NSYNC had diamond records and sold-out arena tours when their manager handed each of them a check for $5,000. Justin Timberlake got one too. The same manager later went to prison over a scheme that took about $300 million, much of it from Florida retirees. Lou Pearlman put the five of them together in Orlando in 1995 and paid for everything. A few years later they were playing to 18,000 people a night and still sharing one house. JC Chasez says they were trying to pay the phone bill. The checks came at a dinner at Lawry's. Pearlman brought in the head of their label from Germany, and Lance Bass says the man looked embarrassed. "You don't understand how much I have to pay him in order for y'all to get crumbs," he told them. Asked what Pearlman had made from them by then, Lance says, "Millions." The label paid Pearlman, and Pearlman decided what reached the band. They made nothing on merch, which Lance thinks brought in more than the music and tours combined. Pearlman negotiated their pay and collected it, so every dollar he held back from them stayed with him. The same goes for any agent, adviser or manager: if the person setting your price also gets paid out of it, find out how before you sign. JC's uncle, a lawyer, read the contract and saw problems right away. They left for Jive after a legal fight, and in March 2000 No Strings Attached sold 2.4 million copies in its first week. Nobody beat that week until Adele in 2015. Pearlman was caught in Bali in 2007, got 25 years and died in prison in 2016. In the video JC and Lance tell the Lawry's story. Would you have sued the man who made you famous, or taken the $5,000 and kept singing? I post one story like this every day: a famous name, the money they made, and who ended up with it.