Director swindled Netflix out of 11 million dollars and invested it in Dogecoin

The charges against Carl Rinsch, who was arrested earlier this week, sound like something out of a movie. That’s not too surprising considering the man is a movie director who worked primarily for streaming platform Netflix. He was paid around $11 million by the company to make a science fiction series, but instead used some of the money to invest in Dogecoin during the 2021 bull run.

Netflix

The incredible story of director Carl Erik Rinsch, who was paid $11 million by Netflix to make a series that never came to be, first hit the press in 2023. According to the New York Times, Rinsch, who had only made one film as a director (‘47 Ronin’ with Keanu Reeves), had received around $55 million from Netflix. That figure has since been revised downwards.

🎬👮 Hollywood director Carl Eric Rinsch, best known for the movie “47 Ronin” starring Keanu Reeves, has been arrested on charges of swindling $11 million from Netflix to invest in stocks and crypto. theblock#crypto pic.twitter.com/LSVVxjy91s

— CryptOpus (@ImCryptOpus) March 19, 2025

Rinsch tried to evade justice with the help of expensive lawyers but was arrested this week for fraud and money laundering. He spent the money on luxury cars, antique furniture and mattresses… and on Dogecoin during the 2021 bull run.

White Horse

Rinsch asked Netflix to finish the science fiction TV series “White Horse”, something he would never do. Instead of using the money to make the series, he invested in, according to the indictment “extremely risky investments”, stays at various Four Seasons hotels and many other luxury purchases, according to the charges. A funny detail is that Rinsch invested $4 million, about 40% of the amount he received from Netflix, in Dogecoin in early 2021, just at the beginning of the legendary bull run of that memecoin.

Rinsch sold in May of that year, making $27 million from that investment, but it remains unclear to this day what happened to that sum afterward.