Rena Durham/ZUMAPress.comWe're thinking the wage earned pulling kitchen and laundry duty isn't going to cut it...
Lou Pearlman, the imprisoned boy-band visionary who bilked a number of banks and private investors out of $300 million, has been ordered to repay the entire sum to his victims—starting with the unfortunate, unincorporated individuals who had the misfortune of doing "business" with Pearlman.
The 10 banks, including Washington Mutual and Bank of America, that unwittingly loaned him money under false pretenses will be the last to collect any restitution, according to the ruling issued Wednesday by U.S. District Judge G. Kendall Sharp.
"The court feels the institutions were negligent in their loaning practices," Sharp said.
Per court documents, Pearlman owes the assorted banks $126.7 million.
The judge declined, however, the prosecution's request to tack $127 million in interest onto that sum, remarking, "It seems you're batting at windmills." All Pearlman has given to the government so far has been the "smirk on his face," he added.
But the guy who put the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync together does have an incentive to wipe that smirk off his face—Sharp has allowed that for every $1 million Pearlman pays back, he gets a month wiped from his federal prison sentence.
The 53-year-old Florida resident was sentenced in May to 25 years—300 months—behind bars after pleading guilty to two counts of conspiracy and single counts of money laundering and making a false claim in a bankruptcy filing.
Also today, Sharp ordered that Pearlman be remanded to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, meaning he finally has to leave the Orlando jail where he's been cooling his heels for the past year.
Otherwise, "this could go on ad infinitum," Sharp said.
Which federal institution he winds up in won't be disclosed until he arrives. The prison bureau currently has him classified as "in transit," according to the Orlando Sentinel.