Writer-director Carl Rinsch was arrested this week in Hollywood on federal charges that he misused millions of dollars slated for a Netflix TV production to fund personal investments in securities and cryptocurrency. Rinsch’s best-known work is the 2013 historical fantasy box office flop “47 Ronin” starring Keanu Reeves.
Netflix (see history) picked up production of “White Horse” in 2018 with an initial investment of $44M . After cost overruns, Rinsch received another $11M for the show. The indictment alleges Rinsch lost more than half that amount on risky securities—including investments in a biopharma company and an S&P 500-linked exchange-traded fund—before shifting the remainder to cryptocurrency, where he profited significantly. He faces counts of wire fraud, money laundering, and use of illicit funds.
He then spent more than $10M on luxury cars, hotels, credit cards, and lawyers; no episodes of the show, later renamed “Conquest,” were produced. An arbitrator ordered Rinsch to pay Netflix nearly $12M in August. Read a deep dive into the saga here.