'47 Ronin' director Carl Rinsch facing 90 years for scamming Netflix of $11 million
Published in Entertainment News
NEW YORK — Carl Rinsch, a director best known for the film “47 Ronin,” is facing up to 90 years in prison after being convicted Thursday of scamming Netflix out of $11 million and using the cash to fund his lavish lifestyle.
A federal jury in Manhattan needed only a few hours to deliver a guilty verdict against Rinsch, who bilked the streaming service out of millions of dollars while claiming he needed more money to finish the sci-fi series “White Horse/Conquest” after blowing through its initial $44 million budget, before the project was outright canceled.
Rinsch, 48, testified during the one-week trial that the cash was to pay himself back for his own money he’d put into the series.
Instead, he consolidated that money into a brokerage account before unsuccessfully making “a number of personal and speculative purchases of securities,” federal prosecutors said Thursday when announcing the verdict.
Even after losing about half of the $11 million, he still invested the rest in cryptocurrency, used “at least $1.7 million on credit card bills,” and spent more than $6 million on furniture, antiques, a luxury Swiss watch, five Rolls Royces and a red Ferrari.
Rinsch had been charged with “one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; one count of money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; and five counts of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison,” according to the indictment from the Southern District of New York.
He was convicted on all counts and now faces up to 90 years behind bars. His sentencing is scheduled for April 17.
“Carl Erik Rinsch took $11 million meant for a TV show and gambled it on speculative stock options and crypto transactions,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “Today’s conviction shows that when someone steals from investors, we will follow the money and hold them accountable.”
Rinsch is also fighting a $12 million arbitration ruling that calls for him to pay Netflix back.
In a statement, Rinsch’s attorney, Benjamin Zeman, called the verdict wrong and said he thought it could “set a dangerous precedent for artists who become embroiled in contractual and creative disputes with their benefactors, in this case one of the largest media companies in the world, finding themselves indicted by the federal government for fraud.”
Rinsch began his career in the mid-1990s, writing and directing short films, before making a name for himself with 2013’s action-samurai flick “47 Ronin,” starring Keanu Reeves and “Shōgun” star Hiroyuki Sanada. According to IMDb, his last completed project was a 2015 CGI commercial for Shell, titled “The Shapeshifter.”
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