Lou Pearlman is best known for launching boy bands like NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys. But he is also known for spearheading one of the longest-running ponzi schemes in U.S. history.
Dirty Pop, a new documentary series produced by TIME Studios, charts Pearlman’s rise and fall over three episodes, featuring perspectives from former employees of the music mogul and boy band members he mentored.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]The series, out July 24 on Netflix, also explores why Pearlman was so into boy bands. Many people interviewed say that his interest was not nefarious. Pealrman just wanted desperately to be one of the cool kids, forever trying to outrun his past as an overweight child whose nickname was “Fat Boy” growing up.
“He was a kid in an adult body,” Michael Johnson, a member of the boyband Natural and one of Pearlman’s protegés, tells TIME.
Pearlman began his career in the aviation industry. A cousin of Art Garfunkel, he always wanted to be in the music industry and worked his way to managing dozens of boy bands. He was able to maintain his influence through a persuasive personality. Johnson calls him “the greatest showman.”
“He could make something look like it was successful when it was not, make you believe that if you didn’t get in on his next project, you are going to look like the biggest idiot on the planet,” he says.
To quote the Backstreet Boys’ hit song “Larger than Life,” that’s what Pearlman was. He lived lavishly in Orlando, Florida, and made sure the band members he managed flew on private jets while on tour. Johnson says he’d often dine with world leaders when he traveled with Pearlman. He explains that this kind of treatment was not the norm.
“Usually a label is not willing to spend five to 10 million dollars on a band that has never played a show before, but he did that—because it was not his own money,” he says. “It was basically stolen money. So he was able to put resources behind these bands that no other label would be able to do.”
Perhaps the most obvious sign of Pearlman’s influence was his ability to get Johnson’s boy band Natural on a plane right after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, when most planes were supposed to be grounded. The group was doing a photo shoot in New York. Pearlman made a satellite call. On Sep. 12, they were on a private plane flying back to their Orlando headquarters.
Pearlman’s eye for talent was real—as the success of NSYNC and Backstreet Boys shows—but his business was a fraud. The documentary shows that he was using the boy bands to charm investors and lure them into his ponzi scheme.
After Johnson’s band Natural broke up in 2004, he became interested in the business side of the entertainment industry, and worked with Pearlman on what he thought were TV projects. They traveled southeast Asia to pitch investors. The projects didn’t go anywhere, but Pearlman did not want to go home.
“It turned out that our world travels were actually him being on the run from the FBI,” says Johnson.
During a brief stay in Bali in the spring of 2007, Johnson says Pearlman opened up to him about how he was forging documents. Johnson flew home, and in June 2007, Pearlman was arrested.
Of the roughly $500 million that Lou Pearlman stole, only about $10 million has been recovered. In 2008, he was convicted of money laundering and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He died behind bars in 2016 after a heart attack.
Johnson continued to perform with various groups for years after Pearlman’s arrest. Nowadays, he works more off-stage as a composer and film producer. He describes the impact of Pearlman’s deception on him and fellow boy band members: “Psychologically, we’re still dealing with those trust issues.”
Social media and platforms that allow artists to reach consumers have given performers more control over their businesses. In terms of advice to up-and-coming performing artists who want to make sure they don’t end up working with someone like Pearlman, Johnson says to “have an amazing lawyer.”
