Lou Pearlman, Svengali behind 'N Sync . New York Times . NEW YORK - Lou
Pearlman, the executive who built a pop empire on the boy bands
Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync before going to prison for running a Ponzi
scheme that stole hundreds of millions of dollars from investors, died
Friday in federal prison. He was 62. The cause of death was cardiac
arrest, said Justin Long, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of
Prisons. He said Mr. Pearlman died at a hospital in the Miami area and
had been housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Miami. Mr.
Pearlman began his career in blimp rentals before turning to the music
business. All his interests, from aviation to boy bands and to the
Ponzi scheme that led to his conviction in 2008, were housed under the
Trans Continental companies, whose financial centerpiece was an airline
that existed only on paper. Before his scheme ran aground, however, Mr.
Pearlman built some of the most successful music groups of the 1990s,
one of which launched the career of Justin Timberlake, managed from Mr.
Pearlman's lavish home in Orlando. But he ended up locked in legal
battles with almost all the musicians he managed, who accused him of
lining his pockets at their expense. In a video interview with The Wall
Street Journal, three members of the Backstreet Boys said he had used
his ownership of their equipment and band name to halt one of their
tours briefly in retaliation for suing him. The group settled out of
court. In subsequent years other musical acts such as 'N Sync and the
Lyte Funky Ones either reached their own settlements or disbanded.
Almost all the musicians Mr. Pearlman worked with were young men, and
some accused him of sexual impropriety. He was never prosecuted for any
sex crimes, and in a 2014 jailhouse interview with Billboard magazine
he denied he had committed any. His empire collapsed under a cascade of
lawsuits filed by investors and creditors who had helped finance his
endeavors. He pleaded guilty in 2008 to charges of conspiracy and money
laundering in connection with a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors,
many of them retirees, who had poured $300 million into a company that
never existed. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
