WEEKLY GROSS-OUT: Broadway scams

A businessman and former stockbroker pleaded guilty yesterday (Eastern Daylight Time) to what prosecutors say was a dramatically conceived plot to scam the producers of the Broadway show "Rebecca, the Musical," which is based on the novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. Mark Hotton of West Islip, New York, admitted to defrauding the producers of the yet-to-open show in 2011 and 2012 by creating fake foreign investors and businesses, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan. "With his guilty plea today, the curtain is finally closing on Mark Hotton's elaborately staged fraud," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in the release. "Though his lies and deceits were the stuff of fiction, they caused real harm to his victims, and he now faces real consequences as a result." Those real consequences should entail a lengthy stay in jail so he would have enough time to think about what he did and the effect it had on decent people who just wanted to put on a show.