A sci-fi epic that never made it to air just landed its director in very real trouble, Deadline reports. A federal jury in Manhattan on Thursday convicted filmmaker Carl Rinsch of defrauding Netflix out of more than $11 million tied to his unfinished series White Horse, later retitled Conquest. The 47 Ronin director was found guilty of wire fraud, money laundering, and related financial crimes after a roughly two-week trial and a few hours of jury deliberation. He faces a theoretical maximum of 90 years in prison, though his actual sentence—set to be handed down by Judge Jed Rakoff on April 17, 2026—is expected to be far lower.
Prosecutors said Rinsch pitched an ambitious sci-fi drama that Netflix bought from Amazon in 2018 for more than $61 million, granting him rare final-cut authority. Investigators say he spent about $44 million and then obtained an additional $11 million in 2020, purportedly for production work that never materialized. Instead, the government argued, he spent large sums on pricey cars including five Rolls-Royces and a Ferrari, stock and cryptocurrency trading, fancy watches, and other personal expenses—including, per the AP, $1 million on mattresses and luxury bedding.
Rinsch, who pleaded not guilty and took the unusual step of testifying, claimed the extra funds were meant to reimburse money he'd personally put into the project and to leverage footage he'd already shot into a second-season deal. Former Netflix executive Cindy Holland and current streaming executive Peter Friedlander both testified, and the jury ultimately rejected Rinsch's account. Netflix scrapped the series in 2021 after receiving only teaser clips and later wrote off more than $55 million. The company secured a $12 million arbitration award against Rinsch this year but has not recovered any money, according to evidence at trial. Netflix declined to comment on the verdict.
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