Boy band boss jailed for 25 years: one month less per million

May 21, 2008, 16:30 GMT

A file picture dated 03 November 2002 of Lou Pearlman (C) with the band Natural, after receiving the World Connection Award 2002 at the world awards ceremony in Vienn, Austria. The Boy band mogul Pearlman, who created the Backstreet Boys and \'N Sync, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for a US $ 300 million fraud. Pearlman swindled family, friends, investors and banks by enticing them to put money into two fake companies for 20 years. He pleaded guilty in March. As part of a plea agreement, he pledged to help prosecute his accomplices. Judge G Kendall Sharp said he would reduce the term by one month for every $1million he gave back to victims. EPA/HERBERT PFARRHOFER

San Francisco - Lou Pearlman, the music mogul behind boy bands The Backstreet Boys and N' Sync, was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in jail in Florida after pleading guilty to swindling banks, investors, family and friends out of more than 300 million dollars, newspaper reports said.

Pearlman, 53, was accused of enticing his victims to invest in fictitious companies over a two-decade period, winning the confidence of investors by faking strong financial results from a bogus accounting firm.

Pearlman tried to persuade the judge to delay his sentence, claiming that he was about to launch a new boy band that could help him repay some of the losses.

But prosecutors objected and Judge G. Kendall Sharp rejected the request, saying 'the sympathy factor doesn't run high with the court.' However, the judge did allow Pearlman one concession: For each 1 million dollars the former music mogul returns to victims, he'll take one month off the sentence.

Pearlman's scheme began falling apart in October 2006 when he ran out of money to pay back investors. He fled the US in January 2007 and was arrested in June in Indonesia travelling under the name A. Icognito Johnson, the St Petersburg Times in Florida reported.

In March he pleaded guilty to four counts of conspiracy to defraud banks and investors, money laundering and submitting a false claim in bankruptcy court.