Thanks for voting on the con artist you’d like to see in the Hall of Infamy. If you missed this round, we’ll have another group for you to vote on next week.
And the crook with the most votes is…Lou Pearlman. At the same time that he launched two wildly successful boy bands, ‘NSync and the Backstreet Boys, Pearlman ran a huge 20-year Ponzi scheme. Among the investors he persuaded to fork over millions for two non-existent companies were close friends and the elderly; such details don’t go unnoticed. As the judge who sentenced Pearlman noted: “…The sympathy factor doesn’t run high with the court.”
So Pearlman is serving a 25-year prison sentence. According to several articles published in March 2009, he’s keeping busy behind bars and looking to promote a new band called Biteboy. Last year, he was working on a deal for a reality television show about Biteboy’s attempts to hit the big-time. “It’s part Charlie’s Angels, part Making the Band,” the band’s manager told Portfolio magazine. If this show pans out, Pearlman might even play a minor role in the show — or at least his voice on speakerphone would play a role. The tentative name for the show: “Jailhouse Rock.”
If it sounds like I’m making this up (and I know it does), check out this article in Portfolio magazine. Apparently, there are ways for convicted felons to work outside the confines of prison. And, apparently, some people still want to work with Lou Pearlman.
Crazy, I know. But, then again, as the Portfolio article points out, maybe Pearlman is just the guy to pull this off:
“Before he filed for bankruptcy in early 2007, Pearlman had parlayed a cash-strapped helicopter service into a blimp company, crashed his first blimp minutes after its launch, then used the insurance money to take a second blimp company public. At the same time, he lured investors by selling shares of 727s and 747s in his charter airline fleet—jets he never owned.”
We’ll learn more about this character soon – look for him when we roll out our 2010 inductees this summer.
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR:
Thanks for your comment, Rick. Do you know anything about the status of the reality show?
Please don’t quote Portfolio Magazine. Portfolio Magazine is out of business. One good reason for its demise was a total lack of journalistic standards. The Biteboy article is almost 100% lies. The part that says that no record company was interested in Biteboy was printed without any research, not even a question in the interview. In fact, Biteboy has entertained a number of record deals and will be announcing one soon, not to mention the fact that Bunim/Murray, producer of the reality show on which the article was based, has its own record label.