A science fiction movie director has been ousted for using funds awarded to create a movie to gamble on stocks and crypto. Perhaps the most notable gamble made by the director was the investment in Dogecoin, which has got the crypto community talking.
Netflix Director’s Big Stock Gamble
A report from the New York Times has revealed a rather interesting gamble by filmmaker Carl Erik Rinsch. Rinsch reportedly had a well sought-after series he wanted to develop, and would eventually score a deal with streaming giant Netflix to produce the series as a Netflix original.
However, while Rinsch would work on the series, he would also divert funds earmarked for production into his own personal trading accounts. According to the report, Rinsch received an $11 million lump sum payment from Netflix to further production on the science fiction series which he called The Organic Intellect (later renamed Conquest by Netflix).
Statements show that after receiving an $11 million payment from Netflix, in addition to the tens of millions of dollars already invested into production, Rinsch proceeded to deposit $10.5 million into his personal brokerage account he held with Charles Schwab.
Things would go haywire when Rinsch would begin placing bets on the stock market and lose millions. His investments of choice were revealed to be risky bets that Gilead Sciences share price would skyrocket, as well as betting that the S&P 500 Index would continue its decline.
In the end, both bets would end up being wrong, costing Rinsch a reported $5.9 million from the initial $10.5 million he had deposited. Interestingly, all of this unfolded in a matter of weeks.
Turning To Dogecoin As A Last Ditch Effort
In what seemed to be another risky bet, Rinsch would follow the crypto craze that emerged in the heat of the COVID pandemic and eventual worldwide lockdown. The funds that remained from the $10.5 million he had diverted to crypto and stock trading platform Robinhood, where he would place another seemingly risky bet. However, this time around, the bet would pay off.
Rinsch reportedly invested $4 million in Dogecoin in early 2021, and his holdings would grow readily as the cryptocurrency’s value rose. By the time the filmmaker sold his stash of Dogecoin in May 2021, they were reportedly worth a whopping $27 million.
With his bets finally paying off, Rinsch would go on an $8.7 million spending spree, buying Rolls Royces, a Ferrari, designer watches, clothes, and furniture. Naturally, Netflix was not pleased by this as the series they had invested in Rinsch to produce was still not finished.
The matter is currently in court as Netflix says it made the payments to Rinsch to deliver various production milestones that were never met. On Rinsch’s part, he maintains that by the contract between the two, the payments made to him were legally his, and claims that Netflix still owed him about $14 million in more payments.
