Joomla! site syndication http://www.loupearlman.org 2010-03-13T06:13:13+01:00 http://www.loupearlman.org http://www.loupearlman.org/images/M_images/joomla_rss.png text/html 2007-10-24T01:07:19+01:00 http://www.loupearlman.org http://www.loupearlman.org/History/In-humble-Queens-Lou-Pearlman-was-king.html At Flushing Airport in 1966, Lou Pearlman, right, with Alan Gross, center, and Lou's cousin Larry Zeitlin. More photos in special audio slide show Photo Courtesy Of Alan Gross FLUSHING, N.Y. - Mitchell Gardens would never be mistaken for a palace, but inside the Pearlman family's tiny third-floor apartment, little Lou was king. His parents, Hy the dry cleaner and Reenie the school lunchroom aide, slept on a fold-out couch in the living room, giving their only child the bedroom. Lou spent hours on that bedroom floor, playing the board game Life with Alan Gross, his childhood buddy who lived one floor up. Gross still recalls a time Mrs. Pearlman watched them play. Lou gave the spinner a whirl, then cheated by moving his car game piece an extra space. I called Lou out on it and his mother, seeing what he did, admonished me, Gross said, still indignant more than four decades later. Gross was three years older - about 12 at the time - and Mrs. Pearlman thought he should let Lou win. Even though I was very young, it made me realize how our upbringings differed, Gross said. If my mother saw me cheat, she would never let me hear the end of it. Until his world came crashing down nine months ago, Pearlman was a celebrated Orlando music producer known for introducing the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC to the world. But long before that, he was a kid from the New York City borough of Queens with a reputation for cutting corners and embellishing the truth. Their parents are now dead, but Gross still lives in the building where he and Pearlman grew up and got their feet wet in the aviation business before taking different paths. He vividly remembers both the old grudges and the good times they spent together. Now a part-time interviewer for the Census Bureau, Gross, 56, suffers from a blood disorder and struggles to pay his bills. But he turns passionate when the subject is air pollution, blimps or his childhood playmate. Pearlman, 53, is an inmate in the Orange County Jail, indicted on bank fraud charges and accused of swindling banks and investors out of nearly $500-million. He lost his possessions in bankruptcy and is now reduced to calling old friends collect. Gross said the phone calls bring out mixed feelings. He said he hurts for the elderly investors who trusted Pearlman with their life savings, now gone, but he can't turn his back on his childhood friend. We grew up as brothers and we have this special bond, he said. As much of a liar as he is, I tend to believe that he didn't want to hurt anybody. I think he thought he'd make enough money to pay everyone back. He was always looking for the next big score. It just unraveled a little too quickly. text/html 2007-10-24T01:02:06+01:00 http://www.loupearlman.org http://www.loupearlman.org/History/In-jail-and-on-the-phone-Lou-Pearlman-reverses-the-charges.html By HELEN HUNTLEY, Times Personal Finance EditorPublished October 21, 2007 Lou Pearlman, right, is escorted to an awaiting van in June [Masako Watanabe]As he sits in an Orange County jail cell, Lou Pearlman dreams of pitching a reality show called Second Chance featuring losers from shows like American Idol and hosted by a celeb who has done jail time -- maybe even Paris Hilton. Facing federal fraud charges, he imagines himself getting out on bond and moving in with his longtime girlfriend. Most of all, he proclaims his innocence. Somebody's been trying to frame me in this thing, Pearlman claimed in one of his phone calls to Alan Gross, 56, his childhood friend and onetime business associate. I'm being blamed for a lot of stuff. I'm being made a patsy here. [Courtesy of Alan Gross]Alan Gross and Lou Pearlman admiring the papier mache blimp Alan built in Alan's Mitchell Green apartment. Circa 1965Boy band producer Pearlman has yet to agree to a formal interview since he was jailed. But he offers revealing glimpses of his life and thoughts behind bars in these phone conversations with Gross, who grew up with Pearlman in the same apartment building in Queens, a borough of New York City. [Helen Huntley | Times]Alan Gross and his collection of blimps.Pearlman has called Gross six times in the past two months, calls that cost Gross about $15 a pop under the jail system for reversing the charges. Gross, a professional interviewer for the Census Bureau, took careful notes each time. Pearlman is free to call anyone he likes, but cannot receive incoming calls. All calls are recorded and available to investigators. Arrested in Bali, Indonesia, four months ago, Pearlman, 53, is being held in Orlando without bail on federal charges of bank fraud. His trial is scheduled for March, but could be delayed since investigators are working on additional charges related to a $317-million investment scheme run by Pearlman's company, Trans Continental Airlines. text/html 2007-10-24T00:50:26+01:00 http://www.loupearlman.org http://www.loupearlman.org/History/Judge-tells-Lou-Pearlman-s-lawyer-to-release-records.html Jim Leusner | Sentinel Staff Writer October 16, 2007 An Orlando-area lawyer must produce records and answer questions under oath about business dealings of jailed music executive Lou Pearlman or face severe sanctions, a U.S. bankruptcy judge ruled Monday. The case involving Reca Rene Chamberlain of Gotha came to a head after attorneys for the bankruptcy trustee attempting to trace and liquidate Pearlman assets accused Chamberlain of repeatedly stonewalling their inquiries.Chamberlain has argued that she could not disclose the materials or answer most questions about Pearlman because of attorney-client privilege. On Monday, Miami attorney Greg Garno, an attorney for bankruptcy trustee Soneet R. Kapila , accused Chamberlain of engaging in a pattern of conduct to frustrate, impede and delay inquiries into Pearlman's finances. He said she ignored several letters, subpoenas and three judge's orders to produce mail she collected for Pearlman while he was in hiding overseas -- along with other paper and electronic records she kept as one of his business attorneys.Pearlman was arrested June 15 in Guam after Indonesian authorities and the FBI tracked him to the resort of Bali. Two weeks later, a federal grand jury in Orlando charged him with scheming to defraud banks of $100 million. He pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail at the Orange County Jail. One major issue for the bankruptcy trustee was Chamberlain's previous admission that at Pearlman's direction, she turned over a box of financial records in May or June to a mysterious man with a British or Australian accent on the side of a road. text/html 2007-10-24T00:36:40+01:00 http://www.loupearlman.org http://www.loupearlman.org/History/Mystery-Pearlman-Documents-Could-Reveal-Hidden-Assets.html Lou Pearlman (http://www.loupearlman.org) and they think his former lawyer may be the key. Monday, a judge demanded she hand over records that may shed light on hidden assets. Only Channel 9 was there when a judge threatened severe sanctions for Rene Chamberlain if she didn't hand over the information. Chamberlain has ignored repeated requests by the trustee in charge of recovering Pearlman's assets. The money's being used to refund the banks and investors who say they've lost millions of dollars in business dealings with Pearlman. He's now facing a federal indictment. The team that's working to recover Pearlman's assets asked a bankruptcy judge to throw Pearlman's former attorney in jail Monday for ignoring repeated orders to turn over documents. There's still a missing, mysterious box of documents that she says she handed over to a mystery man with an accent, because Pearlman told her to and now no one knows where it is. Entertainment lawyer Rene Chamberlain of Gotha wouldn't answer Eyewitness News questions and she did not go to jail Monday, but the bankruptcy judge threatened severe sanctions if she does not turn over her computer records involving accused con man Lou Pearlman in one week. Attorneys for the trustee are trying to recover as many assets as possible to compensate Pearlman's victims and told the judge Monday they might ask for a criminal investigation into what they called Chamberlain's remarkable behavior. They said she claimed her laptop computer had been stolen, but never reported it and then later said she had back-up discs for the records. Attorneys said she didn't show up after agreeing to answer questions under oath in August. Monday, Chamberlain's attorney promised she'd turn over the computer records, but what about that mysterious box of documents? I think you'd have to ask Mr. Pearlman that. She's the one who gave them to somebody, explained Alan Perlman, Chamberlain's attorney. Is she gonna be able to identify that man by phone number or whatever? WFTV reporter Kathi Belich asked. She's looking into it. She's looking into it, Perlman said. The bankruptcy trustee's lawyers say Chamberlain claims to have lost her cell phone too, which might have captured the mystery man's phone number. She testified that Pearlman called her four or five months ago, when he was on the run, and told her to meet someone and give him the box of documents. All she's said is that the man spoke with either a British or Australian accent. Chamberlain said she met the mystery man along the side of the road and handed over the box. She won't say what kinds of documents were in the box. The bankruptcy trustee is hoping to find trails to transfers of money to financial institutions or documents leading to other assets that Pearlman is hiding.Originally posted at http://www.wftv.com/news/14346011/detail.html (http://www.wftv.com/news/14346011/detail.html) text/html 2007-10-24T00:27:46+01:00 http://www.loupearlman.org http://www.loupearlman.org/History/Music-Manager-More-Interested-in-Boys-Than-Bands.html Take 5 with manager Lou Pearlman at an autograph session at Universal Studios in Los Angeles in 1999. Some of the band's members, along with other boy band members managed by Pearlman, now accuse the imprisoned impresario of exposing himself to them and showing them pornography. (Orlando Sentinel/ MCT/ Landov)By RUSSELL GOLDMANOct. 10, 2007 Awaiting trial on bank fraud charges and accused of scamming thousands of senior citizens out of millions of dollars, Lou Pearlman, the pop-music impresario who founded the Backstreet Boys, now faces the prospect of life in a big house very different from the 15,000-square-foot mansion he once occupied outside Orlando, Fla. Just what took place in that house -- complete with movie theater, video games, pool table, swimming pool and a planned bowling alley -- has become the focus of a series of very different allegations by young men who claim Pearlman acted inappropriately, molested them or sought to exchange sex for help with their careers. In the November issue of Vanity Fair, Pearlman, for the first time publicly, is described by several former singers, aspiring singers and their parents as a lecher, who used the same deceptive charms to cop cheap feels off teenage boys as he did to allegedly bilk 1,400 investors out of more than $300 million. Pearlman has since denied the allegations from prison. In the late '90s, just as the Backstreet Boys and 'NSync, Pearlman's biggest boy bands, hit it big in the United States, Pearlman was grooming a stable of youngsters to take their place. After auditioning, these kids, some as young as 13, were relocated to Orlando where they would regularly rehearse and spend their free time at Pearlman's home. Another group of young men regularly at the house were a staff of personal assistants, some of whom told Vanity Fair they were promised jobs in bands in exchange for providing sexual favors to Pearlman. While some boys and young men heard only rumors, others told Vanity Fair and ABCNews.com that Pearlman exposed himself to them, showed them pornography, took them to strip clubs, gave them sensual massages and openly propositioned them. They also said they saw other young people leaving Pearlman's bedroom late at night. Some guys joked about it. I remember [one singer] asking me, 'Have you let Lou b*** you yet?' Steve Mooney told Vanity Fair. In his early 20s Mooney worked as Pearlman's personal assistant and lived in his home for two years in the hopes that he would be put into one of Pearlman's bands.