Boy Band Impresario Indicted

06/28/2007 1:42 PM, E! Online


We've a pretty good feeling Lou Pearlman doesn't want it that way.

The Orlando-based mastermind behind the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury on charges of bilking a bank out of more than $20 million.

Pearlman was indicted on three counts of bank fraud, and one count each of mail and wire fraud for allegedly cheating the Evansville, Indiana-based Integra Bank N.A.

An attorney for Pearlman could not immediately be reached for comment.

The 53-year-old former music mogul had been on the lam for the past five months after he disappeared while escorting his latest boy band creation, US5, on a tour of Europe.

Feds chased him through Israel, Russia, Panama and Brazil before finally collaring him in Bali, Indonesia, where he was arrested on one count of bank fraud.

He was transferred to Guam where he made his initial appearance before a U.S. magistrate before being shipped back to Los Angeles, where he's currently being held. A rep for the U.S. Marshals office said Pearlman will be sent to Florida in the next two weeks to face the bank fraud charges.

Pearlman is the subject of other federal and state criminal investigations, as well as several civil suits that accuse him of swindling numerous banks out of $130 million and more than double that—$317 million—from 1,800 investors via a Ponzi scheme in which he obtained millions in fraudulent loans by writing documents from a bogus accounting firm.

The victims allege Pearlman persuaded them to contribute funds to a high-interest employee savings account only to later learn that Pearlman and his various corporate entities pocketed the money. The FBI and the IRS launched their probes after raiding Pearlman's downtown Orlando offices earlier this year.

The plaintiffs obtained a bankruptcy court ruling that ordered all of Pearlman's assets, including a warehouse full of prized music memorabilia, be auctioned to pay off his creditors.

Among the items gone bye bye bye were Backstreet and 'N Sync gold and platinum records, a key to the city of Orlando, high-end furniture, two Waverunners, trucks, vans and computers.