PANews reported on March 19 that according to Decrypt, Carl Rinsch, the director of the 2013 film "47 Ronin" starring Keanu Reeves, was arrested in West Hollywood on Tuesday and charged with wire fraud and money laundering for allegedly embezzling $11 million from a "well-known streaming platform," which multiple reports said was Netflix.
Prosecutors allege that Rinsch requested additional funds from a streaming service in 2020 to complete his sci-fi series White Horse, but instead transferred the money into a personal account and began trading securities; his production company had received $44 million in payments before requesting additional funds; by late April 2020, he had lost more than half of the funds through high-risk investments, including "highly speculative options and cryptocurrency trading" and an ETF that tracks the S&P 500 index. The indictment alleges that Rinsch also used the funds to "speculate in cryptocurrencies - which ultimately proved to be profitable." According to the indictment, Rinsch allegedly used the proceeds to spend $2.4 million on five Rolls-Royces and a Ferrari, $3.7 million on furniture and antiques, $652,000 on watches and clothes, $638,000 on two mattresses, and $295,000 on luxury bedding and linens. Rinsch never delivered a finished TV series to Netflix and never returned the money despite completing "six short episodes."
If convicted of the wire fraud charge, Lynch could face up to 20 years in prison. The money laundering charge carries an additional penalty of up to 20 years in prison, while the five counts of engaging in monetary transactions with criminally derived property each carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. If convicted of all charges, his total sentence could be as high as 90 years.
