Director Carl Erik Rinsch has been indicted on charges of fraud and money laundering for allegedly taking $11 million from Netflix and spending it on luxury cars, antique furniture and mattresses.
Rinsch demanded the funds in order to finish “White Horse,” a science fiction TV series that was never completed, according to the indictment. Instead, he allegedly used the money to make “extremely risky investments,” to pay for stays at the Four Seasons and for other lavish purchases, and to hire lawyers to sue Netflix.
Rinsch, 47, was arrested Tuesday in West Hollywood, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Netflix declined to comment.
The allegations were first reported in a New York Times story in November 2023. They are also spelled out in a lengthy arbitration ruling, which was made public last August. The arbitrator ordered Rinsch to repay $11.8 million, and a Los Angeles Superior Court judge upheld the award in November.
According to the court records, Rinsch pitched the show — also known as “Conquest” — in January 2018 to Netflix executives including Cindy Holland, who was then the VP in charge of original content, and who left the company in 2020. With investment from Keanu Reeves — the actor who served as his mentor — Rinsch had already shot six short episodes and a three-minute trailer.
Netflix agreed to invest $44 million to acquire the series and produce the first season. A schedule was drawn up that called for several months of filming in Kenya, Mexico, Romania, Berlin, Hungary and Uruguay in 2019.
Rinsch began shooting in Brazil and quickly went over budget, according to the court records. Though he had promised to deliver another seven episodes, according to the arbitrator’s ruling, he informed Netflix that he would only be able to complete a single episode with the money Netflix had provided.
After production briefly shut down in Hungary, Netflix agreed to advance additional money. Production halted in December 2019, with much work to be done. Rinsch then set about expanding the script, and demanded an additional $11 million to complete the first season, according to the ruling. Hoping to salvage the project, Netflix agreed to pay the money in March 2020, the ruling states.
The COVID-19 pandemic promptly intervened, shutting down production worldwide. In June 2020, Rinsch met at a hotel with Holland and another Netflix executive to give an update.
“Rinsch spent a large portion of the meeting sharing various theories he had been developing about COVID, the universe, interconnectivity, genders, God, higher callings and reproduction,” the ruling states. “He did not focus on ‘Conquest.’”
Unsettled, the Netflix executives concluded he did not intend to finish the show. The lead actor also dropped out, citing the instability of the production. That fall, Netflix decided to write off the cost of the series.
According to the indictment, Rinsch had quickly transferred most of the $11 million to his brokerage account, where he promptly lost about half of it by speculating on investments such as call options on a biopharmaceutical company and put options on an S&P 500 ETF. At the time he was still reassuring Netflix that the show was “awesome and moving forward really well,” the indictment states.
According to the indictment, he used the remaining funds to invest in cryptocurrency in early 2021, which resulted in a windfall. The arbitration ruling states that Rinsch spent lavishly on various items in late 2021, claiming the purchases were needed for the second season of the show, which Netflix had not ordered. He was also worried that the IRS would tax him on the money if it was not spent, the ruling states.
The purchases included $638,000 on luxury mattresses; $295,000 on luxury bedding and linens; $180,000 on kitchen appliances; $5.4 million on furniture; and $1.68 million on two Rolls Royces, the arbitrator’s ruling states. According to the indictment, he bought five Rolls Royces and one Ferrari for $2.4 million. He also paid his rent on his home in Spain, and legal bills to pursue Netflix for breach of contract in arbitration.
The grand jury indictment, unsealed Tuesday, accuses Rinsch of wire fraud, money laundering and five counts of using illicit funds in a transaction. Rinsch faces the potential of many years in prison, and the government is also seeking to forfeit his assets.
Rinsch filed a petition to overturn the arbitrator’s ruling in August, arguing that the arbitrator had misconstrued the contract as requiring 13 episodes. The judge upheld the arbitrator’s decision.
