This article originally appeared on VICE Australia.
When Fyre Festival was revealed to be a giant scam in May of 2017, it left its investors, contractors, and customers some $26 million out of pocket. Now, the United States Marshal's Service is selling off two boxes of original Fyre merchandise, in order to recoup losses.
“We have an assortment of the ‘real thing’ Fyre Festival-branded tee-shirts, sweatpants, sweatshirts, hats, wristbands, and medallions,” wrote a spokesman form the Marshal’s Service Manhattan Office, in an email received by Vulture.
“We know that there is tremendous interest in these items in the NY metro area in particular.”
In October of last year, Billy McFarland—the brains behind Fyre—was sentenced to six years in federal prison. After the sentencing, Billy’s lawyer handed over the aforementioned boxes to the court after allegedly seeing people selling counterfeit Fyre t-shirts around New York, and realized the merchandise held some value.
The clothing within the boxes was then appraised and carefully logged, so the government would be protected “in case the items [were] fakes or counterfeit.”
Presumably, everything was found to be authentic, which is why we’re now being treated to an online auction—although a date is yet to be set. And after the auction all profits will be redistributed back to the victims, “based on their respective losses.”
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time that US Marshal's Service has sold off clothing belonging to a convicted felon. In 2011, household items belonging to American financier Bernie Madoff—who executed the largest Ponzi scheme in US history—were sold off in an effort to recoup back $65 million owed to victims. Unexpectedly, 14 pairs of his underwear went for $200 a piece.
So while, you’re surely anticipating a look at the authentic merchandise, you’ll have to wait until the auction goes live. And for the meantime, settle for looking at photos of unofficial Fyre Festival merch available all over the net.
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