‘Dirty Pop’: What happened to disgraced boy band impresario Lou Pearlman?

Teens and tweens with Backstreet Boys and N’Sync posters on their walls in the 1990s didn’t realize what lay behind the success of their favorite bands: Manager Lou Pearlman, whose Midas touch in the music industry was funded by what’s now considered the longest-running Ponzi scheme in U.S. history.

Pearlman, a Queens, New York native, made millions on fraudulent blimp deals before his time in show business. Through his companies, Airship Enterprises Ltd and then Airship International, Pearlman leased blimps that didn’t exist yet, and then crashed once they were built, resulting in lawsuits. He faked partnerships with major aviation companies to raise funds, and artificially inflated the stock value of his companies with little revenue to show for it. All combined, Pearlman’s blimp enterprises never got off the ground or delivered on contractual obligations.

Enter the music business

Cut to the mid-1990s, and Pearlman has parlayed his interest in the bestselling boy band New Kids on the Block into a new venture: the music industry. With the millions he made on the blimp scams, Pearlman founded Trans Continental Records, and through a talent search, built Backstreet Boys, who went on to make millions, and then N’Sync, who proved just as lucrative. Pearlman added other acts to his empire, and for a time, seemed untouchable. But before long, Pearlman’s fraudulent history and unfair business practices caught up with him, and Pearlman’s artists, including Backstreet Boys and Aaron Carter, started suing him.

Nonetheless, by 2002, Pearlman was still in the game, acquiring Options Talent Group, a company knee-deep in still further scams and dirty dealings. In 2006, the truth was finally revealed: Dating to his time with Airship Enterprises, Pearlman’s success was just one long Ponzi scheme, defrauding $1 billion from investors, paying artists very little while creating fake companies, and fabricating official documentation to cover his tracks. By 2007, Pearlman was arrested after fleeing from the authorities and charged with conspiracy, money laundering, and filing false bankruptcy. The next year, Pearlman was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

How did Lou Pearlman die?

Pearlman had a stroke while behind bars in 2010, and then had heart valve surgery in prison. In 2016, Pearlman had a heart attack and died at the age of 62. N’Sync’s Lance Bass wrote on X (then Twitter) that year, “Word is that #LouPearlman has passed away. He might not have been a stand up businessman , but I wouldn’t be doing what I love today wout his influence. RIP Lou [sic].”

Justin Timberlake added in a Tweet, “I hope he found some peace. God bless and RIP, Lou Pearlman.” And finally, “My feelings on Lou Pearlman create quite a duality,” Erik-Michael Estrada, from O-Town, a band Pearlman managed, said in Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam, streaming on Netflix. “How do I feel this way about this one individual that really took a lot from a lot of people, but also gave so much to millions all over the world, still to this day?” Estrada said.