The Backstreet Boys filed a lawsuit against
Louis Pearlman and his Trans Continental Records today (Nov. 3) for reimbursement of legal settlements the group paid to former member Sam "Phoenix Stone" Licata and former managers Sybil Hall and Jeanne Tanzy Williams. The settlement amounts were confidential and have not yet been disclosed.
The complaint, filed in the Circuit Court for Orange County, Fla., alleges that Pearlman orchestrated control over a number of corporations that held rights to the Boys' entertainment services and products since the group first formed in 1993.
The group members -- Brian Littrell, Howard Dorough, A.J. McLean, Kevin Richardson and Nickolas Carter -- and their corporations allege that Pearlman did not properly handle the 1993 departure of Hall, Williams and original member Licata. Pearlman induced BSB to sign agreements dissolving a corporation, effectively cutting out Hall, Williams and Licata from participating in future revenues, the complaint says. As a result, Pearlman put the group's assets at risk from legal claims made by the departing parties.
The complaint notes that Littrell initiated a lawsuit in 1997 against
Pearlman and Trans Continental for misappropriation and concealment of revenues generated by the group. McLean, Richardson and Dorough joined the suit the following year. The parties entered a series of settlements beginning in 1998. No provision was made to resolve the interests of Williams, Hall and Licata.
Williams then sued Pearlman and BSB, as corporate shareholders, in 1999 for fraud and misappropriation of her right to financially share in the success of the group's companies. Before the parties settled this action in 2004, BSB entered another settlement with Pearlman paying him $29.5 million, the complaint says. The group claims that it was induced into entering the later settlement agreement with Pearlman, which also required him to indemnify BSB for any claims made by Williams or anyone else engaged by Pearlman as a result of his wrongdoing.
