Former Band Manager Is Sentenced.

Lou Pearlman, right, the former manager of pop acts like the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Wednesday for running a decades-long investment scheme that defrauded investors of $300 million. In a sentencing hearing at Federal District Court in Orlando, Fla., Judge G. Kendall Sharp gave Mr. Pearlman an unusual incentive to pay back his investors, offering to reduce the sentence by one month for every $1 million he repays. Mr. Pearlman, 53, pleaded guilty in March to charges of conspiracy and money laundering in connection with a Ponzi scheme in which he used fake accounting documents to lure people to invest in two companies that existed only on paper. Mr. Pearlman fled the country early last year, once federal authorities began investigating him, and in June he was found at a hotel in Bali, registered under the name A. Incognito Johnson. Larry Rifken, a lawyer representing victims of the schemes, said in a statement: ''The Creditors Committee is delighted with Judge Sharp's ruling today on Mr. Pearlman's sentence and believes that Judge Sharp did an excellent job in maximizing Mr. Pearlman's incentive to cooperate with the Trustee and the Committee in identifying, locating and monetizing any remaining undisclosed assets.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]