Producer Stole $165,000 by Making up Broadway Show: DA

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A play about the life of legendary opera singer Kathleen Battle starring Lupita Nyong'o sounds like a pretty good show, doesn't it? Too bad it was a total lie made up by producer Roland Scahill to con investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Scahill, 41, was charged Friday for scamming $165,000 from seven people who invested in his fake show between October 2014 and January 2015, according to the District Attorney Cyrus Vance's office. Scahill told the investors he had Battle's life rights and Nyong'o's agreement to star in the play. Then he added that Netflix had agreed to film the play to milk more money out of them.

The fraudster spent hundreds of the investor's dollars on stocks, credit cards, rent, food, alcohol, and entertainment, according to the statement from Vance's office.

When the investors found out in the fall of 2015 that Scahill, who owns a production company called RMS2 Productions, was a fraud, they demanded their money back. He sent them checks that bounced and ceased communication with them, according to prosecutors.

Scahill was charged with criminal possession of stolen property, grand larceny, and scheme to defraud, Vance's office said.

"This indictment closes the curtain on Roland Scahill's phantom production," Vance said in a statement.

Image from Robert Scahill's Facebook