Director Carl Rinsch sentenced to 30 months in $11M fraud

Carl Erik Rinsch, 48, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison on Monday after a jury convicted him of wire fraud and money laundering for diverting $11 million that a streaming company had provided to complete a television series.

Court records show the company, identified in filings as “Streaming Company-1,” paid Rinsch about $44 million between 2018 and 2019 for the unfinished series “White Horse” and approved an additional $11 million in March 2020 to finish production.

Prosecutors say Rinsch routed the $11 million through multiple bank accounts and consolidated the funds into a personal brokerage account, where he began speculative trading in stock options. Those trades lost more than half the money within two months, prosecutors allege.

After the options losses, he turned to cryptocurrency speculation and charged extensive personal spending to credit accounts. The Department of Justice listed at least $1.7 million in credit card charges, roughly $3.3 million on furniture, antiques and mattresses, $2.4 million on five Rolls-Royces and a Ferrari, and $387,000 on a Swiss watch.

Court filings note that in 2023 Rinsch converted roughly $4 million in Dogecoin into nearly $27 million, a detail prosecutors cited in describing his cryptocurrency activity.

Rinsch was convicted in December after a week-long trial before U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff on charges including wire fraud and money laundering. At sentencing the court ordered 30 months in prison, three years of supervised release, forfeiture of $11 million and $700 in mandatory special assessments.

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton characterized the case as an orchestrated theft and said the sentence sends a deterrent message: “Carl Erik Rinsch orchestrated a scheme to steal millions by seeking $11 million from a subscription streaming service, falsely claiming that money would be used to finance a television show that he was creating. Today's sentence sends a deterrent message: fraud will not be tolerated.”

Rinsch was first charged in March 2025 after the streaming company raised concerns about the use of the additional funds. The DOJ traced transfers from the company to personal accounts and documented the trading and purchases that depleted and dispersed the money intended for production.