Within the free-spending chaos of the streaming wars, Netflix made some extraordinarily aggressive bets. Few of these bets had been riskier than the deal it struck with Carl Erik Rinsch, a director finest recognized for precisely one film: the 2013 Keanu Reeves samurai fantasy “47 Ronin.”
“47 Ronin” was produced on a finances of $175-225 million. It earned $150 million. It at the moment sports activities a 16% on Rotten Tomatoes. And but, regardless of these numbers, this rookie director was by some means capable of spark a bidding conflict between Netflix and Amazon in 2018 over the rights to his subsequent challenge. Amazon ought to thank its fortunate stars that it misplaced.
Netflix received the bidding conflict by agreeing to pay Carl $61 million to ship a sci-fi collection referred to as “White Horse” (later retitled “Conquest”), a high-concept thriller about synthetic intelligence that executives as soon as believed might turn out to be a franchise on the dimensions of “Star Wars” or “Westworld.”
What Netflix truly acquired for its cash was nothing. Not an episode. Not a tough lower. Not even a single up to date storyboard after 2020.
As an alternative, over the subsequent a number of years, Netflix watched manufacturing implode, deadlines disappear, and Rinsch plunge into more and more erratic habits. The director despatched messages to executives claiming he had found the “secret mechanism of COVID-19 transmission” and believed he might predict lightning strikes and earthquakes. Regardless of the chaos, Netflix saved believing the present was salvageable. By early 2020, the corporate had already poured $44.3 million into manufacturing. Then Rinsch requested for an additional $11 million to complete the season. Netflix, nonetheless satisfied the challenge might turn out to be its subsequent status tentpole, authorized the switch on March 4, 2020.
In keeping with prosecutors, the second the funds hit the account, the true story started.
John Sciulli/Getty Pictures
The $11 Million Spending Spree
In court docket this week, FBI brokers walked jurors by way of the monetary path. Virtually instantly after receiving the funds, Rinsch allegedly routed $10.5 million into private accounts and started spending it at a tempo that surprised investigators. Over the next months and years, the $11 million earmarked for storyboards, enhancing, costume fabrication, and key crew salaries as a substitute went towards luxurious automobiles, high-end furnishings, designer garments, lodge stays, bank card payments, and cryptocurrency hypothesis.
The breakdown described in testimony reads like the approach to life of somebody who out of the blue found a bottomless checking account. Brokers detailed greater than $3 million spent on furnishings and antiques. Practically $2.4 million went towards automobiles, together with a Ferrari and a number of Rolls-Royces. 4 mattresses alone price a mixed $638,000. Tons of of 1000’s extra went to jewellery, artwork, and lodges. Rinsch additionally racked up greater than $1.8 million in American Categorical costs, though the precise classes of these bills stay beneath seal.
One of the surreal particulars launched at trial: throughout a six-month span in 2022, Rinsch remodeled 480 meals supply orders by way of Postmates and Uber Eats, generally putting a dozen separate orders in a single day. The FBI confirmed jurors spreadsheets monitoring every supply.
The spree prolonged into the crypto world. Rinsch moved hundreds of thousands right into a Kraken trade and started buying and selling Bitcoin Money, Ethereum, Tether, and particularly Dogecoin. Whereas his inventory choice trades early within the pandemic had been disastrous, his crypto bets made cash — sufficient that he boasted to an FBI agent that he had turn out to be “The Dogecoin Whale.”
In 2023, a confidential arbitration ended with Netflix being awarded $11.8 million in damages. Rinsch didn’t pay, as a substitute arguing that Netflix truly owed him one other $14 million. The arbitrator disagreed.
To summarize, in accordance with FBI testimony this week, Rinsch spent:
- $2.4 million on luxurious automobiles, together with a Ferrari and a number of Rolls-Royces
- $3.36 million on furnishings, antiques, and décor
- $638,000 on 4 luxurious mattresses
- $1.8 million on American Categorical payments
- Tons of of 1000’s on lodges, jewellery, and artwork
- Over 480 meals supply orders on Postmates and Uber Eats in a six-month span
- $652,000 on designer clothes and watches, together with a six-figure timepiece
By all of this, Netflix was nonetheless anticipating progress on “White Horse.” The very last thing the corporate ever acquired was a shiny coffee-table e book of manufacturing pictures that Rinsch gifted to Netflix govt Peter Friedlander in early 2020. Emails and inside reviews proven at trial reveal rising panic amongst executives, who traveled to Budapest in late 2019 to attempt to rescue the troubled manufacturing. Nothing labored. By late 2020, Netflix had written off your complete challenge.
Arrest and Fallout
On March 18, 2025, federal brokers arrested Rinsch in Los Angeles. He now faces costs together with wire fraud, cash laundering, and 5 counts of illegal monetary transactions. If convicted, he might spend a long time in jail. Prosecutors argue the case is simple: Rinsch requested for manufacturing funding, advised Netflix it was important to complete the collection, then used the cash for private enrichment.
Rinsch’s protection paints a distinct image. His legal professional has described him as a misunderstood artist overwhelmed by Netflix’s calls for and undone by pandemic-era chaos. In opening statements, he in contrast Rinsch to “Vincent van Gogh with a Netflix deal,” a visionary crushed by company expectations. Rinsch himself claimed in a deposition that the Rolls-Royces he bought had been meant as props for the present, insisting that labeling them private bills “can be fraud in any other case.”
The jury, to date, has reacted coolly to that rationalization.
What stays plain is that “White Horse” has turn out to be the costliest collection in Netflix historical past to supply zero episodes. Not a body has been delivered. Not a single scene lower collectively. Solely fragments of early check footage — together with a trailer proven in court docket — show the challenge ever existed.
The irony is that the behind-the-scenes saga is now much more compelling than something the present itself ever promised. If Netflix ultimately releases a documentary chronicling the rise and spectacular collapse of Carl Rinsch’s $61 million misadventure, it could be the one method the corporate ever recoups a greenback of its funding.
And in contrast to “White Horse,” that documentary would most likely get completed.
