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FBI Details Spending Spree as Netflix Fraud Trial Unfolds for Director Carl Rinsch

Prosecutors aim to prove the conditional $11 million was diverted to speculative trading, crypto gains, then luxury outlays.

Overview

  • An FBI agent testified that after Netflix’s transfer, Rinsch moved funds through personal accounts and crypto exchanges, then spent $9.14 million, including $3.36 million on furniture, $2.4 million on cars, and $1.8 million on American Express bills.
  • Evidence included a spreadsheet showing more than 480 food deliveries in six months in 2022 and messages in which Rinsch called himself a “Dogecoin Whale” after profitable crypto trades.
  • Brokerage advisers from Wells Fargo and Charles Schwab testified Rinsch rapidly lost roughly $12 million on high‑risk options bets, prompting trading limits and an account shift to avoid restrictions.
  • Former Netflix executive Peter Friedlander described early “visionary” footage, mounting budget overruns, a March 2020 deal conditioning $11 million on production work, and no completed episodes before Netflix wrote off the project.
  • Rinsch has pleaded not guilty to wire fraud, money laundering, and unlawful monetary transactions, while his defense frames the case as a contract dispute affected by the pandemic and his mental state, with trial testimony continuing under Judge Jed Rakoff.