Lou Pearlman sentanced today

25 years in federal prison
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Lou Pearlman, the man made famous for creating the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in federal prison for engineering a decades-long scam that bilked thousands of investors out of their life savings.

It was the maximum penalty he could have received for the $300 million the music mogul allegedly swindled out of banks and individual investors since the early 1980s. Pearlman pleaded guilty in March to two counts of conspiracy and single counts of money laundering and presenting a false claim in bankruptcy court.

Senior U.S. District Judge G. Kendall Sharp noted that many victims were Pearlman's own relatives, friends and retirees in their 70s or 80s who lost everything.

"The sympathy factor just doesn't run very high with the court," Sharp said.

However, he said he would reduce Pearlman's sentence by one month for every $1 million returned to the investors. It's not clear how, or if, the investors would ever be compensated.

"I want to say clearly that there's no pot of gold out there," defense attorney Fletcher Peacock said.

The courtroom was packed with victims, some of whom gave emotional testimony of how Pearlman ruined their lives. Another two dozen or so waited outside the courtroom.

Waneta Reynolds, of St. Petersburg Beach, limped to the lectern and erupted in tears. She said her husband Roger invested millions in Pearlman's Transcontinental companies' "savings accounts." Pearlman promised they were insured, in some cases three times over. They weren't insured, or even invested, prosecutors say.

"(My husband) said, 'I lost all my self confidence,"' Reynolds said, after they learned of they had been scammed. "Roger died seven months later feeling he failed to provide for me. My nerves are gone. My husband's dead and I'm alone."

Others spoke of taking second jobs, working 14-hour days to pay their bills while coping with deep clinical depression.

Pearlman was most famous for creating "boy bands" that sold millions of records. But prosecutors allege he scammed individuals out of an estimated $200 million, and banks out of another $100 million. Prosecutors are still trying to determine more accurate figures for a later restitution hearing.

Pearlman apologized in a short courtroom statement.

"Over the past nine months since my arrest, I've come to realize the harm that's been done," he said. "I'm truly sorry and I apologize for what's happened."

Peacock said Pearlman sincerely meant to pay back all the investors, and noted that he did return approximately $103 million over the length of the scam. He said Pearlman got caught up in lawsuits -- also alleged fraudulent business practices -- over his otherwise successful entertainment ventures in the 1990s that prevented him from returning the money.


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And how many rappers claim there cash is long and they can beat they charges, Yeah alright hahahaha they locking these rich white men up left and right and I bet this was a white face jury. Thats how the cookie crumbles