep on giving, the founder of the Fyre Festival, Bill McFarland, was arrested by the FBI tonight in New York City. He is expected to appear in court tomorrow on one charge of wire fraud which carries a possible 20 year sentence. The charge is listed as “a scheme to defraud …

Miami nightclub sued by investors for fraud
2 Russian business who invested $1 million into Star Island, the holding company which owned the Mansion nightclub in South Beach, have sued Justin Levine and Keith Menin and additional companies tied to Menin accusing them of defrauding the investors. According to a Miami Herald article, Levine and Menin substantially understated the club’s debt load and …

Canadian music festival canceled – major industry player calls it ‘fraud’
Canada’s Pemberton festival scheduled for later this year and recently canceled was called out my WME’s (William Morris Endeavor) head of music Marc Geiger for canceling their festival and not offering a refund to fans who had bought tickets. In an interview in Billboard, Geiger stated: “I want each of them to know ‘I coming …

Fyre Festival sued for $3.5mm by their ticketing company for fraud
The gift that keeps on giving, the Fyre Festival is being sued for $3.5 million for taking the event presale revenue and not returning it to the ticketing company, Tableist, which is now left holding the bag scrambling to refund attendees their payments. The suit, filed in Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston, Mass., accuses …

SFX bankruptcy plan approved with ~$400mm in debt wiped out
According to the Wall Street Journal, the bankruptcy case handling SFX Entertainment’s BK filing has approved a plan to wipeout approximately $400 million in debt. In addition, the bankruptcy judge did not approve a motion for the original investors to be a part of the post-bankruptcy SFX meaning those investors have lost 100% of their …

Verboten in NYC seized for non-payment of back taxes! (Update – back open!)
News emerged today that Brooklyn-club Verboten has been seized by the State of New York for the non-payment of taxes. This follows well publicized lawsuits and djs posting on social media they were not paid their contracted booking fees. It remains to be seen if the venue will reopen. No statement yet from the venue’s …

$100,000+ allegedly stolen from Sharam by his bookkeeper!
According to an article in the Washington Post, a bookkeeper hired by Sharam for his record label, Yoshitoshi, 2 years ago, started embezzling money as soon as she got the job. Over the past 2 years she allegedly stole over $100,000 from Sharam! The individual, Kristin Gardner Kelly, has a colorful past to say the …