Police To ‘N Sync Mastermind: “The Game Is Over”

Just two days after his possessions were auctioned off in Florida, boy-band mogul Lou Pearlman–missing since February–was found by Federal authorities in Indonesia. He’s since been transported to Guam, where he’ll appear before a federal judge on one count of felony bank fraud, the AP reports. The Orlando Sentinel has more details:

Indonesian authorities located Pearlman living in a resort hotel in the tourist district of Nusa Dua in Bali. Immigration officials in that country told him he was no longer welcome in their country and then expelled him. In the process, they turned him over to U.S. officials.

…Pearlman has been charged in both state and federal court with civil complaints alleging widespread fraud in an “employee investment savings account ” program he ran for more than two decades through his Trans Continental Airlines company.

The civil suits, including one from the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, have alleged he received more than $317 million from more than 1,800 investors who were told their money was going into safe, secured, high-interest accounts. They money instead fueled a huge, long-running Ponzi scheme, in which later investments were used to keep earlier investors happy, the suits allege. In addition, a dozen banks have sued him after foreclosing on more than $130 million in loans.

More charges will probably be brought against Pearlman, who was last seen shepherding a boy band around Germany; meanwhile, Tuesday’s auction netted $200,000, which will go toward his mountain of debts. (Only $200,000? That LFO clock must have not been as big-ticket an item as we thought.)

Boy-band mogul Lou Pearlman to appear before federal judge [Orlando Sentinel]