ORLANDO, Fla. – The man who created the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync agreed to be returned to the United States from Guam to face a federal bankruptcy charge, officials said Monday.
It wasn't immediately clear when Lou Pearlman would return to Florida. Deputy U.S. Marshal Jimmy Disbrow said Pearlman would be transported from Guam within 10 days -- probably to Hawaii or California. From there, Disbrow said, it could take two or three weeks before Pearlman arrives in Florida.
"It's really up in the air right now," Disbrow said.
Pearlman was arrested in Indonesia last week on one count of bank fraud. He was expelled from the resort island of Bali after the FBI contacted authorities there, transferred to U.S. custody and flown to Guam for a hearing.
He is accused of fraudulently securing nearly $20 million in bank loans with documents from a made-up accounting firm. The criminal complaint against him was filed in March and unsealed last week after authorities located him.
Assets have been liquidated in two bankruptcy cases against Pearlman and his companies, and the entertainment mogul has for months ignored court actions against him.
Florida investigators separately allege Pearlman defrauded more than 1,000 individual investors out of more than $315 million in a long-running Ponzi scheme. Several banks say he collectively owes them more than $120 million, according to bankruptcy court documents.
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