Lou Pearlman Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison

The creator of the boy bands *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys, Lou Pearlman, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Wednesday for stealing more than $300 million from U.S. banks. The judge presiding over the case, District Judge G. Kendall Sharp, said that the music man's sentence could be reduced by giving him a one-month reprieve for every $1 million in cash he helps a bankruptcy trustee recover for his victims, reported Reuters.

Theoretically, Pearlman could cancel the 300-month sentence if he was to repay the money that he stole. The lawyer wrote a plea to the courts saying that the 25-year sentence basically amounted to a death sentence for the 53-year-old who lived the life of luxury before the fraud was found out.

In order to make the money, he enticed people and banks to invest millions in his companies, which didn't exist anywhere except on paper, said Reuters. He won their confidence with faked bank statements created by his accounting firm, which was a fake as well. The fraud took more than 20 years to pull off.

In March, he pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy involving fraud and one of money laundering and one of making false claims in a bankruptcy. He also accused the banks of being negligent. He had seizure of assets, but these assets will not count towards his incentive plan. One investor, James Taylor, said that when he is released from prison, "He should be turned over to us," reported Reuters.