Filmmaker Carl Erik Rinsch was sentenced on Monday to 30 months in federal prison after being convicted of defrauding Netflix out of $11 million.
Netflix had hired Rinsch, who previously made the film 47 Ronin, to write and direct a sci-fi series called
White Horse (later renamed Conquest) in 2018. After the streaming giant poured $55 million into the project, the director failed to deliver a single episode. Rinsch later asked Netflix for an additional $11 million in funding, which — a New York Times report and later the indictment alleged — he used to gamble on the stock market and cryptocurrencies and spent on luxury goods.
No episodes of Conquest were ever produced. The director was convicted in December of wire fraud, money laundering, and making illegal transactions.
“This process has forced me to confront things about my health, my judgment and my life,” Rinsch told the court on Monday, per CBS News. The director and his lawyers said that his mental health and medication problems had impacted his actions. His lawyers said he has a new care provider. Rinsch apologized for his behavior and acknowledged that “real harm was caused” and that he “failed to recognize the danger of the state I was in.”
U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff said Rinsch’s mental health struggles “may explain some of the excesses” but don’t “detract from the court’s conclusion that he was determined to lie to get substantial monies from Netflix, lie to cover it up.”
When on the stand back in December, Rinsch testified in his own defense. He claimed that there had been a misunderstanding and that the $11 million payment was for pre-production for a second season on Conquest, which Netflix never green-lit. Prosecutors produced bank statements showing that the filmmaker directly funneled that $11 million to his own bank account, after which he heavily invested in the pharmaceutical company Gilead as well as on cryptocurrency.
Prosecutors also alleged Rinsch used the funds to purchase five Rolls-Royces and a Ferrari, and pay off $1,787,000 on credit card bills.
“Instead of using the money to make the show, Rinsch made risky bets on highly speculative stock options and cryptocurrency, and spent millions of dollars on luxury goods for himself,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said in a statement on Monday. “Today’s sentence sends a deterrent message: fraud will not be tolerated.”
A lawyer for Rinsch did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
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