Pearlman was serving prison sentence for running a half-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme
Lou Perlman, the former producer-manager of bands Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, has died. He was 62.
Pearlman, who was serving out a 25-year jail term after being convicted of running a half-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme in 2008, died Friday night, the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed, said The Hollywood Reporter.
NSYNC member Lance Bass tweeted word of the news yesterday, writing, "He might not have been a stand up businessman , but I wouldn't be doing what I love today without his influence."
On the back of those boy bands' success, Pearlman turned his Trans Continental businesses into a sprawling empire in the 1990s. But it was all built on fraud, and he was ultimately sued by every act he represented except one.
His groups dominated the charts during the 1990s: Backstreet Boys landed six Top 10 singles in the Hot 100 and a whopping nine albums in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, with both Millennium and Black & White hitting No. 1 (albeit after the group split from Pearlman).
NSYNC had six Top 10 singles on the Hot 100 and landed four albums in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, although the two of them that reached No. 1 -- No Strings Attached and Celebrity -- were both released after the split.
His next most popular act, O-Town, had a single and an album in the Top 10.
His entire Trans Continental empire was built on fraud, and after investigators discovered in 2006 that his Ponzi scheme had defrauded investors out of at least USD 300 million.
He fled the country and was arrested in Indonesia in June of 2007, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison for conspiracy, money laundering, and making false statements during a bankruptcy proceeding.
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