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Lawyer working for Fyre Festival founder steps down over unpaid bills

By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 27 July 2017

A lawyer working for the co-founder of that Fyre Festival shambles has announced his plans to become a lawyer not working for the co-founder of that Fyre Festival shambles. Because, you see, Billy is broke.

As much previously reported, Billy McFarland co-founded the Fyre Festival, and an accompanying talent booking app, with Ja Rule. The festival was meant to be a luxury experience on an island in the Bahamas, but collapsed before it had even started as it became clear the required infrastructure for such an event had not been put in place and too many artists and suppliers hadn’t been paid.

McFarland and his companies are now on the receiving end of a plethora of lawsuits from angry ticket-buyers, suppliers and financial backers. He also faces criminal charges of fraud over allegations he misled investors about the finances of his enterprise.

It was after his arrest on the fraud charges that McFarland told the court he was broke – so much so he was being represented by a public defender in the criminal case. Now a lawyer hired by McFarland to defend one of the lawsuits filed by an investor, Oleg Itkin, has announced he is stepping down due to unpaid bills.

According to Law 360, Michael Levine of Levine And Associates told the New York courts yesterday that he would no longer be working on the case, and that he would file the formal paperwork to that effect by tomorrow. Levine said he simply couldn’t represent a client who wasn’t paying him for his time.

The Itkin litigation has been put on hold until September pending the appointment of a new attorney to represent the defendants. Yeah, good luck with that.