I love a good documentary. And for a while there, Netflix seemed to be churning out a new documentary banger every other month.
Then, at some point, it started to feel like the machine got a little overfed. Did every recent murder or catastrophe need a three-part documentary that was churned out a month after the story broke? Did we really need an hour on the “Poop Cruise”? How many times can we sit through a moody title sequence and drone shots of an empty suburban street?
What I’m really craving is a good business disaster documentary along the lines of “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” “FYRE FRAUD,” or any of the docs about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos or Adam Neumann and WeWork.
Well, as it turns out, Netflix has an absolute banger of a documentary sitting in its own lap, ready to be made. The only problem? Netflix itself is the victim.
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The Director, The Deal, And The Streaming Wars
The main character in this potential documentary is Carl Erik Rinsch, the director of the 2013 Keanu Reeves samurai fantasy “47 Ronin.” That movie reportedly cost somewhere between $175 million and $225 million to produce, earned around $150 million worldwide, and was widely panned by critics.
And yet, during the free-spending insanity of the streaming wars, Rinsch somehow sparked a bidding war between Netflix and Amazon for his next project, a sci-fi series called “White Horse,” later retitled “Conquest.”
Netflix won the bidding war by agreeing to pay Rinsch roughly $61 million to develop and deliver the series. Executives reportedly believed the high-concept artificial intelligence thriller could become a major franchise, something in the neighborhood of “Star Wars” or “Westworld.”
Amazon lost. In hindsight, Amazon should probably send Netflix a fruit basket every Christmas.
The $11 Million Transfer
By early 2020, Netflix had already spent more than $44 million on “White Horse.” The production was troubled, but the company still believed the show could be rescued. Rinsch asked Netflix for another $11 million, saying the money was needed to finish the season.
Netflix approved the transfer in March 2020.
According to prosecutors, once the money landed in the production account, Rinsch quickly moved most of it into personal accounts. Around $10.5 million ultimately wound up in a personal brokerage account. Within less than two months, he lost more than half of that money through risky stock market trades.
Then he pivoted into crypto. Rinsch moved money into digital assets and eventually made profits through cryptocurrency speculation, particularly Dogecoin. At one point, he reportedly described himself to an FBI agent as “The Dogecoin Whale.”
Whatever trading success he had did not produce a finished Netflix show.
Rolls-Royces, Mattresses, And 480 Food Delivery Orders
Prosecutors said Rinsch used money tied to the Netflix production on luxury cars, furniture, designer clothes, watches, hotels, credit card bills, divorce lawyers, and attorneys he hired to sue Netflix for even more money.
To summarize, according to FBI testimony and court evidence, Rinsch spent:
- $2.4 million on luxury cars, including a Ferrari and multiple Rolls-Royces
- $3.36 million on furniture, antiques, and décor
- $638,000 on four luxury mattresses
- $1.8 million on American Express bills
- Hundreds of thousands of dollars on hotels, jewelry, and art
- More than 480 Postmates and Uber Eats orders in a six-month span
- $652,000 on designer clothing and watches, including a six-figure timepiece
At one point, Rinsch claimed that some of the Rolls-Royces were intended as props for the show. The jury did not buy it.
Through all of this, Netflix still had no completed episodes.
The Show That Never Arrived
“White Horse” was supposed to be Rinsch’s grand post-“47 Ronin” comeback. Instead, production spiraled into chaos.
Rinsch reportedly sent increasingly bizarre messages to Netflix executives, including claims that he had discovered the secret mechanism of COVID-19 transmission and could predict lightning strikes and earthquakes. Netflix executives tried to salvage the project, including traveling overseas to assess the troubled production, but nothing worked.
The final tally was brutal: roughly $61 million spent, zero completed episodes delivered.
Rinsch later sued Netflix, claiming the company owed him more than $14 million in additional money. An arbitrator rejected that argument and awarded Netflix damages instead. Netflix has also sought to recover millions in legal fees tied to the dispute.
Sentenced To 30 Months
This week, Rinsch was sentenced in Manhattan federal court to 30 months in prison for defrauding Netflix out of the $11 million that was supposed to be used to finish the show. He had been convicted in December on charges that included wire fraud, money laundering, and illegal monetary transactions.
Prosecutors had asked for a five-year sentence. Rinsch faced a much higher theoretical maximum, but U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff issued a lower sentence after evidence emerged about Rinsch’s untreated mental health condition and medication issues.
Rinsch was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to repay Netflix $11 million.
Before sentencing, Keanu Reeves wrote a letter asking the court for leniency and mercy. Rinsch’s family, friends, and former colleagues also described a dramatic shift in his behavior beginning around 2019. At the hearing, Rinsch said he had failed to recognize the danger of the state he was in.
If Netflix ever wants to turn lemons into lemonade, this is the move. Make the documentary. Just make sure someone else controls the production budget.
