Ex-boy band manager accused of Ponzi fraud

ORLANDO, Fla., March 12 (UPI) -- Louis Pearlman, who once managed boy bands, is accused by Florida regulators of orchestrating a massive Ponzi scheme, duping investors out of $317 million.

The FBI has raided his home and office, The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported. He is the target of several criminal investigations. Banks have seized his assets. At least 20 investors have launched civil suits.

And ostensibly audited financial statements for Pearlman's Trans Continental Airlines charter company, in which he convinced individuals to invest, were evidently not financial statements at all -- nor can anyone find evidence the auditing firm was real, the newspaper alleged.

Regulators say the firm's phone number was an answering service and its mail was forwarded to Pearlman's home, BusinessWeek reported.

"At worst, TCA's financial statements are a fiction, purporting to have been prepared by a non-existent firm to deceive Integra," Integra Bank of Indiana wrote in a complaint. "At best, the financial statements were prepared by unlicensed accountants who either failed to properly audit TCA's financial statements, received misleading financial information from TCA, or both."

Pearlman's current whereabouts are unknown, the Sentinel reported.