The hammer of justice is coming down for Carl Rinsch after the 47 Ronin director was found guilty of scamming Netflix out of $11 million for his unfinished sci-fi series.
Rinsch could face up to 90 years in prison
According to the latest reports, Rinsch’s fraud and money laundering trial lasted less than two weeks in a federal courtroom in Manhattan before the guilty verdict was announced. Under the charges from the U.S. Attorney’s office of the Southern District of New York, Rinsch faces up to 90 years in prison for wire fraud and more, but some believe Judge Jed Rakoff will pass a more lenient sentence.
Government prosecutors stated in their indictment earlier this year that Rinsch “knowingly having devised and intending to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud, and for obtaining money and property by means of false and fraudulent pretenses.”
How did Rinsch end up in this position?
Netflix had hired Rinch to develop a sci-fi series that involved a scientist who created a humanlike species that rebelled against its creators. Netflix apparently spent $55 million on the series, but Rinsch requested an additional $11 million. That money was quickly transferred into Rinsch’s personal accounts, and the director allegedly went on a spending spree. The series was never finished, and Netflix ultimately cancelled the project, with a spokesperson saying, “After a lot of time and effort, it became clear that Mr. Rinsch was never going to complete the project he agreed to make, and so we wrote the project off.” That could have been the end of it, but Rinsch actually sued Netflix for more than $14 million, claiming he was contractually obligated to do so. The director also apparently stated that he had discovered how to map “the coronavirus signal emanating from within the earth” and could predict lightning strikes.
In a later arbitration hearing, Rinch testified that his behaviour was the result of his autism spectrum disorder. “Whatever’s going on there, I can tell you it’s not drug-induced,” he said. “It’s not mentally ill. It’s exacerbating a different neurotype that most people might not be able to understand.”
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