{"id":771132,"date":"2026-06-30T13:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T13:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/771132\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T13:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T13:48:11","slug":"carl-rinsch-sentenced-to-30-months-in-prison-for-defrauding-netflix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/771132\/","title":{"rendered":"Carl Rinsch Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Defrauding Netflix"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFilmmaker Carl Erik Rinsch was sentenced<\/a> on Monday to 30 months in prison after being convicted<\/a> of defrauding Netflix<\/a> out of $11 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tNetflix had hired Rinsch, who previously made the film\u00a047 Ronin, to write and direct a sci-fi series called\u00a0White Horse\u00a0(later renamed\u00a0Conquest) 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 \u2014\u00a0a\u00a0New York Times\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0and later the indictment alleged \u2014 he used to gamble on the stock market and cryptocurrencies and spent on luxury goods. <\/p>\n

\n\tNo episodes of\u00a0Conquest\u00a0were ever produced. The director was convicted in December of wire fraud, money laundering, and making illegal transactions.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis process has forced me to confront things about my health, my judgment and my life,\u201d Rinsch told the court on Monday, per CBS News<\/a>. 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 \u201creal harm was caused\u201d and that he \u201cfailed to recognize the danger of the state I was in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tU.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff said Rinsch\u2019s mental health struggles \u201cmay explain some of the excesses\u201d but don\u2019t \u201cdetract from the court\u2019s conclusion that he was determined to lie to get substantial monies from Netflix, lie to cover it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tProsecutors also alleged<\/a> Rinsch used the funds to purchase five Rolls-Royces and a Ferrari, and pay off $1,787,000 on credit card bills.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cInstead 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,\u201d U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York\u00a0Jay Clayton\u00a0said in a statement on Monday. \u201cToday\u2019s sentence sends a deterrent message: fraud will not be tolerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA lawyer for Rinsch did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone\u2018s request for comment.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Filmmaker Carl Erik Rinsch was sentenced on Monday to 30 months in prison after being convicted of defrauding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,273775,17537,75,1316],"class_list":["post-771132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-carl-rinsch","tag-courts-and-crime","tag-entertainment","tag-netflix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}