Boy band svengali LOU PEARLMAN has been sentenced to 25 years in jail after pleading guilty to cheating investors and U.S. banks out of more than $300 million (£150 million).

The man behind the Backstreet Boys and N’ Sync was charged with conspiracy, money laundering and making false statements during a bankruptcy proceeding.

He reached a plea deal with prosecutors in March (08), which left him facing up to 25 years behind bars and a $1 million (£500,000) fine.

As part of the agreement, he agreed to work with federal agents to recover as much of the $300 million (£150 million) he is accused of stealing.

Pearlman also acknowledged setting up a fake accounting firm to create business documents and tax returns for himself and his companies and he admitted using the signature of a deceased former associate to stall repayment bids.

The shamed businessman is suspected of defrauding another $100 million (£50 million) from banks.

Pearlman appeared in a Florida court on Wednesday (21May08) morning, when he was handed the full prison term by U.S. Judge G. Kendall Sharp.

Delivering the sentence, Sharp held up a book of letters from Pearlman’s victims, noting that his targets included “his family, his close friends and people in their 70s and 80s who have lost their life savings”.

He added, “So the sympathy factor doesn’t run high with the court.”

WENN

Rapper-turned-reality TV star Vanilla Ice has been arrested for domestic battery.

The star, real name Robert Van Winkle, and his wife Laura had been arguing since Wednesday. It is believed Laura called police to report her husband was hitting and kicking her at their Palm Beach County, Florida home on Thursday evening.

According to the arrest report, Laura Van Winkle appeared uninjured, but told cops she wanted a divorce from the star. But she is reported to have reneged on her earlier allegations, insisting her husband had not hit or kicked her, but had pushed her.

She is alleged to have told a police officer, “He started yelling at me for going out to buy a bedroom set. In front of my daughter. I’m sorry I can’t say any more until I talk to an attorney.”

Robert, 40, told cops about the couple’s two-day fight, admitting he called his wife “nuts”, and said his wife is bipolar and takes medication but still has ‘irrational episodes’. He denied the allegations he pushed his wife.
Van Winkle was arrested in 2004 over similar domestic battery charges.

Source

L.A. cops arrested Rikki Rockett, drummer for the glam rock band Poison, on a rape warrant out of Mississippi after he touched the ground at Los Angeles Airport after a flight from New Zealand, reports the Los Angeles Daily News.

Officers from the LAPD’s Airport Division seized the 46-year-old former hairdresser and lifeguard (real name: Richard Ream) as he was going through customs on Monday and then transported him to L.A. County Jail.

Officials there booked him on a felony fugitive sexual assault warrant out of Neshoba County, Miss. Information about the warrant and specific charges was not immediately available. Neither were details of Rockett’s current whereabouts.

The drummer had been in New Zealand to reunite and perform with other original members of the band at Rock2Wellington, a heavy metal show. He formed the group in the ’80s with high school pal Bret Michaels.

WENN

Richie Sambora has been arrested on a DUI charge in Laguna Beach, Calif., TMZ.com reports.

The Bon Jovi guitarist was pulled over around 11 p.m. Tuesday night after police said they spotted him driving erratically. He was driving a Hummer and failed multiple filed sobriety tests, according to TMZ.

“At this point there’s no indication of drugs,” said Laguna Beach PD Sgt. Jason Kravetz.

In June 2007, Sambora entered a treatment facility. “I was just drinking too much and I needed to get my life together,” he said during a Today show appearance. “I’m still in therapy and stuff like that, but it’s good. I’m great. I feel fine.”

Last year was a difficult one for the musician, 47. He and actress Denise Richards broke up after dating for about a year. In April, his divorce from Heather Locklear was finalized and that same month, his father died of lung cancer.

Actress Dawn Wells, who played the character Mary Ann on Gilligan’s Island, was caught with marijuana in her car, the AP reports.

Wells, 69, is serving six months of unsupervised probation, according to the AP.

On October 18, Wells was pulled over because she was driving erratically in Teton County, Idaho. When asked by a sheriff’s deputy about the smell of marijuana, she said she just dropped off three hitchhikers who had been smoking.

Four half-smoked joints and two cases used to keep the drug were found, the AP reported. Her attorney said Wells was unaware that marijuana was in her car.

On February 29, she was sentenced to five days in jail and fined $410.50. She plead guilty to one count of reckless driving and three misdemeanor counts – driving under the influence, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession.

WENN

Please note that this picture is not his current mug shot and from a prior arrest.

Another actor has been busted for a DUI! Mickey Rourke was arrested on 4:00 am this morning driving his VESPA!!

“Mickey Rourke was arrested for DUI at 4 a.m. this morning while riding a green Vespa,” a sergeant from the Miami Beach police department said. “He made a U-turn on a red light. We stopped him and gave him a classic road sobriety test. He failed so we brought him in. He blew a .081, which was over the limit, and was locked up for 24 hours at the Miami Dade County jail.”

In the police report it states that Mickey was slurring his words, and used foul language with the police officers.

“I’m not drunk, I didn’t even drink that much,” Rourke is quoted as saying.

Rapper T.I. was arrested hours before he was slated to perform at the BET Hip-Hop awards. T.I. was arrested on federal charges for illegally buying machine guns. Is he preparing for WWII again? What in the world does someone want with machine guns? I hope it’s because he collects guns or something.

According to People.com T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris, 27, was arrested by federal agents in an Atlanta shopping center parking lot Saturday and charged with possession of unregistered machine guns and silencers and possession of firearms by a convicted felon, the Associated Press reports.