Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - He Stole Millions... From Netflix - The Carl Rinsch Story

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

Carl Rinsch’s case centers on the collapse of his Netflix project White Horse aka Conquest, in which he was entrusted with a large production budget but allegedly misused significant portions of the funds. Instead of directing the money toward the series, Rinsch reportedly diverted millions into personal luxury purchases and high-risk options trading, losing vast sums before briefly recovering money through a lucky market swing. As production stalled and the show failed to materialize, Netflix and former crew members accused him of financial misconduct, mismanagement, and erratic behavior.

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Mostly directing commercials for big brands like Mercedes and Heineken and stuff like that. Which is great for him, but here's the thing. What he really wants is to direct big budget TV shows and movies, and one day he gets the chance to do just that. that. Because Universal Studios hires him to direct an action movie called 47 Ronan. And 47 Ronan isn't some small indie film. This is going to have a budget of over $170 million. And it's going to star Keanu Reeves. And for Carl, this is everything. It's his first real chance at Hollywood. I mean, he can't mess this up. And so he gets to work and production begins. But almost immediately, things start to fall apart. Partly because Carl insists that each scene of the movie should be shot twice.

Once in English and the other in Japanese, because most of the actors in the movie are Japanese natives. The problem with this is that this screws up the production. The movie now costs twice as much to shoot. It also complicates the whole movie editing process. And so of course, the producers and financiers of the movie are not happy about this. And so Carl is eventually removed. from the editing process altogether. And if things couldn't get worse for him, once 47 Ronan finally comes out, it is a disaster. Not only does the movie bomb, but it gets destroyed by critics earning a whopping 16% on Rotten Tomatoes. So his big movie flops.

And just like that, Carl's dream of being a big Hollywood director collapses. So, what does he do? Well, he goes back to directing commercials and, you know, making money that way. But he isn't about to give up on Hollywood just yet. He's convinced that all he needs is one more shot. So pretty quickly, he starts working on a new project with this woman, Gabriela. Gabriela is actually Carl's wife. So they start working on a sci-fi series called Whitehorse.

And it's got humanoids and robots in it and stuff like that. So it sounds pretty cool. And Carl actually finances it himself. And eventually they start shooting it. And so this ends up being a great little passion project for him. Like it's fun and it keeps him busy. But after a while, he's able to make six short episodes. Each around four to ten minutes long.

Here's actually a still frame of one of them. So you can see that it's like a sci-fi thing. But then, over time, Carl decides that Whitehorse isn't just going to be a passion project. it's going to be his big comeback. So he takes those short episodes and he uses them to pitch the show to every major streaming platform that he can think of. He apparently wants one of these places to finance it so that he can make it into a full-length long-form series. And one of the places he pitches the show is Netflix. Now, I don't know what the executives at Netflix actually look like, but I assume they look like this.

So the Netflix execs, they hear this pitch and they actually like it, and they agree to fund Whitehorse. And they send over some initial funding of millions of dollars, and in 2018, Carl and his team, they begin shooting in Brazil and Uruguay and Hungary and some other places. But now here's where it all starts to fall apart. Because, as it turns out, being a creator, director, and producer of a big budget TV series, It's actually a really stressful job. And over time, this stress really gets to Carl. And he starts abusing his ADHD medication, which can apparently cause mania. And soon enough, people on set start noticing changes in his behavior.

Like he's constantly shouting and cursing at people and lashing out at all the crew members. And over time, he becomes completely erratic. Like he even starts accusing Gabriella, his own wife, of plotting to have him assassinated. In fact, he gets so crazy that eventually, Gabriella, some of Carl's family members, and other crew members all get together and they stage an intervention, which apparently ends up not working at all. So anyway, more time passes, and it's now 2020. And by this point, Netflix has already put in $44.3 million into Carl's project. But despite that, somehow, Carl's production is out of money. I'm guessing they spent it all on production costs and stuff.

So he has to go back to the Netflix execs and ask for more. And they initially say no, but Carl tells them that if they don't give him more, that he can't finish the project at all. So Netflix kind of has no choice. They don't want their investment to go to waste. So they wire him $11 million more dollars. Now, at this point, Carl could try and finish up his production and maybe make Netflix a cool sci-fi show and Maybe he'll become the successful Hollywood director that he's always wanted to be.

But that's not what Carl does. Instead, he takes that $11 million, Netflix sent him, and he transfers it to his personal stock trading account, and he starts trading options and, like going all in, making extremely risky trades. And within just a couple of weeks, of that $11 million Netflix gave him, he loses $5.9 million of it. Oh no, but he's not done yet. Then he moves the remaining money into a cryptocurrency trading account,

and he buys millions of dollars worth of a meme coin that you've probably heard of called Dogecoin. Here's the crazy thing, though. This gamble actually pays off. Dogecoin spikes, and the $4 million that he put in shoots up to $27 million. Crazy lucky bastard over here. So now he's got some options. He could put this money into his production or even pay Netflix back the $11 million that they just gave him. But of course, that's not what he does.

Instead, he goes on a spending spree. He buys five Rolls Royces, a Ferrari, he spends over $650,000 on watches and clothes. He buys two mattresses, two, that costs $638,000. What? then he spends an extra $295,000 on luxury betting and linens, then he spends about $400,000 on luxury hotels and rental properties. He also pays off about $1.8 million in personal credit card debt. Meanwhile, while he's doing all this crazy spending,

he keeps assuring the Netflix execs that production of the series is progressing and that everything is going fine. But of course, it is not going fine. Because apparently at this point, shooting has completely stopped. And around this time, Carl's behavior spirals even further out of control. He starts leaning into crazy conspiracy theories. He claims that he has the ability to predict lightning strikes and volcanic eruptions. One time he tells his wife, Gabriela, that airplanes are organic, intelligent beings sent to greet him.

And all of this is happening during COVID. So he also starts claiming that he found a way to map the coronavirus. signals coming from within the earth. Like, what? And at some point during all this, Gabriela just gets fed up with all of Carl's crazy bullshit and she's like, screw it, I'm not going to deal with this anymore. And she goes to Netflix and she tells them all about what's been going on with him

and she also files for divorce. So the Netflix execs, they take all this information in and they realize that Carl either isn't going to be able to finish the project or has no intention of finishing the project. Either way, in 2021, they inform him that they will no longer be funding his project. However, but that he is free to take the project to another streaming platform and sell it, as long as the new owner reimburses Netflix for the money that they've spent. And again, Carl could reimburse them with the millions of dollars in Dogecoin money that he now has,

but for whatever reason, he doesn't. Instead, he just gets super pissed off and he goes and he hires a lawyer and he files a lawsuit against Netflix for breaching their contract. But unfortunately for him, they go to arbitration and Carl actually loses. And in fact, the arbiter rules that he actually owes Netflix $11.8 million. Not only that, but federal prosecutors get involved and they end up charging Carl with wire fraud and money laundering for. taking millions of dollars of Netflix's money and not spending it on the production. And so, bam, he gets arrested. And I don't have a mugshot, but here's a picture of him in real life.

And so ultimately, Carl goes to trial and he's found guilty and he actually hasn't been sentenced yet. His sentence isn't until next year.