“47 Ronin” director Carl Rinsch has reportedly been arrested and indicted on wire fraud and money laundering charges reports The Washington Post.
According to the District Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Risnch allegedly spent nearly $11 million meant for a television project on cryptocurrency and luxury cars, among other personal purchases.
Rinsch was arrested in West Hollywood on Tuesday and could face up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.
The report indicates that according to the indictment, a streamer paid Rinsch’s production company and others $44 million for a sci-fi television show titled “White Horse”.
After the contract was finalized, Rinsch reportedly began behaving erratically
Rinsch told the streaming service he needed more money to finish the series, with the company agreeing to fund him an additional $11 million for production costs.
However, according to the indictment, he allegedly funnelled nearly all of the extra funds into several bank accounts before combining much of in a personal brokerage account.
He reportedly lost more than half the money trading in securities, but made millions investing the rest in cryptocurrency in 2021. Spending included around $10 million on five Rolls-Royces, a Ferrari and other luxury items, and a little over a million on lawyers which included his divorce proceedings.
It also says Rinsch started filming the sci-fi series around 2016 or 2017, the show would’ve followed a scientist and a group of superintelligent clones he created who are at war with humans.
An arbitrator awarded Netflix nearly $8.8 million in damages and control over footage of the failed series in May.
Garth Franklin
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