NSYNC, Backstreet Boys creator Lou Pearlman dies in prison

Lou Pearlman, a former musicmogul who launched the careers of boy bands The Backstreet Boysand NSYNC, has died at age 62 while serving a 25-yearprison sentence for swindling investors and banks out of morethan $300 million US, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said on its website.

The cause of death was not immediately clear and arepresentative for the Bureau of Prisons could not be reachedfor comment late on Saturday. Pearlman died Friday.

In 2010, Pearlman suffered a stroke while behind bars,according to media reports.

After running a business operating blimps, Pearlman starteda record label, guiding the 1990s-era Backstreet Boys, whosehits included Quit Playing Games (With My Heart), and NSYNC, known for such songs as This I Promise Youand I Want YouBack.

The Backstreet Boys and NSYNC were two of the mostsuccessful male vocal groups of the 1990s, appealing to teenaudiences with carefully constructed harmonies. NSYNC co-leadsinger Justin Timberlake has gone on to a successful solocareer.

Pearlman's relationships with the boy bands he helped launcheventually faltered, with most of them, including The BackstreetBoys and NSYNC, suing him for fraud, according to Billboard.

• Backstreet Boys creator gets 25 years for fraud schemes

Former NSYNC members Justin Timberlake and Lance Bass posted messages on Twitter.

Bass, who has appeared intelevision shows and films since NSYNC disbanded, wrote: "He might not have been a stand up businessman, but Iwouldn't be doing what I love today [without] his influence."

Timberlaketweeted: "I hope he found some peace."

Pearlman lived a lifestyle marked by mansions and luxurycars and engaged in questionable business pursuits far afieldfrom music before his fraud scheme collapsed.

He admitted in a 2008 plea agreement to, over two decades,enticing individuals and banks to invest millions of dollars intwo fraudulent companies that, on paper at least, were describedas being in the airline industry.

He won investors' confidence with fake financial statementscreated by a fictitious accounting firm.

He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2008 afterpleading guilty in federal court to four criminal counts: two ofconspiracy involving bank and investor fraud, one of moneylaundering and one of making false claims in a bankruptcy.