NEW YORK (AP) — A Hollywood director was convicted Thursday on charges that he scammed Netflix out of $11 million for a show that never materialized, while he instead used the cash for lavish purchases that included several Rolls-Royces, a Ferrari and about $1 million in mattresses and luxury bedding.

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Carl Erik Rinsch, best known for directing the film “47 Ronin,” was convicted of wire fraud, money laundering and other charges, according to court records and a spokesperson for federal prosecutors in New York.

In a statement, Rinsch’s attorney, Benjamin Zeman, said he thought the verdict was wrong and “could set a dangerous precedent for artists who become embroiled in contractual and creative disputes with their benefactors, in this case one of the largest media companies in the world, finding themselves indicted by the federal government for fraud.”

Prosecutors said Netflix had initially paid Rinsch about $44 million for an unfinished sci-fi show called “White Horse,” and then sent over an another $11 million after he said he needed additional funding to wrap up the production.

But instead of putting the money toward the show, Rinsch steered the cash to a personal account where he made a series of failed investments, losing around half of the $11 million in a couple months, according to prosecutors.

He then put the remaining funds into the cryptocurrency market, netting some profit, though Rinsch then deposited the money into his own bank account.

Then came the lavish purchases, prosecutors said, with Rinsch buying five Rolls-Royces and one Ferrari, along with $652,000 on watches and clothes. He also bought two mattresses for about $638,000 and spent another $295,000 on luxury bedding and linens. In addition, he used some of the money to pay off about $1.8 million in credit card bills, prosecutors said.

Rinsch, 48, never finished the show. His sentencing date is set for April.

Netflix declined to comment.

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, in a statement, said Rinsch “took $11 million meant for a TV show and gambled it on speculative stock options and crypto transactions.”

“Today’s conviction shows that when someone steals from investors, we will follow the money and hold them accountable,” Clayton said.

The Powerball jackpot has grown to an estimated $1 billion for Saturday night’s drawing after lottery officials said no ticket matched all six numbers drawn Wednesday night.

The U.S. has seen more than a dozen lottery jackpot prizes exceed $1 billion since 2016. Here is a look at the largest U.S. jackpots won and the places where the winning tickets were sold:

1. $2.04 billion, Powerball, Nov. 7, 2022. The winning ticket was sold at a Los Angeles-area gas station.

2. $1.787 billion, Powerball, Sept. 6, 2025. The winning tickets were sold in Missouri and Texas.

3. $1.765 billion, Powerball, Oct. 11, 2023. The winning ticket was sold at a liquor store in a tiny California mountain town.

4. $1.602 billion, Mega Millions, Aug. 8, 2023. The winning ticket was sold at a supermarket in Neptune Beach, Florida.

5. $1.586 billion, Powerball, Jan. 13, 2016. The winning tickets were sold at a Los Angeles-area convenience store, a Florida supermarket and a Tennessee grocery store.

6. $1.537 billion, Mega Millions, Oct. 23, 2018. The winning ticket was sold at a South Carolina convenience store.

7. $1.348 billion, Mega Millions, Jan. 13, 2023. The winning ticket was sold at a Maine gas station.

8. $1.337 billion, Mega Millions, July 29, 2022. The winning ticket was sold at a Chicago-area gas station.

9. $1.326 billion, Powerball, April 7, 2024. The winning ticket was sold at an Oregon convenience store.

10. $1.269 billion, Mega Millions, Dec. 27, 2024. The winning ticket was sold at a gas station in Northern California.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s Congress approved Wednesday most of the tariff increases proposed by the government on more than 1,400 products imported from China and other countries that do not have free trade agreements with Mexico.

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The Senate passed the measure Wednesday evening, following the lower chamber, which had approved the increases before dawn. The governing Morena party of President Claudia Sheinbaum, who said the tariffs were necessary to spur domestic production, controls both chambers. The Senate passed the legislation with 76 votes in favor, five against and 35 abstentions.

Analysts say the real motivation is ongoing negotiations with Washington, Mexico’s most important trading partner. Sheinbaum has been trying to find relief from remaining tariffs imposed on Mexican imports by the Trump administration, which has accused China of using Mexico as a backdoor into the U.S. market.

Tariff increases of as much as 50% will affect textiles, shoes, appliances, cars and auto parts among other things beginning in January.

China will be the most affected as Mexico imported $130 billion worth of products from the country in 2024, second only to the what Mexico bought from the United States. The Chinese government was critical of the proposed tariff increases when they were announced in September.

Avocados imported from Mexico are displayed at a market in San Francisco, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

“The real reason has to do with the United States, it has to do with the review of the USMCA (free trade agreement) that is coming up, with the negotiations to obtain reductions, exemptions from the tariffs that Mexico is facing at this moment to access the U.S. market,” said Oscar Ocampo, director of economic development at the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness. Mexico still faces U.S. tariffs on the automotive sector, steel and aluminum.

But Ocampo said Mexico was bending to an unpredictable U.S. President Donald Trump and changing its commercial policy “in the wrong direction.” He said the government was creating problems for a number of sectors, including auto parts, plastics, chemicals and textiles, because the tariffs will create disruptions in supply chains and could push inflation up at a time when the economy is slowing.

Trailing 3-0 early in a do-or-die match, St. Paul-based Team Peterson rallied to score eight of the final nine points Thursday in the Olympic Qualification Event in Kelowna, Canada to send Norway home with an 8-4 victory that will send the Americans to the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Winter Games.

After securing the victory, skipper Tabitha Peterson joined her teammates — her sister, Tara Peterson, Cory Thiesse and Taylor Anderson-Heide — threw her arms around them and said, “I’m so proud of you guys. I’m just so proud of you.”

Two spots were available in the women’s draw at this week’s qualification event. Japan and Norway finished in a tie for first in the round-robin portion with 6-1 marks, with the United States in third at 5-2.

Japan edged Norway, 6-5, on Wednesday to secure the first spot, leaving the United States and Norway to battle it out up north Thursday for the final bid.

After the Americans went down early, Tabitha Peterson told her team, “Well, we’ve got lots of game left, girls.”

“We knew with anything like that, there’s lots of time to battle back,” Peterson said in her post-match, television interview, “and that’s just what we did.”

After falling behind, the Americans delivered a three-point end of their own shortly thereafter to knot the match and took control from there.

Team Peterson won a bronze medal at the 2021 World Championships and finished sixth at the 2022 Beijing Games. Tabitha was part of the team that finished eighth in the Pyeongchang Games in 2018. Since then, both sisters have become mothers.

That’s one of the reasons Team Peterson had to compete in the qualification event; with the sisters in and out of the lineup, the team just missed qualifying on international points. The team failed to advance out of the round-robin stage at this year’s World Championships in March.

This was the hard way, and successfully navigating it clearly meant a lot to Tabitha.

“It’s what we’ve been training for since four years ago, really,” she said in her television interview. “It’s just really special, especially with this group of girls. Now being a new mom, it’s just different. it’s just really special and I can’t wait to go there, perform and show everybody what we can do.”

Team Peterson’s victory comes a day after the American men – a Chaska-based team skipped by Danny Casper — clinched an Olympics berth of its own.

The Olympic Games are scheduled for Feb. 6-22.

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