The Broadway scam artist who created fictional investors for the musical “Rebecca” — and netted hefty finder fees as a result — pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud in Manhattan Federal Court today.
Crooked Long Island businessman Mark Hotton, 47, faces a maximum of 20 years behind bars for each count. But prosecutors and defense lawyer Ira London said he’s probably going to get a total of between 33 months to 41 months under federal sentencing guidelines.
Hotton also could be forced to fork over $500,000 in restitution based on ill-gotten gains from his musical scam. He’s due back in court for sentencing Nov. 1.
Hotton wore gray jail uniform with long white sleeves during his appearance before US District Court Judge John Koeltl.
The judge asked Hotton a series of yes-and-no questions, making sure the defendant understood he was surrendering his rights to a trial.
“Rebecca” producers had first approached Hotton, a blowhard former stockbroker, for help last year to cover a $4 million shortfall in investments.
Hotton made up phony overseas investors — then collected about $65,000 in commissions for his “work.”
At one point, to try to keep his scheme from unraveling, Hotton concocted a string of e-mails saying one of his big-money backers had suddenly died.
In 2011, Hotton also was slapped with a civil fraud lawsuit for allegedly selling at least $1.69 million in bogus debt for collection to a brokerage firm.
The court papers accused Hotton of a “long history of criminal misconduct and fraud.”
The lawsuit had to be dismissed because Hotton filed for bankruptcy, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Jerome Reisman, at the time. His clients were seeking to have the bankruptcy tossed, he said.