Despite being one of the biggest boy bands on the planet, the members of NSYNC realised something was wrong when their manager handed them a cheque for $10,000 for several years work. For those unfamiliar with the history of the band, the group was managed by Lou Pearlman , a businessman who had already found great success after forming The Backstreet Boys in 1993. Pearlman, cousin of legendary singer Art Garfunkel, first made his name running businesses involving blimps and loaning out private jets in New York City in the 1970s.
But after witnessing how New Kids on the Block , and the team behind them, made hundreds of millions of dollars in record, tour and merchandise sales, Lou decide to focus on the music industry and created Trans Continental Records. From there, he started placing ads in newspapers and holding open casting calls before selecting the eventual five Backstreet Boys – Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson. WIN Two tickets to see Girls Aloud at Brighton Pride Win tickets to the UK's biggest Pride festival (Picture: Brighton Pride) We’re offering five lucky Metro readers the chance to win tickets to Fabuloso In The Park at Brighton Pride on Saturday 3 August 2024.
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Full T&C's apply It was in Europe, particularly Germany, where the band first took off, but after their debut album Backstreet Boys was released in the United States in 1997, the frenzy began. Their single Quit Playing Games (with My Heart) peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, eventually earning them a platinum award for selling over one million copies.
Fans around the world couldn’t get enough of the boy band, however behind the scenes trouble was brewing. Despite considering himself the ‘sixth Backstreet Boy’, it soon became clear that Pearlman was pocketing far more than the members of the band, as well as the earnings of another band he’d help manage – NSYNC. After being formed by Chris Kirkpatrick in 1995, and also consisting of Justin Timberlake, Joey Fatone, Lance Bass, and JC Chasez, the band was managed by Pearlman, who wanted to ensure he had control of any competition to the Backstreet Boys.
With two major music success stories under his management, Pearlman also then managed O-Town, LFO, Take 5, Natural, Marshall Dyllon and US5, as well as the girl groups Solid HarmoniE and Innosense, which Britney Spears was initially set to join. However, the rise and fall of his career is detailed in the new Netflix documentary series Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam, which charts his acts’ rise to global stardom, as well as his ‘web of lies, revealing the harsh realities of fame, power, exploitation and greed’. Several artists previously managed by Pearlman speak in the three-part series, including Backstreet Boys’ AJ and NSYNC’s Chris.
As AJ explains: ‘We all admired Lou and looked up to him...
until everything started to come out...
he messed with a lot of people’s lives.’ After the members of each band were presented with cheques that didn’t match up to their worldwide success after going platinum and selling out stadiums, they figured out ‘what was really being done behind our backs’. ‘Why are we still working our butts off for nickels and dimes and Lou is making millions.
That is when we realised, we need to do something drastic,’ Chris shares. After some ‘begged’ for their rightful earnings and were rejected, they took Pearlman to court. The Backstreet Boys sued in 1998, followed by *NSYNC in 1999.
Lance later revealed members of NSYNC they’d received only $10,000 (£7800) each for years of work, while living on $35 (£30) daily allowances. Both bands eventually reached undisclosed settlements out of court, but this was just the beginning of Pearlman’s legal woes. In 2006 investigators discovered that he’d defrauded investors out of more than $1 billion, which was revealed after he’d encouraged people to invest in a company called Trans Continental International Inc.
Using fake insurance documents to draw in investors and making fake financial statements to secure bank loans, Pearlman’s success in the music industry also spurred many to trust their life savings with the mogul, who by that point was enjoying luxuries like private jets, lavish parties and multi-million-dollar properties. In reality he was running a Ponzi scheme, using waves of debt to fuel the spending. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser that supports HTML5video Over the course of 30 years, nearly 2000 individuals and families invested with Pearlman, but when his crimes came to light, it was calculated he’d left more than $300 million (£232 million) in debts.
Fleeing the United States, Pearlman was eventually arrested after being spotted in Bali, Indonesia. In 2008 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison on charges of conspiracy, money laundering, and making false statements during a bankruptcy proceeding. Pearlman, who ran the longest-running Ponzi scheme in American history, eventually died in custody eight years later .
Nearly a decade on, many of his former acts still hold complicated feelings over Pearlman, who helped their careers soar, but also left the lives of many devastated. More Trending 90s horror movie star, 57, has barely aged a day 28 years after cult movie Peter Andre 'kicked off stage' while reliving 90s glory days TV legend 'completely gutted' to be told she is dead ‘I climbed the second-tallest skyscraper in the world - I didn't expect to hear this' ‘I think we should remember Lou as a crook who got what he deserved in the end and I think there are still people thar are still in pain and hurting because of his actions,’ Chris said. ‘But at the same time there was a crazy explosion of culture that started in Orlando, Florida with an idea.
’ Of the roughly $500 (£387) million Lou Pearlman stole, only about $10 (£7.8) million has been recovered from his accounts and assets to date. You can buy this seven-bed home for £80k — but you'll be the only person for miles around We bought our £298,000 Nottingham new-build using a little-known loophole Half the homes in this commuter hotspot just 28 minutes from London have dropped in price The price of this 'dystopian' flat shows London's rental market is truly unhinged This £275k seaside flat for sale in UK comes with free access to a spa and pool Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam is streaming from tomorrow on Netflix.
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