LOU Pearlman picked the wrong guy to sue.
Pearlman, the often-scrutinized talent promoter credited with discovering ‘N Sync and the Backstreet Boys, is the subject of a just-released book that lays out in detail the myriad fraud allegations leveled against him and his now-defunct Wilhelmina Scouting Network.
The author, Ontario-based Les Henderson, was named as a defendant in a lawsuit Pearlman filed in 2004 against his many detractors. Henderson, who operates the Web site http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com, which spotlights consumer frauds, says he had no prior interest in Pearlman and that the talent promoter mistakenly named him in the lawsuit.
“I’ve been in court for two years now, in Florida battling this claim,” Henderson told On The Money.
Pearlman has long been labeled a scamster by the news media – including Dateline, Newsweek and this newspaper – as well as others, including clients who say he scammed them by taking their money and never delivering on promises to find model work.
He was the subject of a two-year investigation by the Florida attorney general. He was exonerated in that probe, and earlier this year was cleared by a federal jury on claims of fraud and trademark infringement.
Henderson explains his motivation for writing the book: “This lengthy record was written as a creative response to a vexatious nuisance lawsuit used as a public relations stunt at my expense – it serves as a lawsuit against the perpetrators in the court of public opinion.”
SLAM DUNK
King James, meet the Oracle of Omaha.
Last week, NBA superstar LeBron James and billionaire investorWarren Buffett broke bread – bacon cheeseburgers, actually – at a pub in Omaha, Neb., raising eyebrows and suspicions that the two may wind up doing business together.
James was joined by his business partner Maverick Carter, and Buffett, oddly, was wearing a custom-made Berkshire Hathaway basketball uniform bearing the name “Buffett” on the back.
“His legs looked great,” the waitress at the Crescent Moon Ale House was quoted as saying in the Omaha World Herald.
NAKED NEWS
GenesisIntermedia is at once the problem, and the very essence of, the anti-naked short-selling movement.
Its stock “trades” on the pink sheets for 1/100 of a cent, and it has not filed financials for several years. Its CEO and founder, Ramy El-Batrawi, is at the center of a $160 million SEC stock-fraud complaint. Even Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi arms dealer and investor in many legally-troubled enterprises, makes an appearance.
An investor might expect an enterprise like this would spend its time preparing for the onslaught of legal action. But that investor would be wrong.
What GenesisIntermedia spends its time doing now is issuing outraged press releases about naked short-selling, the media and the SEC.
So instead of trying to recoup the millions of investor dollars GenesisIntermedia casually incinerated in trying to launch mall-based electronic kiosks and an online car rental company – both of which failed spectacularly – it rails against short-sellers and a Bloomberg reporter.