The lead producers of “Rebecca,” Ben Sprecher and Louise Forlenza, now face significant financial challenges. They have spent at least $6 million on the show from funds raised from real investors and incurred an additional $8 million in debts, according to authorities. They will be liable for the money if the production does not eventually open.

When they met Mr. Hotton last winter, Mr. Sprecher and Ms. Forlenza were struggling to raise several million dollars to stage the show on Broadway after already postponing it once. When Mr. Sprecher failed to interest veteran Broadway investors in “Rebecca,” Ms. Forlenza was put in touch with Mr. Hotton through a mutual business associate, and in early February she and Mr. Sprecher signed an agreement with Mr. Hotton to pay him a $7,500 fee to raise money and an 8 percent commission on any funds raised in excess of $250,000, according to the complaint.

Such commissions were once common on Broadway but are now rare, considered a sign of desperation for producers who need to raise money quickly. In a telephone interview Monday, Mr. Sprecher said he never agreed to pay a commission to Mr. Hotton — but rather a percentage of eventual profits — and added that Mr. Hotton’s total percentage was capped at 8 percent of whatever he raised. No money was paid to him out of capital from the show, Mr. Sprecher said.

The criminal complaint charged that Mr. Hotton, 46, invented Abrams, who had addresses in Australia and South Africa, and three other overseas investors and then used fake e-mail correspondence and fake investment agreements to suggest that these investors would provide $4.5 million for “Rebecca.” Neither Mr. Sprecher nor Ms. Forlenza ever met the phantom investors; Ms. Forlenza did meet a young woman at a “Rebecca” event last spring who purported to be Abrams’s niece, and had an American accent.

In addition to the scheme involving “Rebecca,” the prosecutors charged Mr. Hotton with using some of the same invented investors to defraud a Connecticut real estate company of $750,000. The company was similarly relying on him to help it secure a large loan, the complaint said.

In a separate case also unveiled Monday, federal prosecutors on Long Island charged that Mr. Hotton and several accomplices, including his wife, Sherri, had secured $3.7 million by creating sham invoices for companies they controlled and selling that debt at a discount to unsuspecting companies.