It’s a News 13 exclusive in the Lou Pearlman fraud investigation.
In an interview with News 13's John Handiboe, the owner of Club Paris claims Pearlman came to him for hundreds of thousands of dollars and he believes Pearlman used that money to flee the country before the FBI swept in.
Seeing Lou Pearlman cuffed and being lead into custody, nightclub owner Fred Khalilian calls it justice.
“He destroyed people’s lives, good people,” Khalilian said.
Hundreds of people have made claims of fraud against Pearlman and Khalilian says he was also caught in the middle and swindled by a man he called his friend.
“Because he is very careful,” Khalilian said. “He is an expert. When they say he was a professor and a doctor of business he really was.”
Khalilian says Pearlman came to him asking for money, claiming he was having a cash flow problem with a business deal.
“1 gave him a check for $150,000 the first week of December and then borrowed cash from me, close to a half a million dollars,” Khalilian said.
The two met in private on several occasions. In total Khalilian says he handed over nearly a half million dollars, believing Pearlman would pay him back in thirty days and receive free rent for Club Paris for an entire year.
John: You said you can sense when things are going wrong. When did you sense that things were going wrong?
Fred: When he took the first the $150,000 and he told me don't say a word to anyone and if I did my relationship with him would be in hell and if I really work with him and cooperate with him as my landlord he said next year he would give me free rent, discounts and help you with my next club.
After that, Pearlman left the country January 6, telling Khalilian he was going on a business tour in Germany. That so called tour ended in Indonesia and the FBI has plans to bring Pearlman back to Central Florida to face his accusers
“I want to go see him and I have one question for him: why?” Khalilian said.
If you want to learn more about Khalilian's dealings with Lou Pearlman, John's entire interview is on News 13 On Demand. The owner of Club Paris also explains why he took control the vehicle Paris Hilton was driving the night of her DUI arrest and the new club he is opening downtown. It’s all on Digital Cable Channel 313.