LOU Pearlman, the man who discovered the Backstreet Boys and N’SYNC, has died in prison at the age of 62.
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Members of the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC are among those expressing mixed emotions following the death of their former disgraced manager Lou Pearlman, who died August 19 while serving out a 25-year prison sentence in Miami.
Fellow *NSYNC bandmates Lance Bass and Chris Kirkpatrick also commented on their former manager’s passing. Convicted of conspiracy, money laundering, and making false statements during a bankruptcy proceeding, Pearlman was sentenced to 25 years in prison. They became the biggest boy band of all-time, selling over 130 million albums.
Justin Timberlake has shared a message about Lou Pearlman’s death. His Transcontinental Entertainment management company built a roster that also included LFO, Aaron Carter, Jordan Knight, Take 5, and the girl group Innosense (which once included Britney Spears).
He was sentenced in 2008 after being involved in a Ponzi scheme.
The cause of his death is not now known.
“I hope he found some peace”, Justin Timberlake wrote.
Talking with The Hollywood Reporter in 2014, Pearlman insisted that the Vanity Fair piece contained unflattering anecdotes only from “people that had a grudge”, and were absolutely not true.
Additionally, several of Pearlman’s artists, who were among the hundreds that filed lawsuits against him, sued him in federal court and claimed he kept most of the money earned from their music.
Aaron Carter, another of Pearlman’s acts, tweeted, “Lou Pearlman my old manager died in prison”.
Former O-Town singer Ashley Parker Angel tweeted: “Love him or hate him, Lou gave many of us our start”. “But greed gets the best of you”.
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But Pearlman’s meteoric rise ended in 2006 when he was accused of running a $300 million Ponzi scheme, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
