Welcome to Arrest Stories. Hollywood director Carl Erik Rinsch was arrested in West Hollywood on March eighteenth, twenty twenty-five on charges of money laundering and wire fraud involving eleven million dollars meant for a Netflix television production. Here's what may have happened.
Forty-eight-year-old Carl Erik Rinsch, best known for directing the twenty thirteen action film Forty-Seven Ronin starring Keanu Reeves, found himself in federal custody after allegedly misappropriating funds from streaming giant Netflix. The charges stem from events that began in March twenty twenty when Netflix had already invested forty-four million dollars in Rinsch's unfinished science fiction series called White Horse.
According to police reports, Netflix approved the transfer of an additional eleven million dollars to Rinsch on March fourth, twenty twenty. Two days later, on March sixth, Netflix deposited the eleven million dollars into the Rinsch Company account. Rinsch quickly transferred the money through a number of additional accounts, with about ten and a half million dollars winding up weeks later in a personal brokerage account.
Prosecutors allege Rinsch lost more than half of that money in less than two months via risky investments in the stock market. He then shifted the remaining balance into cryptocurrency, yielding some profit. The spending spree that followed included the purchase of five Rolls-Royces and a Ferrari, six hundred fifty-two thousand dollars on expensive watches and clothes, over three million dollars on furniture and antiques, and four mattresses costing a combined six hundred thirty-eight thousand dollars.
Federal prosecutors stated that Rinsch devised a scheme for obtaining money and property by means of false and fraudulent pretenses. One official noted that Rinsch took eleven million dollars meant for a television show and gambled it on speculative stock options and crypto transactions.
Also arrested alongside Rinsch were Anya Phan, Darius McCrary, and Thi Ta Phan, though their specific roles in the alleged scheme have not been detailed in available reports.
All suspects presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Do not take this report as factual, always verify facts. Thanks for watching Arrest Stories.