Lou Pearlman, the record producer who founded such popular 90s and 2000s boy bands as the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC and O-Town, has died in prison at the age of 62.
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Pearlman, who suffered a stroke in prison in 2010, died Friday in the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas.
Pearlman’s former attorney, Clay Townsend, is speaking out about the boy band mogul’s death.
In 2006 it was discovered that Lou Pearlman was behind an elaborate Ponzi scheme that ripped off over $300 million from investors.
He was jailed for 25 years in 2008 over a massive $300m (£153m) Ponzi fraud scheme.
Hundreds of lawsuits were filed in his case, including one by the Backstreet Boys.
Former N Sync member Lance Bass has tweeted about Pearlman’s death, saying: “Word is that #LouPearlman has passed away”.
To distribute his bands worldwide, Pearlman signed a deal with Clive Calder’s Jive record label, which would generate millions of sales around the world. He was caught in Indonesia in June 2007 and, after being returned to the US, was sentenced in 2008 to 25 years in prison without the possibility of release until 2029. Timberlake tweeted, “I hope he found some peace”. Justin Timberlake remembered NSYNC’s former manager, Lou Pearlman, via Twitter over the weekend after his passing on August 19. Pearlman would go on to mentor Backstreet Boy Nick Carter’s younger brother Aaron Carter, O-Town, LFO, and Jordan Knight. Lou was once Aaron’s manager.
United States singer Aaron Carter, younger brother of Nick, also took to the platform, writing that he wasn’t ‘the best business guy really at all but he did discover me’.
Lou Pearlman poses with NSYNC in 1996.
Pearlman, known as “Big Poppa” by friends, also created the MTV show, Making the Band. “But greed gets the best of you”.
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During his sentencing he apologised in court, saying: ‘I’m truly sorry, Your Honor, to all the people who have been hurt and victimised by my actions.
