Federal prosecutors have indicted Carl Rinsch for allegedly ripping off Netflix for $11 million for a long promised sci-fi series that was never made.
In a case with Keanu Reeves cameos, some bad crypto deals, a pledge to be able to control lightening, five Rolls-Royces and a scathing portrait of an industry drunk on its own content needs, the 47 Ronin director is looking at likely the rest of his life behind bars if found guiltily. “Carl Rinsch allegedly stole more than $11 million from a prominent streaming platform to finance lavish purchases and personal investments instead of completing a promised television series,” FBI Assistant Director Leslie Backschies said Tuesday of Netflix a.k.a I“Streaming Company-1” in the 12-page indictment, as the indictment was made pubic. “The FBI will continue to reel in any individual who seeks to defraud businesses.”
Arrested today in LA, the 47-year-old Rinsch is “charged with one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; one count of money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; and five counts of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
In ways that seem almost impossible to imagine in this era of leaner budgets, more streamlined needs and less production overall. Rinsch’s alleged conduct and crimes would make a pretty good six-episode series on a streamer, or a Netflix True Crime documentary.
After burning through $44 million of the then Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos run streamer’s cash for the much bid over artificial humans based White Horse and holding final cut power Rinsch demanded another $11 million off the company in 2020. The director said the funds were for various and pre-and post-production” needs to complete the series., Having seen next to nothing since Cindy Holland scooped up White Horse, renamed Conquest, from Amazon in 2018 for over $61 million, Netflix gave the director the money with what one assumes was a hope and a prayer.
A year later, with absolutely nothing to show for it but aggravation, Netflix pulled the plug on the project. The streamer later wrote off over $55 million in costs. Netflix won a $12 million arbitration ruling against Rinsch last year after the filmmaker claimed that the company actually owned him $14 million. Rinsch doesn’t seem to have paid up.
Before all this ended up in court, the filmmaker took Netflix’s cash that had been deposited in a bank account in the name of the Rinsch Company” and moved it around to a variety of other accounts and locations. After a slew of bad market trades, Rinsch blew through around half the $11 million in less than a year. Regaling Netflix execs with tales that White Horse/Conquest was “awesome and moving forward really well,” Rinsch then went on a spending spree.
The inventory put together by SDNY prosecutors and the Kash Patel-run FBI listed a real champagne tastes and caviar dreams mentality.
Rinsch used the money he had left “to speculate on cryptocurrency, and on personal expenses and luxury items, including approximately $1,787,000 on credit card bills; approximately $1,073,000 on lawyers to sue Streaming Company-1 for even more money, and for lawyers related to his divorce; approximately $395,000 to stay at the Four Seasons hotel and at various luxury rental properties; approximately $3,787,000 on furniture and antiques, including approximately $638,000 to purchase two mattresses and approximately $295,000 on luxury bedding and linens; approximately $2,417,000 to purchase five Rolls-Royces and one Ferrari; and approximately $652,000 on watches and clothing.”
With Rinsch set to go before U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff Tuesday, Netflix had no comment on today’s indictment when contacted by Deadline.
