Hollywood film director who worked on a $11 million plot to scam Netflix

The Justice Department indicted Carl Eric Linsh on Tuesday. Carl Eric Linsh hired Netflix to create a science fiction series that was not completed and charged a $11 million scheme to fraud the company.

Linsh secured funding from streaming companies from 2018 to early 2020, according to indictments released by prosecutors in the New York field office of the Southern District of New York and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Federal prosecutors accused Linsh, who was arrested in West Hollywood, California on Tuesday of wire fraud, money laundering and engaging in financial transactions deriving from illegal activities.

The indictment will not cite Netflix by name. However, the company is involved in a public dispute over the filmmaker's planning series, initially known as “White Horse,” but was renamed “Conquest.” Last year, the arbitrators determined that Linsh owed the company nearly $12 million in damages and legal costs.

“In exchange for completing the promised television series, Carl Linsh allegedly stole over $11 million from a well-known streaming platform to fund luxurious purchases and private investments,” FBI assistant director Leslie Buckseys said in a statement.

The New York Times covered the conflict between Linsh and the streaming giant in 2023. He had been selling Netflix on television shows near the height of the streaming boom several years ago. However, Netflix cancelled development of the show in early 2021 after Linsh's actions became unstable. In text and email to Netflix executives, he claims he has discovered the secret communication mechanism of Covid-19, telling his wife, the show's producer, that he can predict earthquakes and lightning strikes.

After Netflix informed Mr. Linsh that he had decided to halt funding the “conquest,” he spent the rest of the production money on the show, living in five-star hotels in California and Spain, buying a fleet of luxury cars and luxury furniture. He said the cars and furniture were props for the show, but arbitrator Rita Miller was a former Los Angeles Superior Court judge who ruled that no purchase was required for production.

He never created episodes of the series, so Netflix had to amortize the $55 million spent on the project.