Lou Perlman – the man who brought the world The Backstreet Boys and N’Sync – is at large for stealing about $317 million from more than 1,400 individual investors, and an additional $150 million from banks to build his “music empire”.

He should have been locked up when he brought us the Backstreet Boys. I partially forgive him because without him, Justin Timberlake would not be on my list.

Here’s part of the story that USA Today ran about it:

Florida’s Office of Financial Regulation says it hasn’t been able to reach him since he left the country in January, two months after one of his oldest friends committed suicide and as state and federal officials swarmed in on what could be one of the biggest fraud cases in Florida history.

They believe that Pearlman, 52, created a Ponzi scheme that milked about $317 million from more than 1,400 individual investors and an additional $150 million from banks.

Pearlman got investors to put money into what he is accused of billing as a secure, interest-bearing savings fund. But he didn’t reinvest their cash in profit-making ventures, the Florida Office of Financial Regulation said in a circuit court filing.

The filing alleges that he pocketed much of the money and often hid the fact by shuffling money among dozens of companies he controlled, including his best-known firm, Trans Continental Enterprises.

Investors had no way to know. When they needed to make a withdrawal, according to court documents, he’d pay them — with cash from new customers.

“We did bank analyses for a three-year period and confirmed that $150 million went somewhere other than where it should have gone,” says Bob Rosenau, chief of financial investigations for Florida’s Office of Financial Regulation.

The scheme came apart in the fall. A state circuit court in February put Pearlman’s odd collection of entertainment and travel companies into the hands of a receiver who’s looking for assets to use to repay investors and creditors.

I’ve gone on Lou Perlman’s website (where on the home page there is a fetching picture of him carressing his jowls), and read his bio. I’ve learned a few interesting facts about Perlman: his cousin is Art Garfunkle (from Simon and Garfunkle fame), and he also helped start the careers of Aaron Carter and Brooke Hogan. He is currently in Germany touring with another boy band, having left the US in January.

If they don’t get the man for fraud charges, can someone please arrest him for bringing Aaron Carter and Brooke Hogan into the musical mainstream? I’m not a snob, but Brooke Hogan singing about people being “all up in her grill” when she’s a rich white California girl just doesn’t sound right.