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
2007 arrest mugshot
Born
Louis Jay Pearlman

(1954-06-19)June 19, 1954
Queens, New York, U.S.
DiedAugust 19, 2016(2016-08-19) (aged 62)
FCI Miami, Miami, Florida, U.S.
Resting placeNew Montefiore Cemetery
Other names
  • Big Poppa[1]
  • Incognito Johnson[2]
Alma materQueens College
Criminal charges
Criminal penalty25 years in prison
Musical career
GenresDance-pop
Occupation(s)Record producer, manager
Years active1993–2006

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 a 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

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

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.

Entertainment industry career

Pearlman became fascinated with the success of the New Kids on the Block, who had made hundreds of millions of dollars in record, tour and merchandise sales. He started Trans Continental Records with the intent of mimicking their boy band business model. The record label's first band, the Backstreet Boys, consisted of five unknown performers selected by Pearlman in a $3 million talent search.[10]

Management duties were assigned to a former New Kids on the Block manager, Johnny Wright, and his wife Donna.[11] The Backstreet Boys became the best-selling boy band of all time, with record sales of 130 million,[12] hitting gold, platinum, and diamond in 45 countries. Pearlman and the Wrights were then introduced to NSYNC, which was formed by Chris Kirkpatrick. Pearlman and the Wrights funded and managed NSYNC in a very similar fashion, selling over 70 million records globally.

With these two major successes under his belt, Pearlman had become a music mogul. Other boy bands managed by Pearlman were O-Town (created during the ABC–MTV reality television series Making the Band), LFO, Take 5, Natural, Marshall Dyllon (co-created with country music artist Kenny Rogers)[13] and US5, as well as the girl groups Solid HarmoniE and Innosense (with Britney Spears in the very beginning as a short-term member), co-managed with Lynn Harless (the mother of NSYNC band member Justin Timberlake). Other artists on the Trans Continental label included Aaron Carter, Jordan Knight, Smilez & Southstar and C-Note.

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.[9]

In 2002, Pearlman and Wes Smith co-wrote Bands, Brands and Billions: My Top 10 Rules for Making Any Business Go Platinum.[14]

Band lawsuits

With the exceptions of US5 and Marshall Dyllon, all of the musical acts that worked with Pearlman sued him in federal court for misrepresentation and fraud. All cases against Pearlman either have been won by those who have brought lawsuits against him or have been settled out of court.

The members of Backstreet Boys were the first to file a lawsuit against Pearlman, feeling that their contract—under 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 income). The band's dissatisfaction began when member Brian Littrell hired a lawyer to determine why the group had received only $300,000 for all of their work while Pearlman and his record label had made millions. Fellow boy band NSYNC was having similar issues with Pearlman, and its members soon followed suit.[7]

At the age of 14, Aaron Carter filed a lawsuit in 2002 that accused Pearlman and Trans Continental of cheating him out of hundreds of thousands of dollars and of racketeering in a deliberate pattern of criminal activity. This suit was later settled out of court.[15]

Talent scouting scam scandal

In September 2002, Pearlman purchased Mark Tolner's internet-based talent company, Options Talent Group (formerly Emodel and Studio 58), which would subsequently go through several names, including 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 the business model used by Emodel founder Ayman "Alec" Difrawi, himself a convicted con artist,[16] who played a principal role in running Options/TCT/WSN[17] and setting up Fashion Rock. The companies received unfavorable press attention, ranging from questions about their business practices to outright declarations that they were scams.[18] After Hotjobs and Monster.com pulled over a thousand of the company's job ads from their boards,[19] they were further advertised on the Difrawi-founded[20] "Industry Magazine" website.

The Better Business Bureau's opinion about Options/TCT/WSN was negative, citing a "pattern of complaints concerning misrepresentation in selling practices".[21] The New York State Consumer Protection Board issued an alert, naming it the largest example they had found of a photo mill scam.[22] San Francisco's labor commissioner declared Options/TCT/WSN in violation of California law, and several state agencies were reported to be investigating the company.[23] In Florida, around 2,000 complaints were filed with the then-Attorney General Charlie Crist and the BBB, and an investigation was started by Assistant Attorney General Dowd. However, as the newly appointed Assistant AG MacGregor was unable to find "any substantial violations", no charges were filed. Further complicating matters was the fact that the company had since declared bankruptcy, "leaving no deep pockets from which to collect damages."[24]

By June 2004, Fashion Rock, LLC had filed a civil suit for defamation against some who had criticized Pearlman's talent businesses. The case was dismissed and closed in 2006.[25] One of the accused, a Canadian consumer-fraud expert Les Henderson, successfully pursued a libel lawsuit against Pearlman, Tolner, El-Difrawi and several others.[26]

Fashion Rock, LLC lived on until February 2, 2007,[27] when its assets were sold in Pearlman's bankruptcy proceeding.[28] Difrawi continued filing lawsuits that were all dismissed and was most recently running Expand, Inc. dba Softrock.org aka Employer Network, from the same address as former TCT.

Ponzi scheme

In 2006, investigators discovered Pearlman had perpetrated the longest-running Ponzi scheme in American history and had defrauded investors out of more than $1 billion, out of which $300 million is still missing. For more than 20 years, Pearlman had enticed individuals and banks to invest in Trans Continental Airlines Inc., TransCon Records, and both companies' parent, Trans Continental International Inc. All three companies were fictions that existed only on paper—at least until Lou Pearlman's boy bands took off and TransCon Records was profiting from signed acts. After the success of NSYNC and Backstreet Boys, he turned the groups and their fame into the engine to further expand his Ponzi scheme.[29] Pearlman used falsified Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, AIG and Lloyd's of London documents to win investors' confidence in his program titled Employee Investment Savings Account, and he used fake financial statements created by the fictitious accounting firm Cohen and Siegel to secure bank loans.[7]

Investigation and arrest

In February 2007, Florida regulators announced that Pearlman's Trans Continental Savings Program was indeed a massive fraud, and the state took possession of the company.[30] Most of the at least $95 million which had been collected from investors was gone. Orange County Circuit Judge Renee Roche ordered Pearlman and two of his associates, Robert Fischetti and Michael Crudelle, to bring back to the United States "any assets taken abroad which were derived from illegal transactions."[31]

Following a flight from officials, over the course of which he reportedly had been seen in Israel and Germany, Pearlman was arrested in Indonesia on June 14, 2007, after being spotted by a tourist couple from Germany.[32] He was living in a tourist hotel in Nusa Dua in Bali. Pearlman had been seen in Orlando in late January 2007, in early February in Germany, including an appearance on German television on February 1. Reportedly he was seen in Russia, Belarus, Israel, Spain, Panama, and Brazil. In early February, an attorney in Florida received a letter from Pearlman sent from Bali.[33] Pearlman was then indicted by a federal grand jury on June 27, 2007.[34] Specifically, he was charged with conspiracy, money laundering, and filing false bankruptcy.[35]

Conviction and sentencing

Five days before his sentencing in May 2008, Pearlman requested a telephone and an Internet connection two days a week to continue to promote bands. Federal judge G. Kendall Sharp of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida rejected the request.[36]

On May 21, 2008, Sharp sentenced Pearlman to 25 years in prison on charges of conspiracy, money laundering, and making false statements during a bankruptcy proceeding. Pearlman could reduce his prison time by one month for every million dollars he helped a bankruptcy trustee recover. He also ordered individual investors to be paid before institutions in distributing any eventual assets.[37]

Bankruptcy

Pearlman and his companies were forced into involuntary bankruptcy in March 2007.[38] Trustees and lenders intended to auction off Pearlman's assets and personal belongings, including a mansion full of well-known works of art and priceless memorabilia. They quickly discovered the art and memorabilia was mostly fake. What could be sold was auctioned through eBay and a traditional bankruptcy auction house.[39]

Church Street Station, a historic train station in downtown Orlando which Pearlman had purchased in 2002, was sold at a bankruptcy auction in April 2007 for $34 million.[38] Several of Pearlman's belongings, including his college degrees, were purchased by The A.V. Club journalist and film critic Nathan Rabin during the eBay auction.[40]

Cronin claim

In a 2009 interview with Howard Stern, Rich Cronin, the former lead singer of the LFO band, said that he had only received a fraction of the money owed to him from record sales. Cronin 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, 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

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

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; former 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]

See also

References
  1. Roche, Timothy; Handy, Bruce (February 1, 1999). "Big Poppa's Bubble Gum Machine". Time. Archived from the original on October 14, 2007. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
  2. Handy, Bruce (June 18, 2007). "Lou Pearlman Appears at Hearing in Guam". USA Today. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
  3. (March 4, 2008). "Boy Band Founder to Plead Guilty in $300M Suit" Archived February 3, 2020, at the Wayback Machine. Associated Press (via Today). Retrieved April 9, 2009.
  4. Liston, Barbara (May 21, 2008). "Boy Band Mogul Pearlman Sentenced to 25 Years". Reuters. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
    - Huntley, Helen. "Special Report: Unraveling a Transcontinental Fraud". Tampa Bay Times. Archived from the original on June 8, 2009. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
    - Staff (December 20, 2008). "More Coverage of the Lou Pearlman Saga". Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on December 23, 2008. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
  5. Stack, Liam (August 22, 2016). "Lou Pearlman, Svengali Behind Backstreet Boys and 'NSync, Dies at 62". The New York Times. Retrieved November 13, 2022. (subscription required)
  6. Huntley, Helen (October 21, 2007). "In Humble Queens, Lou Pearlman Was King". St. Petersburg Times.
  7. Burrough, Bryan (October 3, 2007). "Mad About the Boys". Vanity Fair. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
  8. Henderson 2006, p. 174.
  9. Staff (April 1, 2007). "A World Out of Sync". Orlando Sentinel. Archived October 5, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  10. Gray, Tyler (October 7, 2007). "The Fat Man Sings". Radar. p. 91. {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  11. "The Starmaker". St. Petersburg Times.
  12. Garcia, Cathy Rose A. (February 22, 2010). "Backstreet Boys Share Secrets to Success". The Korea Times. Retrieved November 7, 2022.
  13. DiLonardo, Mary Jo (December 22, 2000). "Country Music Goes Backstreet with Marshall Dyllon". CNN. Archived from the original on December 17, 2005. Retrieved December 26, 2007.
  14. "A World Out of Sync". Orlando Sentinel.
  15. Brink, Graham (June 24, 2002). "Lawsuit: Pop Star's Manager a Racketeer". St. Petersburg Times. Archived February 19, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  16. "SEC Info Trans Continental Entertainment Group Inc – 8-K For 10/7/02". "The SEC about the nature of the business relations between Trans Continental and Ayman "Alec" Difrawi, Ralph Edward Bell, Cortes Wesley Randell and Jason Hoffman, the felony records of Difrawi and Randell, and the FTC sanctions against Bell and Hoffman."
  17. Barker, Tim (October 5, 2003). "Scouting Network's History Troubles Pearlman". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved October 20, 2010.
  18. Olson, Wyatt (September 6, 2001). "Hustling for Models". New Times Broward-Palm Beach. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
    - Kimberlin, Joanne (January 28, 2002). "Cashing In on Dreams of Glamour". The Virginian-Pilot. Archived from the original on February 4, 2002.
    - Staff (February 12, 2002). "Is eModel Golden Opportunity or Big Business?". KSAT-TV. Archived from the original on July 20, 2011.
    - Travis, Randy (May 13, 2002). "Options Talent Group: An I-Team Investigation". WAGA-TV. Archived from the original on November 7, 2005. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
    - Thompson, Connie (August 13, 2002). "Buyer Beware: Ever Thought About Being a Model?". KOMO-TV. Archived from the original on December 13, 2006. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
    - Staff (November 14, 2002). "Trans Continental Talent". WAGA-TV. Archived from the original on October 29, 2005. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
    - Staff (November 15, 2002). "Hidden Cameras Expose Talent Agency Scam". WDIV-TV. Archived from the original on May 12, 2006.
    - "I Am Not a Model". Jane. March 2003.
  19. Braiker, Brian (July 18, 2003). "Model Misbehavior". Newsweek. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
  20. National Arbitration Forum Decision – Industry Publications LLC v. Industry magazine
  21. Database (undated). [http://www.bbb.org/central-florida/business-reviews/advertising-agencies-and-counselors/web-style-network-in-orlando-fl-38000155 "BBB Reliability Report for Web Style Network"]. Better Business Bureau, Orlando. Archived November 23, 2010, at the Wayback Machine report on Web Style Network a/k/a Options Talent, TC Talent, Trans Continental Talent, Wilhelmina Scouting Network, Wilhelmina Scouts, WSN. Quote: "Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the BBB due to a pattern of complaints concerning misrepresentation in selling practices".
  22. "Model Agency Labeled a Scam" Page Six, New York Post. October 20, 2003.
  23. (February 18, 2003). "Modeling Agency – Big Fees, Small Return". KRON.
  24. Staff (July 21, 2004). "State Ends Probe into Pearlman's Former Model-Scouting Company". Associated Press (via WPLG). Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved September 27, 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
    - "Options Talent, Inc., etc" (PDF). Office of the Attorney General, Florida. November 5, 2004. Archived from the original on February 25, 2007. Retrieved February 25, 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  25. Billman, Jeffrey C. (July 29, 2004). "Pearlman's Jihad". Orlando Weekly. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
    - Clerk Circuit Court Orange County Florida Archived July 10, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, search case number 2004-CA-004844-O
  26. CanLII Archived January 9, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Court File No. C-8937-05, Henderson v. Pearlman, Tolner, Difrawi a.o., 2006 Ontario Superior Court of Justice
    - Court File No. C-8937-05 – Henderson v. Pearlman a.o., a case in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice Archived February 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  27. Powers, Scott; Clarke, Sara K. (March 24, 2007). "Pearlman's Talent-Scout Company Sold". Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on March 15, 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
    - (February 9, 2007)."State Shuts Down Fashion Rock". St. Petersburg Times Blog: Money Talk. Archived February 7, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  28. Powers, Scott; Clarke, Sarah K. (March 24, 2007). "Pearlman's Talent-Scout Company Sold". Orlando Sentinel. Archived 2007-10-14 at the Wayback Machine
    - . Better Business Bureau of Central Florida, Inc. http://www.orlando.bbb.org/codbrep.html?ID=38000274. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  29. USDOJ press release March 4, 2008. Archived September 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Lou Pearlman Signs Plea Agreement That Includes Additional Charges That He Defrauded Investors.
  30. Staff (February 2, 2007). "State Takes Over Lou Pearlman's Embattled Orlando Company". WFTV. Archived from the original on February 5, 2007.
  31. Huntley, Helen (February 2, 2007). "State: Trans Continental Savings Program a Fraud". Tampa Bay Times. Archived from the original on March 2, 2008. Retrieved June 29, 2012.
  32. Staff (May 19, 2009). "Lou Pearlman Taken into Custody in Indonesia". Central Florida News 13. Archived January 1, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  33. Gutierrez, Pedro Ruz; Powers, Scott; and Clarke, Sara K. (June 14, 2007). "Boy-Band Mogul Expelled from Indonesia, in FBI Custody". Orlando Sentinel (via the Columbus Telegram). (subscription required).
  34. "Pearlman Indicted on Fraud Charges". WTSP.
  35. "Lou Pearlman".
  36. Abramovitch, Seth (January 22, 2014). "Boy Band Mogul Lou Pearlman's Prison Interview: My Ponzi Scheme Was Smarter Than Madoff's". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 12, 2022.
  37. "Boy Band Founder to Plead Guilty in $300M Suit". Today. March 5, 2008. Archived from the original on February 3, 2020. Retrieved November 17, 2019.
    - Liston, Barbara (May 21, 2008). "Boy Band Mogul Pearlman Sentenced to 25 Years". Reuters. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
  38. Huntley, Helen (May 21, 2008). "Lou Pearlman Gets 25 Years in Scam, Time Off for Loot". Tampa Bay Times. Archived from the original on August 29, 2017. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  39. Noah (February 29, 2008). "If You Want a Piece of Lou Pearlman, You Can Find One on EBay". Idolator. Retrieved November 12, 2022.
    - Reed, Travis (June 12, 2007). "Boy-Band Loot Sold at Bankruptcy Auction". Associated Press (via The Washington Post). November 12, 2022.
  40. Rabin, Nathan (July 31, 2009). "Lou Pearlman 20th Century Republican Leader Certificate". The A.V. Club. Retrieved November 12, 2022.
  41. Staff (January 21, 2009). "Rich Cronin of LFO Visits". The Howard Stern Show. Retrieved November 12, 2022.
  42. C., Jeff (July 19, 2007). "Brad Fischetti Comments on Former Manager Lou Pearlman's Arrest". popdirt.com. Retrieved November 12, 2022. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
    - Fischetti, Brad (August 20, 2016). "God Rest Your Soul Lou Pearlman". Twitter. Retrieved November 12, 2022.
  43. "Backstreet Boys Open Up to John Norris About Disgraced Boy-Band Mogul Lou Pearlman: 'Karma's Karma'". MTV. October 2007.
  44. Abott, Jim (October 2007). "Lance Bass Book Comes Out". Orlando Sentinel.
  45. "Inmate Locator". Federal Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved August 20, 2016.
    - Stack, Liam (August 22, 2016). "Lou Pearlman, Svengali Behind Backstreet Boys and 'NSync, Dies at 62". The New York Times. Retrieved November 13, 2022. (subscription required)
  46. Staff (January 5, 2009). "American Greed: Boy Band Mogul: Fame and Fraud". CNBC. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  47. Andreeva, Nellie (April 24, 2018). "YouTube Orders Lou Pearlman Documentary About Disgraced Music Producer from Lance Bass & Craig Piligian". Deadline. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  48. Brooker, Heather (April 2, 2019). "Lance Bass Brings 'The Boy Band Con' to YouTube and Select Theaters". KNBC. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  49. Boedeker, Hal (December 10, 2019). "Lou Pearlman '20/20' Features Lance Bass, Chris Kirkpatrick". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
  50. Kilmer, Chris; Rivas, Anthony; Stohler, Elissa (December 13, 2019). "Singer Sean van der Wilt Felt 'Uncomfortable' by What He Says Were Disgraced Music Mogul Lou Pearlman's 'Many Advances'". ABC News. Retrieved November 6, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Further reading
  • Gray, Tyler (2008). The Hit Charade: Lou Pearlman, Boy Bands, and the Biggest Ponzi Scheme in U.S. History. Harper Collins. p. 320. ISBN 978-0-06-157966-0.
  • Henderson, Wes (2006). Under Investigation: The Inside Story of the Florida Attorney General's Investigation of Wilhelmina Scouting Network, the Largest Model and Talent Scam in America. Coyote Ridge Publishing. p. 511. ISBN 978-0-9687133-3-4. Cited as Henderson 2006.
  • Pearlman, Lou; Smith, Wes (2002). Bands, Brands and Billions: My Top 10 Rules for Making Any Business Go Platinum. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0-07-138565-7. Cited as Pearlman 2002.
  • Lou Pearlman case
  • Interview, HitQuarters Jul 2005
  • The CNBC program American Greed, narrated by Stacy Keach Jr., describes, in episode #18 titled "Lou Pearlman: Boy Band Bandit", the massive fraud and Ponzi scheme, victim outrage at the federal offer to reduce Pearlman's sentence, and his proposed "Jailhouse Rock" (gag) reality series, and it also discusses the issue of sex with underage boys. Bryan Burrough, interviewed for the episode, noted of this last that he had not expected to hear about sexual improprieties, and ascribed the lack of willingness to come forward about them to Pearlman's repeated usage of the tactic of veiled threats to intimidate those who would have otherwise done so.
  • Lou Pearlman at IMDb
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