Property fortunes *NSYNC built after band split

Boy band sensation *NSYNC shattered records by selling 2.4 million copies of their hit album No Strings Attached in a single week.

Yet behind the scenes, the stars were surviving on a measly allowance of just $52 ($US35) a day.

Despite generating hundreds of millions of dollars in album sales and sold-out stadium tours, the band members were financially blindsided by their manager, Lou Pearlman.

The music mogul swindled more than half a billion dollars from investors and artists before the group broke free to build massive property fortunes.

The band severed ties with Pearlman in 1999 and signed a lucrative deal with Jive Records.

The move finally delivered the multimillion-dollar payday they deserved. Just three years later, after dropping their third album Celebrity, the band went on an indefinite hiatus.

Decades after escaping the biggest contract scam in pop history, the former teen heart-throbs have poured their fortunes into the elite real estate market.

Here is how the members of *NSYNC built their property empires from the ground up.

MORE: ‘Wow’: Pam Anderson’s shock new life at 59

Vanished star quits LA for wild drug life at 72

‘Tough’: Warne hid wealth for kids not wives

JC Chasez: Net Worth $24m ($US16m)

JC Chasez quietly turned to real estate to build his millions.

He bought an Orlando mansion in 2000 for $1.8m ($US1.2m) and later sold it for $2.5m ($US1.7m ).

The pop star also bought a $1.5m ($US1m) Los Angeles home in 2000, before gifting another long-held Florida property to his parents in 2015.

While Timberlake exploded with his debut solo album Justified, Chasez faced a tougher road ahead.

Following *NSYNC’s split, the entertainer landed minor film roles and sporadic TV guest appearances.

The singer officially kicked off his music career in 2002 with the track Blowin’ Me Up (With Her Love), featured on the Drumline movie soundtrack.

In 2004, he released Schizophrenic, his first and only solo album. However, promotion for the record was completely overshadowed by Timberlake’s infamous Super Bowl halftime show with Janet Jackson.

Chasez planned to drop a follow-up album, The Story of Kate, in 2006. But despite releasing two singles, the project was scrapped in 2007 when he parted ways with Jive Records.

Stepping back from the microphone, the pop icon pivoted into songwriting and producing for acts like the Backstreet Boys.

In 2012, he launched auditions for an all-girl group called Girl Radical. The group released a few tracks, but the project failed to gain traction. He later joined the North American tour of Jesus Christ Superstar as Pontius Pilate.

However, the production was abruptly cancelled in May 2014 due to poor ticket sales.

Justin Timberlake: Net Worth $372m ($US250m) combined with wife Jessica Biel

As the group’s breakout solo star, Justin Timberlake used hit songs like Cry Me a River and SexyBack to fund a massive property empire across America.

That portfolio was topped off in 2022 when he sold his song catalogue to Hipgnosis Song Management in a lucrative $150m ($US100m) deal.

Justin Timberlake has quietly built a fortune in elite real estate.

He bought a New York penthouse in 2017 for $US20.2m ($30m) before selling it for $43m ($US29m) in 2022.

The pop star also sold a Soho penthouse for $US6.6m ($10m) and a 130-acre Tennessee estate for $US8m ($12m).

However, he is holding onto his 10-acre Hollywood Hills estate and a private mountain retreat in Montana’s ultra-private Yellowstone Club.

Lance Bass: Net Worth $30m ($US20m)

Rebounding from *NSYNC’s split, Lance Bass successfully pivoted into TV hosting, reality shows, and voice acting. He also established his own commercial production firm.

The singer channelled those post-pop earnings straight into California real estate. In 2013, he purchased a Sherman Oaks mansion for $2.3m ($US1.5m).

Following extensive renovations, the property has surged in value to an estimated $6.1m ($US4m).

His current real estate wealth stands in stark contrast to his early days in pop music.

In 2002, Timberlake took a hiatus to pursue a solo career, effectively ending the group.

While Bass admitted he was initially hurt by the decision, the former bandmates now maintain a good relationship.

However, the financial reality during the group’s peak was far more toxic.

In late 1998, after years of global hit records, the band members expected a six-figure payday.

Instead, manager Lou Pearlman handed them a cheque for just $38,000 ($US25,000).

Outraged, Bass promptly tore the cheque up.

“After three years of doing this, having a No. 1 album, being the biggest band in the world, we weren’t seeing any paychecks,” Bass told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014.

Pearlman and restrictive label deals had siphoned off the vast majority of their earnings.

“Well, the worst thing is people thinking that we were rich, because we were not,” Bass told The Jess Cagle Show in 2023.

“We were famous, but we were not rich. I made way more money after *NSYNC than I did during *NSYNC.”

“He really took a majority of all of our stuff, and the record label, too … horrible, horrible deals.”

Joey Fatone: Net Worth $10.4m ($US7m)

At the height of *NSYNC’s global fame, Joey Fatone appeared to have it all. But when the group split in 2002, his fortune vanished almost overnight.

Without a steady income, the singer hit a rock-bottom period that left him facing bankruptcy and having his electricity shut off at Christmas.

“There was never a conversation, per se. There was never a goodbye. There was never anything,” Fatone revealed in the documentary Boy Band Confidential: A Hollywood Demons Event.

Before the split, Fatone had purchased a sprawling 1142sq m (12,300-square-foot) mansion in Orlando, Florida.

At the time, his accountant assured him he was financially secure.

“Money was coming in. I asked my accountant, ‘Hey, are we good?’ ‘Yeah, we’re great.’ ‘I’m OK to buy this house, right?’ He goes, ‘Your kids’ kids’ kids will be fine,’” Fatone recalled.

But the accountant had no idea the band’s regular paydays were about to end.

By 2011, Fatone’s financial situation was so dire that a new accountant urged him to sell the property immediately to avoid total bankruptcy.

“He goes, ‘You need to get out of that house, or you’re gonna go bankrupt.’ I went, ‘I’m sorry, what?’” Fatone said.

Fatone was forced to sell the massive mansion for $5m ($US3.3m), roughly half its original asking price.

The money squeeze hit a devastating peak during the holiday season.

“There was one point during Christmas, they shut off the lights to my house because I didn’t pay the bill,” he said.

“I almost was gonna go bankrupt. And I have a family. This is when I am married, I have two kids.”

Swallowing his pride, Fatone asked wealthy acquaintances for help, but was turned away.

With options running out, he moved his then-wife Kelly Baldwin and two children in with his parents in Las Vegas.

“I lived in Vegas for almost a year, busted my a** to slowly build back up kind of a career,” he explained.

“I went from performing in stadiums to, a year later, two years later, doing Broadway and then, all of a sudden, doing The Price Is Right at Bally’s, a live show in front of maybe 100 people.”

Fatone eventually turned his life around by embracing hosting roles, game shows, and acting gigs like My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Today, he has rebuilt his net worth to an estimated $10.7m ($US7m).

“You just have to think and realise there’s always light at the other side,” Fatone said.

Chris Kirkpatrick: Net Worth $15m ($US10m)

Chris Kirkpatrick famously founded and recruited the members of *NSYNC.

While he may not have reached Justin Timberlake’s solo pop heights, he has quietly built a $15.3m ($US10m ) fortune of his own.

Following the group’s 2002 hiatus, the singer pivoted into an entertainment career, most notably voicing pop star Chip Skylark on Nickelodeon’s hit show The Fairly OddParents.

He also appeared on reality series including Celebrity Big Brother and Gone Country, guest-starred on The Simpsons, and landed film roles in projects such as Sharknado 3.

During *NSYNC’s late-1990s peak, Kirkpatrick established an urban skater clothing line, Fu-Man Skeeto, before shifting his earnings into residential property.

He purchased a premium 587sq m (6,314-square-foot) lakefront mansion in Orlando’s exclusive, gated Vizcaya community.

Kirkpatrick held the luxury property for years before locking in a clean $2.6m ($US1.69m) sale in 2018.

Following the sale, he relocated his family to a permanent home in Nashville, Tennessee.

Alongside his TV and property ventures, Kirkpatrick formed a post-*NSYNC rock band, Nigels11, and remains active supporting music education through his charitable foundation.

MORE: Massive fortune Sam Neill left behind

Vanished Xena star’s shock life now

‘Sad’: Vanished Fabio’s life at 67, one ‘regret’