Justin Timberlake Reacts to Lou Pearlman's Death: 'I Hope He Found Some Peace'

Emily Krauser
Updated

Justin Timberlake has spoken out following the news of Lou Pearlman's death.

Pearlman, a former manager of boy bands like *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys, died at age 62 at the Federal Correctional Institute in Miami, Florida, where he was serving a 25-year sentence, ET can confirm.

Timberlake took to Twitter on Sunday, writing, "I hope he found some peace. God bless and RIP, Lou Pearlman."

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Pearlman fostered a number of male pop groups, including O-Town, who gave an exclusive statement to ET on Sunday.

"Hard to articulate the emotions being felt among our group. Lou brought us together and no doubt helped contribute joy to millions across the world," they wrote. "However, we cannot ignore the pain he inflicted on the innocent families, our band and our musical contemporaries. For these reasons, his death is far more tragic."

O-Town's Jacob Underwood also tweeted about Pearlman, writing, "Hard to describe what I'm feeling.. He was always nice to me, even when he was stealing from me. RIP. Power and money are not our legacy. It's the people we help, and the positive effect we have in the world. Praise God for life and love."

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Underwood's bandmate, Erik-Michael Estrada, also posted to Twitter. "Many reasons I'm sad about the news. Primarily because we should be celebrating the man for his musical accomplishments. Instead.. we're not," he wrote over a series of three tweets. "That said - I'm sorry for all the families and lives affected by his choices. But I'm forever thankful for my brothers in @OTownOfficial and for my extended family @backstreetboys @lfo and @nsync #anamericantragedy."

In 2008, Pearlman was convicted for his involvement in a massive Ponzi scheme that swindled 1,700 investors out of a half-billion dollars. He was also sued by most of his former acts, including *NSYNC, BSB, O-Town, LFO, Take 5, Natural, and Aaron Carter, for fraud and misrepresentation.

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Nonetheless, though conflicted, Timberlake and O-Town weren't the only ones who shared their condolences via social media. *NSYNC members Lance Bass and Chris Kirpatrick expressed their sympathies on Twitter, as did a number of Pearlman's other former clients.

Timberlake's former bandmate, Joey Fatone, recently opened up about the possibility of *NSYNC performing again in the future. Find out more in the video below.

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