NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The head of a defunct movie studio was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison for selling nearly $2 million in nonexistent tax credits to New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, head coach Sean Payton and other team members.

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman also ordered Wayne Read, 46, to pay back all the money that Saints players and coaches lost in the scam. More than $650,000 of the restitution he owes already has been recovered through bankruptcy proceedings.

Read, whose Louisiana Film Studios LLC was based in a New Orleans suburb, pleaded guilty in May 2010 to interstate transportation of stolen funds and wire fraud.

Read never invested the money necessary to obtain the tax credits he sold to his investors, who wanted them so they could reduce their state income-tax liability, prosecutors said.

A court filing says Read was paid $100,000 by Brees, $144,000 by Payton, $16,000 by wide receiver Lance Moore, $425,000 by former Saints defensive lineman Charles Grant, $80,000 by former Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey and $80,000 by former Saints star quarterback Archie Manning.

Former Saints long snapper Kevin Houser, who was in the securities business and was the target of lawsuits blaming him for the sour deal, bought $125,000 in credits. Read is the only person to face criminal charges in the case.

Prosecutors said Read used the money to pay personal debts and to avoid the sale of his home in Wonder Lake, Ill.

Read told Feldman that he defrauded his victims after “business circumstances got away from me.”

“There’s not a day I wake up or go to sleep where I don’t wish I had made different decisions,” he said.

Feldman rejected the notion that Read’s victims may garner less sympathy because they’re “rich or famous or both.”

“It’s certainly a serious crime, whether the victims are rich or not,” he said. “The law applies equally to poor and rich people.”

Read must report to prison by Feb. 19. Feldman ordered him to make monthly restitution payments of $500.