Lou Pearlman, con artist behind the 1990s boy band boom, dies at 62
Pearlman's Trans Continental conglomerate was originally in the aircraft business (which he propped up by questionable stock dealings) before, inspired by the success of the New Kids on the Block in the early 1990s, he set his sights on the music industry. Pearlman's first creation, the Backstreet Boys, was a huge success, which Pearlman followed with NSYNC, O-Town and LFO, among several others, as well as Innosense, the girl group best known for introducing Britney Spears to the general public. Most of the bands under Pearlman's tutelage eventually sued him.
His purchase of a talent scout company managed by Ayman el Difrawi would prove to be the beginning of his downfall, as the business model Pearlman embraced was widely accused of being a scam. In his last active years, Pearlman ostensibly relaunched his aircraft business and started recruiting investors—the problem was, the aircraft business this time was a fake paper business, and Pearlman was running a Ponzi scheme. He was convicted of fraud and sentenced to a 25-year jail sentence. He died in jail.
Obituary from Rolling StoneWikipedia