Carl Rinsch is accused of spending millions on antiques and mattresses

Netflix wants his money back.

Five years after wiring $ 11 million to director Carl Erik Rinsch for a SCI-Fi series that was never made, the streamer asks for a return on those funds.

Rinsch, 47, was arrested last week for accusation of fraud and money laundering due to alleged use of the money for lush purchases, speculative investments and legal costs to sue Netflix. He has a bond of $ 100,000 and must be forced on 3 April at the Federal Court in New York.

Later in April, Rinsch was back in the civil court in Los Angeles for the investigation of a debtor by Netflix’s lawyers. The company has obtained a judgment of $ 11.8 million and tries to find assets that could possibly grab it.

In earlier divorce procedures, Rinsch said that he is broke. Rinsch $ 420,000 owes marital support to his wife, Gabriela, according to a recent application from her lawyers. In January 2024, Rinsch said that the court suffers ‘serious financial need’.

“In the past four years, instead of a salary, I have been forced to use business funds for costs of living,” he wrote. He said that the income of his company had decreased to nothing and that he had to liquidate assets and borrow $ 150,000 from his family to float.

“My monthly income is zero,” he wrote. “I am forced to concentrate all my efforts on being a” professional party. “

Rinsch, from Los Angeles, was once an emerging commercial director with the support of two powerful mentors. Under the supervision of Ridley Scott, he made futuristic advertisements for Heineken, BMW and Mercedes. That led to a job that ’47 Ronin ‘directed, a Samurai film with Keanu Reeves.

After creative unrest, the film flopped, so that Universal lost at least $ 120 million. But Rinsch took an important ally. Reeves would then invest in ‘White Horse’, his short TV series about Humanoid Ai-Bezens.

According to a court application, the project bounced around, starting at Annapurna, and then attracted interest from director Rian Johnson, who was spent with executive products. Six episodes were shot, ranging from four to 10 minutes, with a plan for seven more. At the beginning of 2018, Netflix managers were invited to the Huis van Reeves to assess the script and eventually agreed to put $ 44 million in completing the project – renamed “Conquest” – while buying earlier investors.

Once the production started in Brazil, Rinsch quickly went over the budget, according to the pronunciation of an arbitrator. The prevailing states that there were many other problems, including the throwing of problems and accusations of intimidation and abuse on the set. After further filming in Uruguay and Hungary, production was packed in December 2019.

Prosecutors to claim That Rinsch asked an extra $ 11 million to end the first season and then gambled the money on the stock market and on crypto. He is also accused of using the money to buy a fleet of Rolls Royces, luxury items and antique furniture.

At the end of 2020, Netflix decided to write off the investment of $ 55 million. Then it was told that the streamer would no longer finance the project, Rinsch did not take it well and wrote an e -mail to a Netflix director who started, ‘best coward’, according to the arbitration ruling. “Time to fress,” he continued. Other such messages followed, so that some conclude that he had become mentally unstable, according to the pronunciation.

During an arbitration hearing, Rinsch testified that this behavior was the result of his neurodiversity – in particular autism spectrum disorder.

“What’s going on there, I can tell you that drugs are not induced,” he said. “It is not mentally ill. It worsens another neurotype that most people may not understand.”

From May 2021, the Crypto bets of Rinsch had left him a balance of $ 26.7 million on his Kraken account, according to the court applications.

In September of that year he bought a Black Hästens Grand Vividus mattress -Handed in Sweden and reportedly the most expensive mattress in the world-for $ 439,900. He also bought a white Hästens Vividus King for $ 210,400. Both were ordered in adapted, extra wide sizes, about seven feet square.

Rinsch took one mattress that he complained of he was too short. He then tried to cancel his order and claimed that he had been concerned about the “origin of horse hair materials” because of ethical worries and allergies, according to a lawsuit that he has filed against the company. Hästens wanted to charge him a return costs of $ 100,000. (The majority of his lawsuit was rejected by a judge and the case was eventually dropped.)

In a lawsuit with Netflix, Rinsch testified that he was planning to use the mattresses in the second season of “Conquest” – that Netflix had not ordered. The arbitrator noted that it is customary to rent props or find cheaper replacements for luxury items. She added that the purchase was “especially unnecessary” because in Rinsch’s own storyboards for a “palis scene”, the mattress would not have been visible.

Around that time, Rinsch also bought $ 5.4 million in furniture, according to the statement of the arbitrator. In one case he agreed to buy 14 pieces by the Art Deco designer Jacques Adnet, including a desk and cabinet of $ 48,000, a $ 28,000 bank and some armchairs. After he has shown interest for a larger purchase, he has scaled the order back, referring to ‘financial setbacks’.

“Although I could tell you about my misery and disappointment, in markets here and abroad, it makes no difference,” he wrote to the dealer in January 2022.

Later he sought the return of a deposit of $ 200,000 and said: “Our production was the victim of a studio melt.” The dealer sued, and after a jury court in Philadelphia in 2023, Rinsch was instructed to pay a balance of $ 68,200.

The Kraken account of Rinsch had fallen to $ 1.5 million to $ 1.8 million in April 2022, according to his testimony in the divorce case. During a hearing in May, a judge took worries: “You said, sir, that the crypto that you gained was from production funds?”

“Yes, sir,” said Rinsch.

The judge seemed alerted.

“Wait a minute,” he said. “Hold on. Keep full. So in the real world, people in your work either have an LLC, a loan-out company, a close company, an entity for production. All the money is taken into account by that entity. Business purposes and business expenses are separated from personal expenses. You know, things.”

Rinsch replied: “That’s right.”

Prosecutors claim that Rinsch had transferred the money from Netflix to a personal account and had issued it quickly. He spent $ 1.8 million on credit cards, $ 1 million in lawyers to sue Netflix and to litigate his divorce case, and $ 652,000 in watches and clothing, according to the indictment.

From May 2023 he had $ 482,000 on a checking account. His cracking balance had fallen to $ 68,000. He mentioned monthly expenses, including $ 16,500 in rent and $ 3,500 at restaurants. The judge ordered him to pay $ 275,000 to cover the legal costs of his wife and to pay her forensic accountant.

“I don’t have that money,” he told the court. ‘What can I do? I have no display here today. I try to survive here. I don’t even know what I can do. Can I write something with the text: ‘I’m sorry, here are my accounts? “”

While the judge tried to explain that he could not give legal advice, Rinsch intervened: “Nobody should laugh at me.”

The judge noted that he had paid considerable legal costs. “You seem to get it,” he said.

“There is no money,” Rinsch repeated.

In January 2024 he claimed that the legal costs had virtually destined him. His only assets, he claimed, were a few kitchen equipment, $ 5,000 in cash, $ 3,900 on a brokerage account and a pension of $ 110,000 via the Director Guild of America that he is not yet eligible. California had also struck him with tax rights of a total of $ 68,000.

His wife’s lawyers noted that he lived from April 2024 The bay leaf in West HollywoodThis is advertised as an “ultra-luxury” apartment building that they saw as proof that he maintained his previous standard of living.

Rinsch did not respond to a phone call and e -mail search for comment. Netflix refused to comment.

After Netflix had obtained his judgment of $ 11.8 million last August, the lawyers of the company hired private researchers to try to detect any remaining assets. Netflix told a judge that it had to move quickly: “Mr. Rinsch is said to have the tendency to continue to spare.”