Okay, I have to 'fess up front that I have never heard of this guy but he is, apparently, a celebrity in the world of boy bands, having launched The Backstreet Boys and NSync. Hmm..

Anyway, Pearlman was sentenced on Wednesday to 25 years in prison, after swindling investors and major U.S. banks out of more than $300 million. His twenty-year long scam, which involved tempting individuals and banks to invest millions of dollars in two companies that existed only on paper, has been described as 'audacious.'

Even more audacious was the fact that Swineman (sorry, Pearlman) tried to delay his sentencing so that he had time to continue work on his new 'project', European pop band US 5.

This pearl of a man actually proposed that he had authorized access to the internet to carry on his business dealings while he is in jail. Unsurprisingly, access was denied.

I know that, somewhere in there, is a one liner about pearls before swine but I just can't get my brain around it. So insert your own joke at this point.

Reuters