Justin Timberlake took to Twitter over the weekend to mourn the loss of ‘NSync’s former manager Lou Pearlman, who died in prison on Friday, August 19, at age 62.
“I hope he found some peace,” the “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” singer, 35, tweeted on Sunday, August 21. “God bless and RIP, Lou Pearlman.”
The record producer — who also worked closely with the Backstreet Boys, LFO and O-Town — was serving a 25-year prison sentence at the time of his death. He was sentenced in May 2008 for his involvement in a Ponzi scheme that swindled 1,700 investors out of half a billion dollars.
Timberlake’s former bandmate Lance Bass also shared his condolences on Twitter over the weekend, writing, “Word is that #LouPearlman has passed away. He might not have been a stand-up businessman, but I wouldn’t be doing what I love today w/out his influence. RIP Lou.”
Pearlman was also the subject of an October 2007 Vanity Fair exposé, which contained sexual harassment and molestation allegations from several former and aspiring singers. In a 2014 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Pearlman denied the claims from prison and said his fellow inmates knew “none of that can be true.”
The talent scout first started his career in the entertainment industry when he founded Trans Continental Records in the 1990s in hopes of finding a new boy band that could match the success of New Kids on the Block.
Shortly after, he selected the five members of the Backstreet Boys in a talent search and later mimicked the formula with ‘NSync. Both groups went on to become two of the bestselling boy bands of all time.
