PRNewsFoto/Jive Records
The Backstreet Boys are back, all right, and not just on the radio waves. The same day the bubblegum pop sensation of the late ‘90s announced it would release a new album this fall, one of the group’s members was busy with his own new release – bankruptcy court papers.
Howie Dorough (not the blond one that all the girls crushed on, nor the wholesome lead singer or the older one, and certainly not the bad boy) filed an objection Tuesday in the Chapter 11 proceeding of Lou Pearlman, the boy band mogul who spawned the Backstreet Boys and their rival for pre-teen hearts, ‘NSync. Pearlman, you’ll recall, gained even more notoriety last year when he was sentenced to 25 years behind bars for running a $300-million-plus Ponzi scheme. As Bankruptcy Beat previously reported, the trustee in charge of Pearlman’s bankruptcy estate is suing hundreds of investors in Pearlman’s schemes – like Dorough – to recover payments that Pearlman and his related businesses made in the four years before their bankruptcy proceedings began.
While a group of investors who were bilked by Pearlman’s scheme have already objected to the lawsuits, Dorough, who was sued for more than $73,000, filed his own objection. We won’t bore you with all the bankruptcy jargon but suffice it to say, the Backstreet Boy (can a 35-year-old man who’s a new father still really be called that?) isn’t happy that the trustee’s lawsuits would preclude him (or rather, his lawyers) from launching an investigation to help defend himself. Dorough denies that he was “unjustly enriched” by the payment and says he had no knowledge of Pearlman’s Ponzi scheme as the boy band mogul was carrying it out. We don’t doubt that last part – after all, learning slick choreographed dance moves, carefully gelling your hair and schmoozing with female fans doesn’t leave much time for due diligence.
Associated Press