Ja Rule Dismissed From $100M Fyre Fest Class Action

A federal judge has dismissed claims against rapper Ja Rule and Fyre CMO Grant Margolin in a class action lawsuit filed by Fyre Festival attendees who claim that the infamous festival was not the luxury experience that was advertised.

U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel determined that the festival-goers’ claims against the two should be dismissed because they had not sufficient established that Ja Rule and Margolin had committed fraud, though Fyre Media remains in the complaint.

Ja Rule (a/k/a Jeffrey Atkins) is reportedly the founder, owner, director, and a corporate officer of Fyre Media.

In their Fyre festival class action lawsuit, the customers assert that the messages about the Fyre Festival were coming directly from Ja Rule because of his role with the festival and because of his status as a social media influencer.

The festival-goers claimed that he should be held liable for fraud because of his relationship with the company.

Margolin as the chief marketing officer of the festival, organized, marketed, promoted, and advertised the festival. Similar to their claims about Ja Rule, the customers argued that Margolin represented the festival fraudulently.

According to Judge Castel, the ticket holders had not sufficiently pled that specific statements made by Margolin and Ja Rule were fraudulent, and had tried to base their fraud claims on statements made in documents that are of a non-public nature.

The customers in the Fyre music festival fraud class action lawsuit claimed that the two men had intentionally misrepresented the festival as a luxury experience of a lifetime, when it was not up to snuff.

To support these claims, the customers cited instances in which Ja Rule and Margolin communicated with investors in non-public documents allegedly confirming that the music festival was not what was advertised.

However, Judge Castel determined that because these statements were not made for public consumption, they could not be used to determine that Ja Rule and Margolin committed fraud.

The Fyre fraud class action lawsuit asserted that the marketing team advised Ja Rule and Margolin to roll customers’ tickets over to the next year because the festival would not be up to the advertised standards.

However, the two men allegedly decided to continue despite knowing that the experience delivered to customers would not be consistent with advertisements.

Judge Castel ended up disagreeing with Fyre Media, Margolin, and Ja Rule’s assertion that the fraud claims are duplicative of the breach of contact claims against Fyre Media. Because he determined that the claims are different Judge Castel preserved the breach of contract claims.

The plaintiffs are represented by Lori G. Feldman, Mark J. Geragos and Ben J. Meiselas of Geragos & Geragos APC.

The Fyre Festival Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Fyre Festival Litigation, Case No. 1:17-cv-03296, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Read More Lawsuit & Settlement News:

Kohl’s Class Action Says ‘Sale’ Prices Are Misleading

Has Someone You Love Suffered an Uloric Heart Attack?

RockTape Class Action Says Kinesio Tape Doesn’t Relieve Pain

Unum Disability Lawsuit Claims Wrongful Denial of Benefits