Director Carl Erik Rinsch has been arrested on charges that he swindled $11 million for Netflix for a sci-fi show that never aired, instead steering the cash toward cryptocurrency investments and a series of lavish purchases that included a fleet of Rolls-Royces and a Ferrari.

Carl Erik Rinsch – a writer and director perhaps best known for directing the film 47 Ronin – has been charged with wire fraud and money laundering over what federal prosecutors allege was a scheme to defraud the streaming giant.

Prosecutors said Netflix had initially paid about $44 million to purchase an unfinished show called White Horse from Rinsch, but eventually doled out another $11 million after he said he needed the additional cash to complete the show.

Rather than using the extra money to wrap up production, Rinsch quietly transferred the money to a personal brokerage account, where he made a series of failed investments that lost about half of the $11 million in two months, according to prosecutors.

The filmmaker then dumped the rest of the money into the cryptocurrency market, which proved to be a profitable move, with Rinsch eventually transferring the earnings into a personal bank account, according to an indictment.

From there, Rinsch spent about $10 million on personal expenses and luxury items in a spending spree that, according to prosecutors, included about $1.8 million on credit card bills; $1 million on lawyers to sue Netflix for more money; $3.8 million on furniture and antiques; $2.4 million for five Rolls-Royces and one Ferrari; and $652,000 on watches and clothes.

Director Carl Rinsch was arrested Tuesday on charges that he swindled $11 million from Netflix for a sci-fi show that never aired; pictured 2015

Rinsch, 47, was arrested in West Hollywood, California, and had an initial court hearing on Tuesday.

Read More Netflix paid $55M for sci-fi series by director who failed to deliver a single episode and ‘burned the cash on crypto, Rolls Royce, and a $380K watch’

He appeared in a federal courtroom in Los Angeles in a turtleneck sweater and jeans with shackles on his arms and legs. 

He did not enter a plea and spoke only to answer a judge’s questions. 

When asked if he’d read the indictment against him, he said ‘not cover to cover’ but told the judge he understood the charges.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Pedro V. Castillo ordered that he be released later Tuesday after he agreed to post a $100,000 bond to ᴀssure he´ll appear in court in New York, where his indictment was filed.

His newly appointed attorney, Annie Carney, declined to comment outside court. She said during the hearing that she had not yet seen the prosecution´s evidence against Rinsch. 

When discussing the terms of his release, she said, ‘the allegations in this case are purely financial.’

Rinsch’s New York court date had not yet been set.

Netflix declined to comment.

Rinsch is perhaps best known for filming 47 Ronin; seen on the set of the film with the movie’s star Keanu Reeves in 2013

Rinsch has been charged with one count of wire fraud, one count of money laundering, and five counts of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity.

The wire fraud charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, the money laundering charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, and each individual count of the third and final charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

Netflix is not identified by name in the indictment however the streamer’s dispute with Rinsch over the making of White Horse (which was later named Conquest) has been previously reported on by The New York Times. 

Rinsch was ruled to owe Netflix $12 million in damages and legal fees by an arbitrator last year, according to The New York Times.

The publication reports Rinsch failed to produce any episodes of the show. The streamer ultimately wrote off the $55 million they sank into the show. 

Rinsch is accused of using the money from Netflix on cryptocurrency investments and a series of lavish purchases that included a fleet of Rolls-Royces and a Ferrar

In a press release over the charges, U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky said: ‘As alleged, Carl Erik Rinsch orchestrated a scheme to steal millions by soliciting a large investment from a video streaming service, claiming that money would be used to finance a television show that he was creating. 

‘But that was fiction. Rinsch instead allegedly used the funds on personal expenses and investments, including highly speculative options and cryptocurrency trading. Rinsch’s arrest is a reminder that this Office and our partners at the FBI remain vigilant in the fight against fraud and will bring those who cheat and steal to justice.’

FBI ᴀssistant Director Leslie Backschies stated in the release: ‘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. The FBI will continue to reel in any individual who seeks to defraud businesses.’

The saga between Rinsch, Netflix, and the making of Conquest was previously the subject of a report by The New York Times in 2023.

The publication previously reported on Netflix’s hopes to claw back the $55 million it spent on an undelivered sci-fi series, accusing Rinsch of squandering the funds to buy luxury cars and trade cryptocurrency and stock options. 

The bizarre saga dates back to 2018, at the height of the streaming boom, when Netflix was desperate to woo Rinsch and his pᴀssion project away from a competing offer from Amazon.

Although Rinsch’s only prior film, the 2013 action movie 47 Ronin starring Keanu Reeves, had been a box office bomb, Netflix offered him millions more than Amazon, as well as rare ‘final cut’ privileges granting him total control of the project, The New York Times reported.

The unfinished Netflix sci-fi series, renamed ‘Conquest’ after originally being named White Horse, focused on a genius who creates an artificial species dubbed the Organic Intelligent, which is dispatched to trouble spots around the world to provide humanitarian aid.

According to cast and crew members, emails and text messages, and divorce filings cited by the Times, Rinsch grew increasingly erratic during production, claiming he could predict lightning strikes and speaking of coronavirus signals ’emanating from the earth.’

Rinsch, 47, was arrested in West Hollywood, California, and had an initial court hearing on Tuesday; pictured 2013

Netflix accused Rinsch of blowing millions from the production budget on risky trades, a fleet of five Rolls-Royces, a Ferrari, and a $387,630 Vacheron Constantin watch, and was seeking to claw back the funds in confidential arbitration.

For his part, Rinsch argued that the funds were contractually his to do with as he pleased, and furthermore insisted that Netflix owed him an additional $14 million under the terms of the 2018 agreement.

Rinsch had a successful career filming commercials prior to his movie debut with 47 Ronin, a CGI-intensive fantasy romp that was panned by critics and grossed $151 million at the box office against a budget of $175 million.

After his film flopped, Rinsch returned to making commercials, and on the side began developing a sci-fi pᴀssion project with his wife, the model and fashion designer Gabriela Rosés Bentancor.

In the series, unsuspecting humans begin to uncover the true nature of the ‘Organic Intelligent’ superhumans, and turn against them. The series was originally named ‘White Horse’ after the first horseman of the apocalypse from the Bible.

Rosés was in charge of costume design, and the production survived on a shoestring budget by using mostly European actors to avoid Hollywood union rules.

Rinsch initially funded the production himself, and then secured financing from production company 30West as well as an emergency injection from Keanu Reeves.

According to the Times, Rinsch filmed six short episodes ranging from four to 10 minutes, and used them to pitch the streamers on a complete 13-episode season.

The concept drew interest from Amazon, HBO, Hulu, Apple and YouTube, but Netflix was able to snatch up the project after Cindy Holland, who was then in charge of scripted content at the streamer, outbid Amazon.

Netflix agreed to pay $61.2 million in several installments for the rights to the series, but the production soon devolved into chaos.

The saga between Rinsch and Netflix was previously the subject of a report by The New York Times in 2023; pictured on the set of 47 Ronin in 2013

During filming in Budapest, Rinsch went days without sleep and accused his wife of plotting to have him ᴀssᴀssinated, according to two witnesses cited by the Times.

His wife and crew members worried about his use of Vyvanse, a prescription amphetamine used to treat ADHD, and staged an intervention after filming in Budapest wrapped in late 2019.

But after agreeing to live with a sober companion, the director sent the person packing after a few days, according to the Times.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Netflix had already spent $44.3 million on the production, and reluctantly agreed to send another $11 million after Rinsch insisted the whole show risked collapse.

According to the Times, Rinsch’s erratic behavior intensified during the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, which strained millions psychologically.

The director took $10.5 million of the $11 million in new Netflix cash and moved it to his personal brokerage account at Charles Schwab, where he placed risky bets on stock options, according to the Times, citing financial documents in the divorce case.

He bet that shares of Gilead Sciences, which was working on a COVID antiviral, would soar, and that the S&P 500 index, which dropped by more than a third early in the pandemic, would fall further.

Those bets were disastrous, and Rinsch lost $5.9 million in just a few weeks.

His wife Rosés, who has since filed for divorce, went to check on him in June 2020, and says that he took her to a scenic Hollywood lookout and pointed to planes in the sky, telling her they were ‘organic, intelligent forces’ that ‘came to say hi.’

He also sent her texts claiming that he could predict lightning strikes and volcanic eruptions, according to her divorce filings.

Rinsch also began sending odd emails to a Netflix business affairs executive, claiming he had found a way to map ‘the coronavirus signal emanating from within the earth.’

With what was left of the Netflix cash, Rinsch transferred more than $4 million to the Kraken crypto exchange and bought Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency based on a meme of a Shiba dog that started as a joke.

Unlike his stock option bets, Rinsch profited handsomely off the investment in Dogecoin, which surged in value in 2021 as billionaire Elon Musk touted it on Twitter.

Riding high on his gains, Rinsch wrote in a message to a Kraken customer service rep: ‘Thank you and god bless crypto.’

When he closed out his positions in May 2021, his Kraken account had a balance of nearly $27 million, according to the Times.

Rinsch was ruled to owe Netflix $12 million in damages and legal fees by an arbitrator last year, according to The New York Times

Rinsch then went on a buying spree, purchasing the Rolls-Royce fleet and other fine items, and spending a total of $8.7 million, according to a forensic accountant hired by his estranged wife.

The funds involved were the subject of two disputes: his divorce case with Rosés, and the arbitration with Netflix.

Rosés accused him of going on the spending spree to shield his crypto winnings from the divorce case. Rinsch responded that the cars and other items were props for his series, and had been purchased with Netflix’s money.

But in arbitration with Netflix, he took a different line, arguing that the money belonged to him, and the Netflix owes him further payments.

Netflix argued that the payments were contingent on the production hitting certain milestones, which were never reached.

The streaming giant previously told Rinsch that it will not continue to fund ‘Conquest’ and that he was free to shop the project to another distributor, as long as they reimburse the company for what it has already spent on the show.