Broadway Financer Arrested for Fraud

A stockbroker was arrested on Monday for defrauding the producers of the upcoming Broadway show Rebecca: The Musical by allegedly concocting an elaborate scheme that federal agents called “stranger than fiction.” The stockbroker, Mark Hotton of West Islip, N.Y., allegedly collected $60,000 for the musical but never actually gave any of it to the show, resulting in a production shutdown on Sept. 30. Hotton is charged with faking loans and coming up with phantom investors—including a phony investor that he killed off in August after he could not come up with $2 million he said the investor would give the show. Hotton reportedly stashed the money from his alleged schemes in the Cayman Islands. He is being held without bail.