Man Gets Prison In ‘Rebecca’ Con

“I wanted to look him in the eye. He did a terrible thing,” producer Ben Sprecher said outside court after watching Hotton’s sentencing. Hotton pleaded guilty to charges that he made false promises that he could raise $4 million from phantom investors to save the adaptation of the psychological thriller. He was paid about $75,000 in fees in commissions in return. U.S. District Judge John Koeltl announced the sentence of two years and 10 months in prison for Hotton.

Prosecutors said Hotton carried out the ruse by promising “Rebecca” producers he could close a $4 million gap in their budget by securing $4.5 million from four foreign investors.

They said he asked for a $7,500 initial fee, a percent of the funds he raised and expenses along the way. None of the “investors” actually existed. Hotton even introduced one producer to the supposed niece of a London investor named Paul Abrams and then demanded reimbursement of more than $18,000 spent taking the man on a safari.

As the opening date of “Rebecca” approached in the fall of 2012, producers anxious to collect some of the money were told by Hotton that Abrams had died of malaria while traveling with his family and other investors did not want to contribute in his absence.

The onetime Wall Street stockbroker also faces sentencing in federal court in a separate fraud case in which he is accused of causing a loss of $15 million from 1995 to October 2012 through a series of schemes.