Metro

Broadway show’s publicist was whistle-blower on ‘Rebecca’ investor scam

A Broadway publicist was the whistle-blower who warned investors of a massive investor scam that sank the musical “Rebecca.”

The production’s own press agent, Marc Thibodeau, tipped off key investors that they might be throwing their money into a project built on straw backers.

Feds last fall busted Long Island stockbroker Mark Hotton for allegedly defrauding producer Ben Sprecher.

Hotton allegedly concocted phony investors and fake loans and managed to fleece Sprecher of $60,000 in fees and expenses.

Sprecher last fall filed a lawsuit against Hotton and an unnamed “John Doe.” Sprecher amended his Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit today, naming Thibodeau as the “John Doe” defendant.

“Thibodeau owed [Sprecher] a duty of fidelity and loyalty in connection with their efforts to produce `Rebecca,’ “ Sprecher’s lawyers wrote.

The producer was particularly miffed that Thibodeau tipped off a last -minute investor, that court papers called the “Angel Investor.”

That backer wanted absolute confidentiality and Thidodeau allegedly sent three emails, using fake names, telling the Angel Investor to beware of a “Rebecca” scam.

”Thibodeau as under a duty not to misuse [Sprecher’s] confidential information to damage [Sprecher] in any way, including but not limited to the confidential information he had obtained about the Angel Investor,” according to the lawsuit.

Thibodeau’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, said his client had a duty to warn this backer.

“Ben Sprecher is is now suing the innocent whistle-blower with an impeccable reputation on Broadway who anonymously warned an innocent investor not to sink $2 million into the sinking ship that was ‘Rebecca’ after he learned that the entire Paul Abrams saga was indeed a fraud,” according to Lichtman.

Sprecher was going to take $4.5 million from “Paul Abrams,” the phantom investor, but never bothered to meet him and later admitted he never even had a phone conversation with him.

“Marc Thibodeau was loyal to Sprecher and loyal to the show – and stood to make a salary only once Rebecca went into rehearsals,” Lichtman said.

“Nevertheless, once Marc bothered to do the most cursory of checks on Abrams, he realized that he, too, had been ensnared in a fraud. Despite Sprecher’s assurances that he had done his ‘due diligence’ on Mark Hotton and Paul Abrams – Marc’s 10-second Google search revealed that Hotton was knee-deep in fraud and that the home address provided to Sprecher by Paul Abrams, the fabricated investor who Sprecher never bothered to meet or speak to on the phone – was a fake.”

Sprecher’s lawyer Ronald Russo insisted “Rebecca” would have survived the Hotton scam had Thibodeau not sent those e-mails.

“If he thought there was fraud going on here, you go to the authorities — you don’t send an email to the last investor to put in money and crash the play,” Russo said.

“I don’t believe for a nanosecond that Marc Thibodeau did this as a whistle-blower. This is not what a whistle-blower does. You don’t destroy a play.”

Sprecher’s lawsuit even goes as far as hinting that Thibodeau might have had ulterior motives to sink “Rebecca.”

“Upon information and belief, Thibodeau did not act alone, and was induced to take the malicious actions,” according to the lawsuit that still includes three unnamed John and Jane Doe defendants.

Additional reporting by Julia Marsh and David K. Li