Posted on 07/16/2008 9:56:30 PM PDT by bamahead
Banks owed money by convicted boy band mogul Lou Pearlman will be the last of his creditors to get anything if he pays back the $300 million he swindled out of investors and financial institutions, a U.S. judge ruled on Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge G. Kendall Sharp said after ordering Pearlman to pay the full $300 million in restitution to his victims that small-time investors would be given preference as creditors.
Ten banks who lent him money, including American Bank of St. Paul, Bank of America and First International Bank and Trust, "are going to be paid after," Sharp said.
"The court feels the institutions were negligent in their loaning practices," he said.
Banks are usually at the head of the line when it comes to recovering money from creditors.
Pearlman, who launched the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync bands in the 1990s, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in May for fraud.
In a two-decade scam, Pearlman admitted in a plea agreement to enticing individuals and banks to invest millions of dollars in two companies which existed only on paper -- Transcontinental Airlines Travel Services Inc and Transcontinental Airlines Inc.
He won investors' confidence with fake financial statements created by a fictitious accounting firm.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
You can bet the lawyers will be paid before anyone else sees one red cent.
The Clinton economy was built on smoke and mirrors. So was their national security program.
The smoke has cleared and the mirrors have cracked.
Think he'll learn to hit the high notes in prison? "Squeal like a pop star..."
A real-life Max Bialystock!
Ah yes, Clinton. Riiiiight.
Why? Why would someone who made such a huge bundle—TWICE—on hitting it big with a boy band, need to steal $300 million more?
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