In an ironic twist for the media giant known for documentaries about scammers, fraudsters, and crooks, Netflix’s own in-house scammer director, Carl Rinsch, was found guilty of defrauding the world’s most dominant streamer. Per Variety, through wire fraud, money laundering, and illegal activity, Rinsch swindled $11 million from Netflix during the production of the unfinished sci-fi series White Horse, later renamed Conquest. Facing up to 90 years in prison, Rinsch will face sentencing on April 17.
Having previously directed the Keanu Reeves-led samurai film 47 Ronin, Rinsch took advantage of the lax quality control of the endless amount of over-budgeted content that filters through Netflix’s development department and convinced the streamer to give him $44 million for the series, with another $11 million when he went over budget. In his defense, Rinsch claimed that the dispute was a misunderstanding, that he completed the first season and needed the money for pre-production on season two, Variety reports. This is something of an about-face from the “Dear Coward” letter he allegedly sent to a Netflix executive after the series was canceled. Rinsch reportedly spent the show’s budget betting on crypto, investing in a pharma company he thought could cure COVID, and luxurious horsehair mattresses he turned out to be allergic to. He would blame his actions on neurodivergence. “Whatever’s going on there, I can tell you it’s not drug-induced,” he said during a testimony. “It’s not mentally ill. It’s exacerbating a different neurotype that most people might not be able to understand.”
“Please don’t get fooled, ladies and gentlemen,” his lawyer Daniel McGuinnes said. “He had a state of mind, they had a state of mind, and the government has turned this into a nefarious fraud conspiracy.”
We look forward to checking out the Netflix Original documentary on Rinsch that we assume is already in production.
