Lou Pearlman

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Louis Jay Pearlman (June 19, 1954 – August 19, 2016) was an American record designer, con artist, and fraudster.

He was the boss of several successful 1990s boy bands, such as Backstreet Boys and NSYNC.

In 2006, he was accused of operating one of the most lucrative and longest-running Ponzi schemes in history, with more than $300 million in debt.

He pleaded guilty to conspiracy, money laundering, and making false representations during a bankruptcy hearing after being arrested.

Pearlman was found guilty and sentenced to up to 25 years in prison in 2008.

In 2016, he died in federal detention.

Early life

Lou Pearlman was born and raised in New York City, New York, the only child of Jewish parents Hy Pearlman, who operated a dry cleaning company, and Reenie Pearlman, a school lunchroom aide. He was the first cousin of singer Art Garfunkel. Pearlman's apartment in Mitchell Gardens was located across from Flushing Airport, where he and childhood friend Alan Gross would watch blimps take off and land. According to his autobiography, Bands, Brands, & Billions, it was during this period that he gathered clout and secured his first ride in a blimp. Gross, who claims to have been the school reporter, denied Pearlman to follow along, is disputing this.

Garfunkel's fame and success fueled Pearlman's passion for the music industry. He dominated a band as a youth, but as success in music became elusive, he turned to aviation. Pearlman wrote a company plan for a class project based on the prospect of a helicopter taxi service in New York City during his first year as a student at Queens College. He had founded the company in late 1970s based on his company plan, starting with one helicopter. He begged German businessman Theodor Wüllenkemper to train him on blimps and then spent some time at Wüllenkemper's West German headquarters learning about the airships.

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Entertainment industry career

Pearlman was fascinated with the New Kids on the Block's, who had earned hundreds of millions of dollars in total, tour, and merchandise sales. He founded Trans Continental Records with the intention of imitating their boy band business model. The Backstreet Boys, Pearlman's first band, consisted of five unknown artists selected by the record label in a $3 million talent search. Johnny Wright, a former New Kids on the Block executive, and his wife Donna were given responsibilities as a manager. The Backstreet Boys became the best-selling boy band of all time, with record-breaking profits of 130 million, platinum, and diamond in 45 countries. Pearlman and the Wrights were then introduced to NSYNC, which was created by Chris Kirkpatrick. Pearlman and the Wrights funded and operated NSYNC in a very similar way, with over 70 million units sold around the world.

Pearlman had risen to fame with two major victories under his belt, making him a music mogul. Other boy bands managed by Pearlman included O-Town (created during ABC-MTV reality television series Making the Band), LFO, Natural, Marshall Dyllon (co-created with country music artist Kenny Rogers), and Innosense (co-founded with Lynn Harless as the mother of NSYNC band member Justin Timberlake), and O-Town (co-created with a short-term member). Aaron Carter, Jordan Knight, Smilez & Southstar, and C-Note were among the Trans Continental artists on the Trans Continental label. Pearlman also owned a large entertainment complex in Orlando, including a recording studio he called Trans Continental Studios and a dance studio near Disney World named O-Town. Pearlman and Wes Smith co-wrote Bands, Brands, and Billions: My Top ten Rules for Making Any Business Go Platinum in 2002.

Both of Pearlman's musical acts sued him in federal court for misrepresentation and fraud, with the exceptions of US5 and Marshall Dyllon. All lawsuits against Pearlman have been settled out of court or by those who have brought lawsuits against him.

Backstreet Boys members became the first to file a lawsuit against Pearlman, who argued that their deal, which Pearlman collected as both manager and producer, was unfair because Pearlman was also paid as a sixth member of the Backstreet Boys (i.e., one-sixth of the band's own money). Brian Littrell, a member of the band, hired a lawyer to determine why the group had only earned $300,000 for all of its work, though Pearlman and his record label had earned millions. NSYNC, a fellow boy band, was having similar problems with Pearlman, and its members followed suit shortly.

Aaron Carter began a lawsuit in 2002 accusing Pearlman and Trans Continental of evicting him out of hundreds of thousands of dollars and racketeering in a criminal conduct pattern. This case was eventually settled out of court.

Pearlman acquired Options Talent Group, Mark Tolner's web-based talent company, in September 2002, which would go on to become Trans Continental Talent (TCT), Wilhelmina Talent Scouting (WSN), Web Style Network, Fashion Rock, and Talent Rock. Regardless of the name, all incarnations were based on Emodel founder Ayman "Alec" Difrawi, himself a convicted con artist who was instrumental in establishing Options/TCT/WSN and creating Fashion Rock. The companies received unfavorable press attention, ranging from questions regarding their company practices to outright claims that they were frauds. They were also distributed on the Difrawi-founded "Industry Magazine" website, after Hotjobs and Monster.com pulled over a thousand of the company's job advertisements from their boards.

Options/TCT/WSN's opinion by the Better Business Bureau was negative, citing a "pattern of reports relating to misrepresentation in selling activities" as the source of complaints. The New York State Consumer Protection Board released an alert naming it as the first example of a photo mill scam ever discovered. Options/TCT/WSN was found to be in breach of California legislation, according to several state departments, and several state agencies were expected to investigate the firm. Around 2,000 reports were submitted with then-Attorney General Charlie Crist and the BBB in Florida, and Assistant AG Dowd launched an investigation. However, no charges were filed as the newly appointed Assistant AG MacGregor was unable to locate "any significant breaches." The fact that the corporation had declared bankruptcy had exacerbated things, "leaving no deep pockets from which to recover damages."

Fashion Rock, LLC had filed a civil lawsuit against some who had criticized Pearlman's employment companies by June 4, 2004. In 2006, the lawsuit was dismissed and closed. Les Henderson, a Canadian consumer-fraud specialist, successfully filed a libel lawsuit against Pearlman, Tolner, El-Difrawi, and several others, among other things.

Fashion Rock, LLC existed until February 2, 2007, when its funds were sold in Pearlman's bankruptcy case. Difrawi continued filing cases that were all dismissed, and the most recent was running Expand, Inc. dba Softrock.org aka Employer Network, from the same address as former TCT.

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