A Hollywood Director Is Convicted of Scamming $11M from Netflix with a Show That Never Happened

A Hollywood director with a studio-backed sci-fi series that never saw the light of day has now been found guilty of scamming Netflix out of millions. Carl Erik Rinsch, known for directing 47 Ronin, was convicted in New York on charges tied to an $11 million payment meant to finish a show that ultimately went unfinished.

According to the Associated Press, a jury found the director guilty of wire fraud, money laundering, and related counts after prosecutors laid out how money earmarked for production was instead funneled into personal spending and risky investments.

The project at the center of the case was a science fiction series titled White Horse. Prosecutors said Netflix initially paid the director around $44 million between 2018 and 2019 to acquire and complete the show. When Rinsch later asked for more money, citing the need to wrap production, the streamer sent an additional $11 million. That show, prosecutors told the court, was never completed.

Rather than putting the funds toward production, Carl allegedly routed the $11 million through various accounts before moving it into his own personal brokerage account. From there, he made a string of speculative stock trades that quickly went south, losing about half the money within a couple of months, according to prosecutors cited by the Associated Press.

He later shifted into cryptocurrency trading, which brought in some gains. But prosecutors said that money, too, ended up in his personal bank account rather than on set.

The spending that followed became one of the case’s most eye-catching details. Prosecutors said the director bought five Rolls-Royces and a Ferrari, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on watches and designer clothes, and paid off roughly $1.8 million in credit card bills.

There were also the mattresses. According to the Associated Press, Carl spent about $638,000 on two mattresses and another $295,000 on luxury bedding and linens, part of a broader splurge that prosecutors said had nothing to do with making television.

The director’s attorney, Benjamin Zeman, criticized the verdict, arguing it blurred the line between fraud and creative disputes. In a statement quoted by the Associated Press, Atty. Zeman said the decision “could set a dangerous precedent for artists who become embroiled in contractual and creative disputes with their benefactors,” especially when those benefactors are major media companies.

The director is scheduled to be sentenced in April. Netflix declined to comment on the verdict, according to the Associated Press.

In a statement from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said the director “took $11 million meant for a TV show and gambled it on speculative stock options and crypto transactions,” adding that the conviction shows authorities will follow the money and hold people accountable when investors are defrauded.