Hollywood filmmaker accused of conspiracy of $ 11 million to defraud Netflix

The Department of Justice accused Carl Erik Rinsch on Tuesday, whom Netflix hired to make a science fiction series that was never completed, with a $ 11 million scheme to defraud the company.

According to the accusation, which was announced by prosecutors for the Southern District of New York and the Federal Office of the Federal Research Research Office, Mr. Rinsch obtained funds from the 2018 Transmission Company in early 2020. But he put the money on a personal brokerage account and finally used it to exchange values, instead of putting it in the series, says the registration.

Federal prosecutors accused Mr. Rinsch, who was arrested Tuesday in West Hollywood, California, with electronic fraud, money laundering and participation in monetary transactions derived from illegal activities.

The accusation does not quote Netflix by name. But the company has participated in public disputes on the filmmaker’s planned series, which was initially called “White Horse” but was called “Conquest”. Last May, a referee ruled that Mr. Rinsch owed the company almost $ 9 million in damages.

“Carl Rinsch allegedly stole more than $ 11 million from a prominent transmission platform to finance luxurious purchases and personal investments instead of completing a promised television series,” said Leslie Backschies, assistant director of the FBI, in a statement.

The New York Times covered the dispute Between Mr. Rinsch and the transmission giant in 2023. He had sold the television program near the height of the transmission a few years before. But Netflix canceled the development of the program in early 2021 after Mr. Rinsch’s behavior became erratic. In texts and emails to Netflix executives, he said he discovered the Covid-19 Secret Transmission mechanism and told his wife, a producer in the program, which could predict earthquakes and rays.

After Netflix informed Mr. Rinsch that he had decided to stop financing the “conquest”, he went to an expense spree with the remaining production money of the program, living in five -star hotels in California and Spain, and bought a fleet of luxury cars and high -end furniture. He said that cars and furniture were accessories for the show, but the referee, Rita Miller, former judge of the Superior Court of Los Angeles, ruled that none of the purchases was necessary for production.

He never produced any episode of the series, and Netflix had to cancel the $ 55 million he spent on the project.