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Music mogul Lou Pearlman on Guam and in court
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by John Davis, KUAM News
Friday, June 15, 2007
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Our small island community normally gets a little more excited when a celebrity arrives from abroad. But today, a famous name arrived on island, but surely not to make a courtesy call. Some rather alarming news led the collective eyes of the entertainment industry, the state of Florida and of investors who apparently got duped by a bogus investment ring were focused on Guam today, as a boy band impresario set foot on United States soil after being arrested.
Driven to the District Court of Guam in a tinted, dark green four-door Nissan Frontier pickup truck, Lou Pearlman entered and appeared before Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood on a motion for removal. The man that architected the popular boy band craze of late 1990s, notably by managing *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys, is wanted in the state of Florida on federal bank fraud charges and has evaded authorities for the last several months.
Federal authorities have been searching for Pearlman after an arrest warrant was issued on March 2. He was flown to Guam overnight and arrived this morning at the Guam International Airport, where he was then arrested by agents from Federal Bureau of Investigation. The fugitive appeared before Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood, dressed in a blue t-shirt and blue pants. During today's proceedings, the chief judge expressed concerns about allowing an attorney to represent Pearlman at the government's expense.
Pearlman reportedly was uncooperative with U.S. Probation officers, failing to answer any questions and instead invoking his 5th Amendment rights. US Attorney Lenny Rapadas said, "For this initial appearance things, like identity those sorts of matters need to be given things like whether or not they can afford a lawyer that sort of information has to come out and the judge can make a decision or needs to make certain decisions based on those sorts of information."
Tydingco-Gatewood remanded Pearlman to the custody of the U.S. Marshals and ordered that he reappear in court on Monday at 2pm with the financial information needed to determine whether a federal public defender will be granted to represent him in the proceedings.
As for whether the music impresario will answer to the bank fraud charges here on Guam, Rapadas speculates that will likely not happen. "This case is a good example of good cooperation between our office and the FBI, the Jakarta Legal Attache Office and the Balinese Police; it's a good example amongst governments prosecuting these sorts of cases," he explained.
Pearlman is accused of scamming several businesses and investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars by setting up a bogus accounting firm that prepared fake securities statements. He faces a fine of up to $1 million or 30 years in jail.
Review the petition for writ of removal for Lou Pearlman by clicking here
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