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 Online sportsbook Bodog.com has provided odds on former record producer Lou Pearlman’s fraud case now pending in Federal Court in Orlando, Florida. The futures line reads as a “Before or After” format that plays the same as an Over-Under wager.
Will there be a verdict in the Lou Pearlman fraud trial by the end of 2007? Yes +130 (100$ bet to win $130) No -170 ($170 bet to win $170) Pearlman, known as “Big Poppa” was huge in the entertainment industry as a record producer and talent developer. Big Poppa founded Trans Continental Records and signed the Back Street Boys who went on to sell 65 million records worldwide. Pearlman repeated his Back Street Boys success with the development of another boy band N’Sync which sold over 56 million records. Last December, the Florida Office of Financial Regulation (OFR) filed a complaint against Pearlman and his companies for a huge savings and investment program fraud, alleging Pearlman has been operating a record-length Ponzi scheme, using falsified FDIC documents to gain his investors’ confidence.
Consequently several banks and investors filed suit against Pearlman for not paying his debts and for deception. Banks apparently loaned money to Pearlman based on falsified documentation from a Florida certified public accountancy Cohen & Siegel that apparently also was a fabrication. Current figures indicate the amount of money involved in Pearlman’s fraud case may be close to $500-million . If these numbers prove to be true, Pearlman’s Ponzi scheme would be the largest in history. Criminal charges were filed by the FBI and on June 27, 2007 Pearlman was indicted by a federal grand jury charging him with three counts of bank fraud, and single counts of mail and wire fraud. Creditors contend that Pearlman defaulted on at least $130-million in loans against his assets, including the Church Street Station entertainment complex in Orlando. Several lawsuits also allege that he received more than $317 million from 1,800 investors in an “employee investment savings account program. On June 14, 2007, FBI agents from the Orlando, Florida field office tracked Pearlman to a luxury hotel in the resort town of Bali in Indonesia. Indonesian officials, coordinating with the U.S. Department of Justice had Pearlman deported to the nearest U.S. territory,Guam, escorted by FBI agents. After returning to the United States, Pearlman was arraigned on the charges. Handcuffed and shackled at the waist, Pearlman wore the standard blue Orange County jumpsuit. The Pearlman trial date has been set to commence in Federal Court in Orlando on September 4, 2007.
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