Mark Hotton was arrested at his West Islip home today. (VICTOR ALCORN)
Troubled electrical-contracting king Mark Hotton was arrested and charged with defrauding the producers of “Rebecca – The Musical,” according to a complaint that was unsealed today.
Hotton, 46, of West Islip, was charged with two counts of wire fraud and faces a maximum of twenty years per count.
The money middleman is accused of fabricating $4.5 million in financing commitments and the possibility of a $1.1 million loan, so that producers of the show would pay him more than $60,000 in fees and commissions, according to the complaint.
The alleged criminal acts took place between September 2011 and this month, prosecutors said.
“Hotton falsely represented that he had secured commitments of approximately $4.5 million to ‘Rebecca’ from several overseas investors,” prosecutors wrote.
“In truth and fact, the … investors appear to be Hotton’s own inventions. The businesses of some of these investors have Web sites whose domain names are registered to Hotton and were created shortly before and during the fraud.”
The elaborate fraud allegedly included email correspondence with straw investors.
Hotton had one of the phony backers — named “Paul Abrams” — suddenly die to a dose of dramatic flair, prosecutors said.
The invented Abrams was the biggest single backer of “Rebecca,” having committed $2 million to the project, authorities said.
Hotton allegedly promised producers Abrams would wire the funds by July 31.
The defendant bought more time by writing Abrams out of his script — faking the phony backer’s death, prosecutors said.
Abrams’ made-up assistant broke the bad news in an Aug. 5 e-mail, that Hotton allegedly shared with producers.
“Mr. Hotton, I’m so sorry to relay such Terrible news, Mr. Abrams passed away this evening and the family has asked for your attendance at the services as well the opportunity to discuss their financial well-being as you were so close to him,” the email read, according to prosecutors.
“Please contact us tomorrow with your travel plans so we can arrange the family driver to pick you up.”
Hotton’s defense lawyer, Gerald Shargel, could not be immediately reached comment today.
“Mark Hotton perpetrated stranger-than-fiction frauds both on and off Broadway,” Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said. “To carry out the alleged fraud, Hotton faked lives, faked companies and even staged a fake death, pretending that one imaginary investor had suddenly died from malaria.”
Bharara praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI.
“Ultimately, Hotton’s imagination was no match for the FBI which uncovered, with lightning speed, his alleged financial misdeeds.”
Hotton won’t earn a Tony for this script, only a time behind bars, feds said.
“In his alleged scheme to defraud investors, Mark Hotton wrote, directed and starred in the work of fiction he took to Broadway,” FBI Acting Assistant Director-in-Charge Galligan said.
“A convincing portrayal on stage can earn you a Tony. A convincing act that fleeces a production’s backers can earn you a prison term.”
Hotton’s well-acted scam won over producers, who spent several million — real — dollars on developing “Rebecca,” based on the defendant’s faux backers, officials said.
“By that time, the producers had spent at least $6 million of the funds committed by genuine investors and had incurred millions more dollars in debt related to the production,” according to the federal criminal complaint.
Hotton, who was taken into custody today at his Long Island home, was previously revealed as the middleman between lead producer Ben Sprecher and “Abrams,” the investor Sprecher said he never met.
Ronald Russo, a lawyer representing Sprecher, said his client still wants to make “Rebecca” a reality.
“My client remains totally committed to bringing ‘Rebecca’ to Broadway,” Russo said.
Hotton’s arrested was cheered by the “Rebecca” producer. “My client, Ben Sprecher, is extremely gratified that Mark Hotton was taken into custody by the federal authorities,” Russo said.
“Hotton’s fraudulent conduct did enormous damage to Broadway and to ‘Rebecca — The Musical.’ “
The musical is influenced by the classic Hitchcock film about a wealthy Englishman, his new wife and a manipulative housekeeper — all haunted by the hero’s dead first wife, Rebecca.
It was a double-feature bad day for Hotton, who was indicted in Brooklyn federal court in a completely unrelated scam involving his Long Island electrical company, authorities revealed today.
Hotton and his wife Sherri allegedly defrauded investors of $3.7 million by inventing phony work their company did to draw backers.
By creating fake invoices, the Hottons sold these accounts payable to investors who’d pay a percentage of the amount due, in exchange for full payment of that debt later, according to the unsealed indictment.
The invented $9.8 million in imaginary invoices and made $3.7 million from ripped-off investors.
Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn was one of the Hottons’ straw clients, authorities said.
Feds pinched David Bass, former assistant director of facilities and engineering at the hospital, as an alleged accomplice. Bass was paid $6,000 a month by the Hottons to keep quiet about the fraudulent invoices, according to the indictment.
Bass’ supervisors at the hospital had no knowledge of his involvement in this scam, officials said.
Additional reporting by David K. Li