Carl Rinsch has been found guilty.
In case you didn’t know this wild story, Rinsch was indicted for allegedly defrauding Netflix out of $11M. The money was part of a $61M deal the streamer struck with him in 2019 after winning a bidding war for his sci-fi project “Conquest/White Horse,” which was never completed.
After just a brief period of deliberation, a New York jury determined that Rinsch deceived Netflix out of more than $11M for the sci-fi project. The trial lasted less than two weeks, and Rinsch now faces a potential sentence of up to 90 years on wire-fraud and related charges.
During pre-production, red flags emerged when Rinsch began sending strange emails claiming he had discovered Covid-19’s “secret transmission mechanism” and could “predict lightning strikes.” Instead of making the show, he allegedly spent Netflix’s money on crypto, five Rolls-Royces, luxury goods, and divorce lawyers. Once the shoot finally began, his behavior reportedly grew even more erratic, including drug misuse, punching walls, and accusing his wife of plotting to assassinate him.
And yet, midway through production, Rinsch asked Netflix for more money so he could continue the shoot—$11M, to be exact—and they somehow agreed to his request. Rinsch then took the money deposited into his account and invested it all into “Dogecoin.”
For some reason, Rinsch then tried to sue Netflix for “breach of contract,” claiming they owed him $14M — using the money the streamer had already given him to pay his lawyers. No surprise, Netflix canceled “White Horse/Conquest” soon after.
I’m not entirely sure why Netflix gave Rinsch this much money to begin with; he was coming off “47 Ronin,” released in 2013, which was a $175M disaster — it went over budget, required extensive reshoots, and Rinsch’s erratic behavior led to him being locked out of the editing room during post-production.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: can we please have a six-episode Netflix True Crime doc about this man?
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