Ex-Theater Agent Sentenced to Six Months for Fake Play

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A former theater agent has been sentenced to six months in jail after admitting that he bilked investors of hundreds of thousands of dollars to back a nonexistent Broadway play.

Roland Scahill, 42, confessed to a scheme that took place between October 2014 and August 2015, in which Mr. Scahill told associates that he had secured the rights to the life story of Kathleen Battle, the opera singer, and was going to produce a one-woman play called “The Kathleen Battle Project” with Lupita Nyong’o as its star.

Ms. Nyong’o had no knowledge of this, nor did the Shubert Organization, which Mr. Scahill said was offering up the Booth Theater to house the show. Mr. Scahill also said he had told investors that he had struck a deal with Netflix to stream a performance of the show.

In total, Mr. Scahill confessed to defrauding 10 investors of $205,000, according to court papers.

In the plea agreement, Mr. Scahill said, “I never purchased life rights from Kathleen Battle, I never contracted with Lupita Nyong’o to star, I never procured the Booth Theater as a venue for the show, and I never had a contract with Netflix.”

As part of the deal, Mr. Scahill paid back the remaining amount of about $90,000 that he owed the investors in restitution.

In a statement, the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., said, “Through his elaborate overtures to investors, Roland Scahill scammed patrons of the arts to the tune of more than $200,000. We are pleased to have brought his larcenous scheme to a grand finale.”

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