Carl Rinsch, a Los Angeles-based film director and writer, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for defrauding Netflix of approximately $11 million in production funds intended for the streaming series "White Horse" (also titled "Conquest"), which was never completed. The director diverted studio capital into high-risk options trading, cryptocurrency speculation, and luxury asset purchases rather than film production.
Between 2018 and 2020, Rinsch convinced Netflix to allocate approximately $44 million for the initial production budget, then secured an additional $11 million supplement by misrepresenting project completion needs. Instead of funding production, Rinsch lost $6 million on speculative options trades, then transferred more than $4 million to cryptocurrency exchange Kraken. He purchased Dogecoin (DOGE) at relatively low valuations and capitalized on the cryptocurrency's surge in 2021, liquidating his holdings for approximately $27 million.
Rinsch subsequently deployed the cryptocurrency proceeds to acquire five Rolls-Royce vehicles, a Ferrari, a $400,000 luxury Swiss timepiece, fine furniture, and antiquities. The federal court in the Southern District of New York convicted him of wire fraud and ordered restitution of $11 million to Netflix. The streaming platform ultimately terminated the project after deploying approximately $55 million in combined development and production spending, with no completed episodes ever released to viewers.