Scott Powers and Sara K. Clarke | Sentinel Staff Writers
March 24, 2007
Fashion Rock - a talent-scout company that sparked hundreds of consumer complaints earlier this decade -- was sold Friday from Lou Pearlman's former business empire to a company with California money and Canadian management.
Also known as Talent Rock, the company is one of many Pearlman abandoned when he left the country earlier this year ahead of a deluge of questions by lawyers, investors and lawmen.
Fashion Rock hosted model and talent placement fairs on cruise ships and in luxury hotels, promising to connect would-be stars to people who could make them famous.
Officials of the new company, called Talent Rock Holdings, said they have no connection to the troubled past.
"We certainly intend to leave that behind us," said Alan Joelson, whose Camino Ventures paid $175,000 for Fashion Rock's assets. "Clearly this is a business that must provide service satisfaction."
A planned June cruise will be canceled and clients' money will be applied to a December show and other future events.
He said many of Fashion Rock's employees will be called back to work soon. Fashion Rock was one of 13 Pearlman companies placed with court-appointed receiver Jerry McHale. He arranged the sale.
Bank of America, which held a $1.5 million lien against Fashion Rock, gets $125,000. The other $50,000 goes to McHale's Fort Myers-based company, which is trying to locate more than $317 million in investors' money and $130 million in bank loans.
Pearlman put together Fashion Rock in 2003 after buying the client list from a similar company. The price was never publicly disclosed, but in 2003 his lawyer informed state investigators that Pearlman invested more than $2 million.
That transaction came while the Florida attorney general and New York authorities were investigating consumer complaints about such things as payment disputes and false promises of service from the operation. The investigations were closed in 2004 with no charges filed, though some consumer complaints continued.
Scott Powers and Sara K. Clarke | Sentinel Staff Writers
March 24, 2007
Fashion Rock - a talent-scout company that sparked hundreds of consumer complaints earlier this decade -- was sold Friday from Lou Pearlman's former business empire to a company with California money and Canadian management.
Also known as Talent Rock, the company is one of many Pearlman abandoned when he left the country earlier this year ahead of a deluge of questions by lawyers, investors and lawmen.
Fashion Rock hosted model and talent placement fairs on cruise ships and in luxury hotels, promising to connect would-be stars to people who could make them famous.
Officials of the new company, called Talent Rock Holdings, said they have no connection to the troubled past.
"We certainly intend to leave that behind us," said Alan Joelson, whose Camino Ventures paid $175,000 for Fashion Rock's assets. "Clearly this is a business that must provide service satisfaction."
A planned June cruise will be canceled and clients' money will be applied to a December show and other future events.
He said many of Fashion Rock's employees will be called back to work soon. Fashion Rock was one of 13 Pearlman companies placed with court-appointed receiver Jerry McHale. He arranged the sale.
Bank of America, which held a $1.5 million lien against Fashion Rock, gets $125,000. The other $50,000 goes to McHale's Fort Myers-based company, which is trying to locate more than $317 million in investors' money and $130 million in bank loans.
Pearlman put together Fashion Rock in 2003 after buying the client list from a similar company. The price was never publicly disclosed, but in 2003 his lawyer informed state investigators that Pearlman invested more than $2 million.
That transaction came while the Florida attorney general and New York authorities were investigating consumer complaints about such things as payment disputes and false promises of service from the operation. The investigations were closed in 2004 with no charges filed, though some consumer complaints continued.
