Back in May, federal prosecutors sentenced former boy-band impresario Lou Pearlman to 25 years in federal prison for his part in running a two-decade-long financial scheme that cheated investors out of more than $300 million. They also offered him the chance to reduce his sentence by shaving one month off for every $1 million he paid back to investors.
Well, prosecutors have finally tallied up the damage they say Pearlman did to investors with his financial shell games, and the figure is a staggering $424.4 million. Earlier this week, documents were made public showing that Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg planned to ask U.S. District Court Judge G. Kendall Sharp to order Pearlman to pay back that amount at a restitution hearing slated to take place today, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
The number breaks down into $297 million in losses, plus $127 million in interest accrued from January 1989 through December 2006, the month before Pearlman went on the lam overseas as his financial house of cards was falling down, according to the Sentinel. Pearlman's lawyer has objected to adding the interest, which he said was "fictional at best," due to the nature of the Ponzi scheme his client perpetrated, in which the money paid to early investors came from later investors, with no chance for interest to accrue on the bunk investments.
Confused yet? It might not matter either way; a handful of attorneys involved in the case say it’s not likely anyone will be paid back, since only about $5 million has been recovered in the various Pearlman-related bankruptcy cases.