Lou Pearlman
Louis Jay Pearlman (June 19, 1954 – August 19, 2016) was an American talent manager and scam artist. He was the person behind many successful 1990s boy bands, having formed and funded the Backstreet Boys. After their massive success, he then developed NSYNC.
Lou Pearlman
August 19, 2016 (aged 62)
25 years in prison
Art Garfunkel (cousin)
Record producer, manager
1993–2006
In 2006, he was accused of running one of the largest and longest-running Ponzi schemes in United States history, leaving more than $300 million in debts. After attempting to evade capture, Pearlman was apprehended in Bali, Indonesia in June 2007. He pled guilty to conspiracy, money laundering, and making false statements during bankruptcy proceedings. In 2008, Pearlman was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison.[3][4] He died in federal custody in 2016.[5]
Early life[edit]
Lou Pearlman was born and raised in New York City, New York, the only child of Jewish parents Hy Pearlman, who ran a dry cleaning business, and Reenie Pearlman, a school lunchroom aide.
He was a first cousin of the musician Art Garfunkel.
Pearlman's home at Mitchell Gardens Apartments 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 used his position on his school newspaper to earn credentials and get his first ride in a blimp. This is disputed by Gross, who claims he was the school reporter, and allowed Pearlman to tag along.[6][7]
Garfunkel's fame and wealth helped inspire Pearlman's own interest in the music business. As a teenager he managed a band, but when success in music proved elusive, he turned his attention to aviation. During his first year as a student at Queens College, Pearlman wrote a business plan for a class project based on the idea of a helicopter taxi service in New York City. By the late 1970s, he had launched the business based on his business plan, starting with one helicopter.[8] He persuaded German businessman Theodor Wüllenkemper to train him on blimps and subsequently spent some time at Wüllenkemper's facilities in West Germany learning about the airships.
Suspicions of insurance fraud and pump and dump[edit]
Returning to the U.S., Pearlman formed Airship Enterprises Ltd, which leased a blimp to Jordache before actually owning one. He used the funds from Jordache to construct a blimp, which promptly crashed. The two parties sued each other, and seven years later Pearlman was awarded $2.5 million in damages.
On the advice of a friend, Pearlman started a new company, Airship International, taking it public to raise the $3 million he needed to purchase a blimp, falsely claiming that he had a partnership with Wüllenkemper. He leased the blimp to McDonald's for advertising.[6][7]
Pearlman then relocated Airship International to Orlando, Florida, in July 1991, where he signed MetLife and SeaWorld as clients for his blimps.
Airship International suffered when one of its clients left and three of the aircraft crashed. The company's stock, which had once been pumped up to $6 a share, dropped to a price of three cents a share, and the company was shut down.[9]
After he took the company public in 1985, Pearlman became personally and professionally close to Jerome Rosen, a partner at small-cap trading firm Norbay Securities. Based in Bayside, Queens, and frequently in trouble with regulators, Norbay actively traded Airship stock. This sent Airship's stock price consistently higher, enabling Pearlman to sell hundreds of thousands of shares and warrants at ever-higher prices. However, Airship was reporting little revenue, cash flow or net income. In return for keeping his penny stock liquid, Pearlman allegedly paid Rosen handsome commissions, according to a mutual friend, that reached into 'the tens of thousands of dollars' per trade.
Cronin claim[edit]
In a 2009 interview with Howard Stern, Rich Cronin, the former lead singer of LFO, said that he had only received a fraction of the money owed to him from record sales. Cronin also claimed that Pearlman had "wanted to bang everyone" and had attempted to seduce him multiple times. (Cronin was of age.)[41]
Fellow LFO band member Brad Fischetti, however, continued to refer to Pearlman as a friend, and expressed sadness at the news of his arrest, imprisonment, and death.[42]
Nick Carter, when asked if the claim was true, suggested that bitterness might be a motivating factor for the claim.[43]
In an interview conducted by the Orlando Sentinel, former NSYNC member Lance Bass, when asked about the claim, stated that Pearlman had never behaved inappropriately with them.[44]
Death[edit]
In 2008, Pearlman began his prison sentence with a projected release date of March 24, 2029. However, he suffered a stroke in 2010 while incarcerated.[36] He was diagnosed with an infection of a heart valve. Pearlman had surgery to replace a heart valve a few weeks before his death. The prison took him to a hospital where he was scheduled for another surgery.
Pearlman ultimately died while still in custody at the Federal Correctional Institution in Miami, Florida, on August 19, 2016, from cardiac arrest. He was buried ten days later on August 29, 2016, in the family burial area. He was 62 years old.[45]
Documentaries[edit]
Pearlman was featured in the third season of American Greed in the episode called "Boy Band Mogul" in 2009.[46]
The documentary The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story, produced by Lance Bass; member of Pearlman's boy band NSYNC, premiered at SXSW on March 13, 2019. It was released on YouTube Premium in April 2019.[47][48]
On December 13, 2019, Pearlman was the subject of an episode of ABC's 20/20 titled "The Hitman: From Pop to Prison".[49][50]