Lou Pearlman, The Disgraced Manager Behind the Backstreet Boys and ‘NSYNC, Dead at 62

Anyone who knows the backstory of both the Backstreet Boys and ‘NSYNC knows that their Svengali-esque manager, Lou Pearlman, was not a good guy. While serving out a 25-year prison sentence, he died Friday night at the age of 62. From Billboard:

Lou Pearlman, the disgraced impresario behind the Backstreet Boys and ‘NSYNC who was serving out a 25-year prison term after being convicted of running a half-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme in 2008, died Friday night, multiple sources confirm to Billboard. He was 62.

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On the back of those boy bands’ success, Pearlman turned his Trans Continental businesses into a sprawling empire in the 1990s. But it was all built on fraud, and he was ultimately sued by every act he represented except one.

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But both before and after his fall, rumors were rampant about Pearlman’s relationships with some of the male groups on his roster. “We would hear things, for sure,” ‘NSYNC’s Lance Bass told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014. “He would always have young boy limo drivers for Trans Continental Records. Those limo drivers would always be put into different boy bands. Then I’d hear rumors that he would molest the boys before they would even get into the groups. I don’t know how much of that is true, but to me, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” Pearlman denied any inappropriate relations.

Read the whole story here.