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Lou Pearlman, who masterminded the careers of the Backstreet Boys and *NYSNC, has been jailed for 25 years.
The boy band mogul was found guilty on two counts of conspiracy, money laundering and using false statements in a bankruptcy proceeding.
Pearlman swindled US banks and investors by inviting them to invest money into fictitious companies over the course of a decade.
As his sentence was handed down, Judge G. Kendall Sharp told Pearlman that his victims included "his family, his close friends and people in their 70s and 80s who have lost their life savings."
"So the sympathy factor doesn't run high with the court," the judge said.
Judge Sharp said that he would reduce his sentence by one month for every $1milllion that Pearlman returns to his victims.
