Boy band creator pleads guilty to fraud

ORLANDO, Fla., March 7 (UPI) -- Former music mogul Louis J. Pearlman has pleaded guilty in a Florida court to federal charges of fraud and conspiracy and faces up to 25 years in prison.

Pearlman appeared before Senior U.S. District Judge G. Kendall Sharp Thursday and admitted he fleeced investors and banks out of hundreds of millions of dollars over a period of 25 years, the Orlando Sentinel reported Friday.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy, one count of money laundering and one count of making a false claim in a bankruptcy.

In doing so, Pearlman admitted his part in a Ponzi scheme, a bank-fraud con and a plot to siphon frozen assets from a bankruptcy case, the Sentinel said.

Pearlman, who helped create the pop groups Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced May 21, the newspaper said.

"I'm accepting full responsibility," Pearlman told the judge.