The True Story Behind Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam

1 month ago

There’s a new docuseries streaming on Netflix

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Fans of documentaries about scammers with a penchant for ‘00s culture should stream Netflix’s latest three-part series, Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam. Here’s exactly what to expect.

What Is The Boy Band Scam?

The Boy Band Scam was a Ponzi scheme set up by talent manager Lou Pearlman which cheated musicians and investors out of millions of dollars. Backstreet Boys and NSYNC are Pearlman’s best-known victims.

Who Was Lou Pearlman?

Lou Pearlman was an American talent manager who launched Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, but who ultimately turned out to be a scam artist.

Born in Queens in 1954, Pearlman was an only child of Jewish parents Hy and Reenie Pearlman. Interestingly, Pearlman was a younger cousin of musician Art Garfunkel of Simon & Garfunkel fame – and, seeing his cousin’s major musical success, Pearlman was inspired to enter the industry. He managed a band during his teenage years to little success but, after a failed career in aviation, was inspired once again by the success of New Kids on the Block. Pearlman decided to launch a record label – Trans Continental Records – and scouted five unknown performers, binding them together under the label’s first signed artist, Backstreet Boys. The band became the best-selling boy band of all time, prompting Pearlman to repeat his success and launch NSYNC – another wildly successful group.

While the bands were breaking records and making millions, the band members were hardly seeing any of the money – depsite Pearlman and his record label evidently being paid heartily. Backstreet Boys were the first to file a lawsuit against Pearlman due to their unfair contract – which hilariously had Pearlman on the payroll as a sixth member of the group. NSYNC soon followed suit. Aside from US5 and Marshall Dyllon, every musical act Pearlman worked with sued him in federal court for misrepresentation and fraud – that includes LFO, Take Five, Natural and Aaron Carter.

None of this, however, is what put Pearlman behind bars – with Pearlman essentially bought out of the contracts. In 2007, he was charged with conspiracy, money laundering and making false claims in a bankruptcy after the discovery of his decades-long fraud schemes, considered to be one of the longest-running Ponzi schemes in American history. Despite his talent roster being nationally (and often globally) successful, Pearlman wracked up a whopping $200 million in debt with various banks. To keep himself and his businesses afloat, he spent 20 years persuading thousands of private investors (spanning business partners to close friends) to invest in his FDIC-insured savings programme affiliated with Trans Continental Airlines Inc. and Trans Continental Airlines Travel Services Inc. – two corporations that didn’t actually exist (and, of course, the programme was not actually insured). This amounted to around $300 million in swindled cash.

In 2007, Pearlman was sentenced to 25 years in prison; he died there just under 10 years later. To this day, more than $400 million remains uncovered.

Lou Pearlman in Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam. (Courtesy of Netflix)

Who Appears In Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam

As well as an unnerving, reanimated Lou Pearlman courtesy of AI, and people who worked with him on the corporate end of his scams, the following stars are interviewed in Dirty Pop: