http://www.tmz.com/2008/0...e-slammer/

Boy band man Lou Pearlman -- the guy who made the Backstreet Boys and 'NSYNC famous -- just got 25 years in the big house for money laundering and conspiracy, among other shady s**t.

Big Lou pleaded guilty back in March to a long, complicated con game that basically pumped up his net worth and cheated other people out of millions. The judge gave him the maximum sentence.

Bye, bye, bye.

Story developing ...

Well now inmates are gonna do to him what he did to Lance, Justin, AJ and 'em.

He needs to be taught a lesson. Nice to see a "white collar" crook get a maximum penalty for a change.

Cinnie said:

Jailhouse five!

Timmy84 said:

Yoou know, with all that money....he could have done something with that hideous balloon chin!

I always thought he was a crook. The artists were crying that all day.

bboy87 said:

I sort of saw this coming a long time ago.

toots said:

I didn't think he would get caught, or if he did, I figured he would be let off easy.

He fucked over so many boybands, contractually, and in the bed.

Cinnie said:

I know he did! I remember the fiasco about NSYNC wanting out of their contract and how they came up with the title of their CD "No Strings Attached"(that is how they came up with the title) he just did those bands wrong no matter how you put it,it was just well....
[Edited 5/21/08 13:05pm]

Cinnie said:

That's the sad fucking truth. There was a hell of a lot more than shady money dealings going on with those boybands.

I remember when Backstreet Boys first tried to split with Pearlman, they'd rightly talk openly and loudly to anyone who'd listen about the financial aspects of the matter. At one point, Pearlman was making millions a year in profit off their efforts, with the Boys splitting only $100,000 between the 5 of them in a year. But when pressed for details, they'd all mumble quietly about personal issues and how their suing Pearlman wasn't really, actually about the money...and trail off to change the subject.

There've been a lot of comments and hints over the years -most recently in Vanity Fair -from people associated with the groups and with Pearlman, and even from parents and members or ex-members of the boybands that something was fishy about the whole deal. No one so far's said anything explicit or damning, but there's been enough over the years and from seperate people to leave no doubt the man's a predator.

I've been following Backstreet Boys since I was 12 -that's 11 years now -and paid attention to boyband dynamics and politics and business dealings on a wider scale almost as long. Truth be told, they're what got me interested in music in the first place, in a roundabout way. But even as a youngin', it didn't take me long to notice something was...weird...about the way boybands functioned compared to other musical acts. At the time, I couldn't put my finger on it, but I knew. An 18 year does not wear a bowl cut and bib overalls and talk babytalk because he wants to.

Timmy84 said:

Nah, he's going to Club Fed for like two years maybe.

It won't be a vacation, but he won't be fighting anyone in there. He'll probably snitch on someone he conned with outside to get his sentence reduced and then his people will use every trick that exists to get him out.

Dance said:

Dance said:

He was sentenced with 25 years, so...

Unfortunately, I don't think he'll serve the full sentence. The guy's got some excellent lawyers. How else could he, after having his ass hauled to court by the boybands, still retain the right to make profit off some of them? *N SYNC managed to break free completely, but even after the initial lawsuit he was still entitled to a portion of Backstreet Boys' earnings. Worse still, some of the "lesser" boybands that weren't as successful never managed to break ties with him in any way.

.
[Edited 5/24/08 20:29pm]

BUMP This thread deserves more attention.

Not too focus too much on those delightful non-monetary accusations, but I do have to wonder why many people treat the suggestion with humour when it comes to these big boybands, considering many of the members started out when they were 12-13 years old, and were underaged for the majority of the time they dealt with Pearlman. I guess child abuse is funny if it's a performer you don't like.

carlcranshaw said:

meow85 said:

Oh no, he committed a unfunny crime but it's funny that now it seems he's gonna be getting it back at HIM now.

Timmy84 said:

Maybe. But a lot of the response I've seen to this has, across the board, been mean-spirited. Gay jokes aplenty, and most of them not directed at Pearlman but the boys themselves. They liked it, they asked for, ha ha they really are fags, etc.

meow85 said:

Maybe those jokes are a result of people thinking that those dudes were 15 and 16 years old when whatever happened went down and gladly did things because they knew it was the difference between being paid/famous and not.

Why is it that we want the perv's head on a stick(and we should), but people have little to say about the parents that serve their kids to them?

This problem is bigger than I think a lot of people realize and much of what happens wouldn't be possible if there weren't money hungry parents willing to throw their kid at anyone and look the other way.
[Edited 5/24/08 21:53pm]

Dance said:

Yeah the parents are as guilty or even more guilty than the pervert or AS guilty. Better check your boy before agreeing to let your child walk off with someone who may intentionally abuse them just because you want your child to make some bread.

meow85 said:

i read that the judge said his 300 month sentence can be wiped clean if he paid a million dollars for each month: so if he pays the 300 million, he serves no time.

it seems to be true that he had sex with many members of the boy bands. I think Nick Carter was one of these.
I mean, if Pearlman really is a pedophile I don't knwo why nobody sues him? I mean, THIS would REALLY bring him 25 years in jail!
Pearlman is such an ugly man and I think it's absolutely sick to imagien him loving 13, 14 year old boys. It's pervert. Again, one shoudl sue him!

GREED!!

The guy made $300 Million off NSync while their cut was $950,000 each.

If that isn't enough which is like robbery - then sit in jail you creepy perv!

Dance said:

Even if they were 15 or 16 years old, they'd still have been underaged. And besides that, even if the whole thing were entirely consensual, wouldn't Pearlman's approaching the boys be a violation of a client/manager relationship? I know it happens all the time in the music business, but it seems to me that's not actually legal.

You're right about the parents. Reportedly a lot of the parents knew what was going on, yet either never said anything or just let their kids go on working with Pearlman. How anyone could sell out their own child like that is beyond me.

The situation was definitely worse with certain parents than with others. It's been no secret among the fans even from the beginning who had a stage mommy and who didn't.

Timmy84 said:

That reminds me, anyone seen that show I KNOW My Kid's a Star! ?
[Edited 5/25/08 11:51am]

missmad said:

Seriously?



He's got that much money. "Bankrupt" for Louis J. Pearlman is still richer than a small country.

graecophilos said:

Shame. No one would speak about it before when the money matters first blew up around 1998, and no one's been willing to speak about it since. It's an open secret. I don't know about other boybands, but I've got a pretty good idea who in BSB might've been directly affected. Lou would never take all members of a boyband -generally just the youngest. 5 guesses, and 3 don't count.

A lot of sexual assault or molestation cases never make it to court because the victims are unwilling to show themselves publicly or to testify. These boys are already public figures. Their spotlight might have dimmed since, but they're all still known enough the shit could hit the fan if any of them went public.