Infamous Former Manager of Backstreet Boys And *NSYNC, Lou Pearlman Dies In Prison

Earlier today multiple sources connected to the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC and O-Town have confirmed to Clizbeats what is now being reported by Billboard.com and the Hollywood Reporter. The infamous manager/creator of the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, and creator of the ABC/MTV reality show, Making The Band and its group O-Town is dead. These multiple sources have confirmed that Pearlman passed away while in prison at the age of 62 years old on Friday, August 19, 2016.

Pearlman was serving a jail sentence for masterminding a half-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme. He had a projected release date of March 24, 2029. However, he died while in custody. In early 2007 Pearlman’s company, Trans Continental was under investigation, and later determined to be a massive fraud. Pearlman was eventually arrested in Indonesia after being tracked down by authorities in June of 2007. He began serving his jail sentence in 2009.

The arrest for the ponzi scheme came after a wide variety of highly publicized legal battles between Pearlman and the various boy bands he helped create. These legal issues were well documented in various forms of media over the years . The Backstreet Boys were the first to be able to successfully part ways with Pearlman, and continue to record exclusively for Jive Records under new management. The struggle between BSB and Pearlman was well documented in their 2005 episode of VH1’s Behind The Music. It was also a major topic of discussion in BSB’s acclaimed 2015 documentary Backstreet Boys: Show’ Em What Your Made Of.

Related Media 

Backstreet Boys’ 2015 Interview About Lou Pearlman (Some Explicit Language)

The Seven Sees 

Lou began to become more of an issue for O-Town after the five members were chosen. In season 2 of the Making The Band the group was seen having multiple conflicts with Lou and his company, Trans Continental. They eventually distanced themselves from him as much as possible as their new managers Mike Morin and Mike Cronin stepped in to take care of the band’s affairs independently from Trans Continental. J. Records founder, Clive Davis also took on a hands on role with O-Town that season and for the remainder of the group’s platinum selling success with his label. As if that wasn’t enough Mike Cronin’s brother, Rich Cronin, who was the front man and songwriter for another one of Pearlman’s bands, LFO, went into detail about his issues with Pearlman in an extensive 2009 interview with Howard Stern.

Upon learning about Pearlman’s passing *NSYNC’s Lance Bass released the following statement via his Twitter this evening.

Word is that #LouPearlman has passed away. He might not have been a stand up businessman , but I (cont) https://t.co/nsczUEVOOQ

— Lance Bass (@LanceBass) August 20, 2016

Our readers may remember that Lance also described *NSYNC’s turbulent relationship with Pearlman in a portion of our 2014 Clizbeats exclusive with him. We will be sure to bring you any details about Pearlman’s passing as they become available. Stay tuned for our career-spanning interview with O-Town’s, Erik-Michael Estrada coming soon to Clizbeats.com!