5 Rolls-Royces and $638k in mattresses: How prosecutors say director Carl Rinsch ripped off Netflix and went spending

• Carl Erik Rinsch was charged with scamming Netflix out of $11 million for a TV show.
• He made cryptocurrency investments and used the profits to buy luxury items, prosecutors said.
• Rinsch faces up to 90 years in prison on federal charges of wire fraud and money laundering.

Hollywood director-writer Carl Erik Rinsch has been charged with scamming Netflix out of $11 million, sinking the stolen funds into cryptocurrency, and using the profits for a wild spending spree that included the purchase of five Rolls-Royces.

Rinsch, the director behind the 2013 film "47 Ronin," was arrested on Tuesday in California on federal charges of wire fraud and money laundering in connection to the alleged scheme to defraud the streaming behemoth. He faces a maximum sentence of 90 years behind bars.

Here's how prosecutors allege, in a 12-page indictment filed in Manhattan federal court, that the filmmaker swindled millions of dollars from Netflix.

Netflix, only identified in the indictment as "Streaming Company-1," had paid Rinsch $44 million between 2018 and 2019 for an unfinished sci-fi TV show called "White Horse," prosecutors say.

Under Rinsch's agreement with Netflix, he was to complete the show, which was about a scientist who created a group of super-intelligent clones, according to the court documents.

In March of 2020, Netflix forked over another $11 million to Rinsch after he demanded more money to complete the show, the indictment says.

Prosecutors say that Rinsch "almost immediately" transferred that extra money from his namesake company to his personal accounts.

Rinsch then made several "extremely risky" purchases of securities, including call options on a biopharmaceutical company, and lost more than half of the $11 million in less than two months due to his unsuccessful trades, the indictment says.

While Rinsch was losing most of the $11 million intended to complete "White Horse," he lied to Netflix, saying that the show was "awesome and moving forward really well," according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors say that in 2021 Rinsch transferred what was left of the money to a cryptocurrency exchange account where his luck turned around.

Rinsch "used those funds to speculate on cryptocurrency — which eventually proved profitable," the indictment says. Buying Dogecoin, which Elon Musk has called one of his favorite cryptocurrencies, helped Rinsch turn $4 million into nearly $27 million, The New York Times reported in 2023.

The filmmaker then transferred his profits to another personal bank account before spending $10 million on luxury goods and other expenses, according to prosecutors.

Rinsch spent about $2.4 million on five Rolls-Royces and a Ferrari, $652,000 on watches and clothing, $638,000 on two mattresses, $295,000 on bedding and linens, $3.8 million on furniture and antiques, $1.8 million on credit card bills, and another $1 million on lawyers to sue Netflix "for even more money," the indictment says.

Prosecutors say Rinsch never completed "White Horse" and never returned the stolen money to Netflix.

An attorney for Rinsch did not return a request for comment by Business Insider on Wednesday. Netflix declined to comment.

Last year, an arbitrator sided with Netflix and ruled that Rinsch owed it $8.8 million in damages.