Tag: Mexico

Reboot of Disaster-Hit Fyre Festival Postponed, US Media Reports

The scheduled dates and location of Fyre Festival 2 have been thrown into doubt, according to US media reports.

The reboot of the 2017 Fyre Festival – which made international headlines, sparked a hit Netflix documentary and resulted in organiser Billy McFarland going to jail for fraud – was due to take place in Mexico from 30 May to 2 June.

McFarland’s second attempt to stage the event was announced not long after he was released from prison, with ticket prices ranging from $1,400 (£1,058) to $1.1m (£831,534).

But now the organisers are reportedly looking for a new location for the festival, with the scheduled dates uncertain.

A message to ticket holders on Wednesday said the event had been postponed and a new date would be announced, ABC News reported. The festival’s website also briefly said the event was postponed, according to NBC News.

The organisers said in a further update reported by NBC and the New York Times that Fyre 2 was “still on”.

“We are vetting new locations and will announce our host destination soon. Our priorities remain unchanged: delivering an unforgettable, safe, and transparent experience,” the update said.

McFarland told NBC the date is dependent on location.

BBC News has reached out to Fyre Festival 2 organisers for comment.

The uncertainty follows two local governments in Mexico saying they had no planning records for the festival that organisers had said would take place in their areas.

In February, organisers announced the festival’s location as Isla Mujeres, an island off Cancún.

However, the local city council posted on Facebook that “no person or company has requested permits from this office or any other Municipal Government department for said event”.

The event was re-announced with a new location in Playa del Carmen. Local officials there said on X that “no event with this name has reached our city”.

“Following a responsible review of the situation, it confirms that there is no registration, planning or conditions indicating the realisation of the event in the municipality,” a translation of the statement read.

McFarland and Fyre Festival 2 posted documents on Instagram that they said showed approval for the event. One document indicated permission for 250 people at a venue. McFarland had said 1,800 tickets were for sale.

To many, the latest developments will come as little surprise.

The original Fyre was promoted by supermodels and celebrities as an exclusive getaway for the ultra-rich, and the location was hyped as a private island once owned by drug lord Pablo Escobar.

But festival-goers arrived in the Bahamas to find all the talent cancelled, bare mattresses to sleep on in storm-ravaged tents and cheese sandwiches in takeaway containers to eat.

McFarland was sentenced in 2018 to six years in jail for wire fraud, and was also ordered to return $29m to investors.

He was freed in 2022 under an early release programme but remains on probation until August.

Last year, McFarland announced the reboot, saying “Fyre 2 has to work”.

He claimed he had spent a year planning it, and had already sold 100 tickets at an “early bird” rate of $499. It is unclear how many tickets have been sold to date.

Andy King, an investor in the first Fyre Festival, issued a warning to anyone interested in going to its planned reboot

No line-up for the festival has been announced.

Last year, Andy King, an investor in the first Fyre Festival, issued a warning to anyone interested in going to its planned reboot: “Proceed with caution.”

Mr King, who lost $1m in the original debacle, told the BBC that McFarland was “known for the biggest failure in pop culture and wants to flip the script. But I’m not sure he’s going about it the right way.”

(BBC)

April 17, 2025
Chinese Broker Laundered Latin American Drug Money Around the World

A Chinese businessman laundered tens of millions of dollars in drug money through a Guatemalan casino, a US seafood export company, Miami banks, and Chinese bank accounts, in a case that reveals the wide reach of such money laundering networks.

Xizhi Li, a Chinese national with US citizenship, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money in early August, according to a news release from the US Department of Justice (DOJ). Between 2008 and 2019, Li laundered some $30 million in drug proceeds for traffickers in Mexico, Colombia, and Guatemala.

Prosecutors said Li “forged close ties” with these groups while living in Mexico, obtaining contracts to conduct financial transactions with their US-based proceeds, according to an indictment against him and other conspirators. He used fake identities such as “Francisco Ley Tan” to open Miami bank accounts and purchase a casino in Guatemala used in the scheme.

The scheme used “a foreign casino, foreign and domestic front companies, foreign and domestic bank accounts, false passports and other false identification documents” to launder the drug money, the Justice Department said in its news release.

According to prosecutors, bulk cash made from US cocaine sales was moved among different states to cover up its origins. It was later sent to Chinese bank accounts to purchase Chinese goods. Goods were also bought in the United States and sent to China. Merchants in Latin America looking to import these goods then used their local currency to pay Li and others for the items.

One of Li’s co-conspirators Tao Liu, of Hong Kong, was sentenced to seven years in prison on August 3rd for his role in the network. Prosecutors said Liu accepted drug money on behalf of Li, which he later deposited into bank accounts.

Between April and June of this year, three other conspirators pleaded guilty, according to the Justice Department. Another suspect was charged and is pending extraditionafter he was arrested in Peru.

InSight Crime Analysis

Drug money is not only increasingly being laundered through Chinese bank accounts but brokers are setting up throughout the Americas and beyond to serve trafficking clientele and move cash.

Prosecutors said nodes of the money laundering group were based in the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, China and elsewhere. One suspect made trips to New York and Los Angeles, as well as to the Mexican city of Cancún and Guatemala City to facilitate the network’s activities. The Guatemalan casino owned by Li served as a meeting point for the network.

The group also used a US seafood import and export business to purchase seafood products using cocaine money. The products were later exported for sale in China and Hong Kong.

Messaging platforms, including WhatsApp and WeChat, were used by associates to communicate.

Li and his co-conspirators sought to obtain as many “contracts” as possible from drug trafficking organizations. They then received commissions on the transactions, or a percentage of the funds involved, prosecutors said.

What’s more, Chinese players in the money laundering trade have a wide range of schemes open to them. In one, the US and Mexican financial systems were bypassed altogether. Chinese-owned businesses simply received drug cash and then transferred a corresponding amount through a Chinese banking application.

August 11, 2021
Disaster: An Acute Maize Shortage Is Looming In Kenya

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri has declined to authorise the importation of more maize.

NCPB stock records indicate that they have bags to run for only one month in storage.

CS Kiunjuri says the decision to authorize maize importation requires approval of a full Cabinet.

CS Kiunjuri said duty-free imports have been controversial in the past years.

The CS told a local press that he’s going to involve the entire cabinet in the vital decision in order to avoid political cartels that always make huge profits from such importations.

Initially, ministry of Agriculture used to apply for tax waivers from the Treasury. The ministry would later issue permits to specific traders and millers who later imports duty-free maize.

Maize is the staple food in many poor households and the anticipated shortage would lead to massive prices hikes of maize flour and products.

“I know time is running out, but I will leave that decision to be made by the Cabinet. I understand that landmines are being set for me and that is what I am avoiding,” CS Mwangi Kiunjuri in a media press.

The Government had said that they have 21 million bags, which from their estimations would sustain the country until mid June.

The NCPB is also set to release 3 million bags to Maize Miller’s. The bags are from governments Strategic Food Reserves.

In 2017, Treasury CS Henry Rotich and the then Agriculture CS Willy Bet were subjected to thorough scrutiny and grilling from the Senate for abuse of the importation process.

Last year, the Senate agricultural committee members accused Mr Bett of opening gates of cheap maize which affected local farmers products that were already in the markets.

Gerald Musila, the Executive Director of Eastern African Grain Council, said that the maize will arrive more than 3 months later.

Musila emphasized that the process should have been authorized months ago because it takes over 3 months for maize to reach Kenya from any suitable country.

Kenya had previously imported controversial maize from Mexico that took over 4months to reach in the country.

Our agricultural statistics indicate that Kenya depends on maize imports from Malawi and Zambia.

However, Zambia has barred all maize importations and Malawi crop production was massively affected by Cyclone Kenneth and Cyclone .

Tegemeo Institute researcher Dr. Timothy Njagi, said the needs to be an accurate assessment of the amount of maize in the country.

flour section in a supermarket. FILE PHO

In support of Dr. Njagi’s advice was Dr. Andrew Tuimur, the Chief Administrative Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture.

Dr Tuimur said that the ministry want to avoid the repeat of mistakes that made in 2017.

In 2017, the government subsidy programme intended to import 6million backs but a backdoor deal between the ministry and Millers saw 10million bags being imported in.

In April this year, Kenya’s inflation rate increased to 6.58% from the previous 4.35%.

Kenya Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) has projected a very sharp rise and increased maize flour and corn related food prices.

KNBS also reported that the maize shortage is going to cause a price upsurge on nonalcoholic and alcoholic drinks as from mid June.

May 30, 2019