Carl Rinsch, the director of “47 Ronin,” was sentenced Monday to 30 months in federal prison, receiving half of the government’s recommended sentence after Judge Jed Rakoff considered evidence of his mental health struggles from Keanu Reeves and other character witnesses.
In December, a jury convicted Rinsch of wire fraud and money laundering charges after prosecutors proved he defrauded Netflix out of roughly $11 million during production of the never-completed sci-fi series “White Horse,” also known as “Conquest.” Rather than finishing the ambitious project, Rinsch gambled much of the money in the cryptocurrency market before spending millions more on luxury purchases.
“I made a mistake,” Rinsch told the judge inside a Lower Manhattan courtroom before sentencing. “This process has forced me to confront things about myself that I never fully understood before.”
What changed between Rinsch’s trial and sentencing — and ultimately appeared to influence Rakoff’s analysis — was the introduction of evidence surrounding the director’s mental well-being, which the defense counsel intentionally kept out of the trial and redacted in documents viewed by jury members.
“Carl is now facing his mental health issues where previously he was unwilling to do so,” said defense attorney Daniel McGuinness, who explained that Rinsch “was under the care of a doctor” during the production who “was not doing what he was supposed to be doing.” In recent months, Rinsch completed treatment and now “reports feeling better and is seeing things more clearly,” McGuinness said.
While Rakoff said he “didn’t see signs of psychosis” or other mental illness during the trial, he pointed to some of Rinsch’s unusual decisions (including purchasing five Rolls-Royces that were not in his own name) as evidence of “someone who has a manic state of mind beyond simple greed.”
Rakoff also referenced several letters where Rinsch was “described as a positive role model.” One character letter was from Reeves, who became friends with Rinsch after starring in “47 Ronin.” Reeves wrote that he participated in “an effort in 2019 to get Carl some support by means of an intervention and professional mental health care, which Carl rejected.”
“Relatedly,” Reeves continued, “I believe circumstances arose where his mental health was compromised by misuse of medications and perhaps other issues, which amplified the acts of his self-sabotage and grandiosity, impacting his relationships, work, and ability to complete ‘Conquest.’”
The prosecution said it took those letters into consideration when recommending a 60-month prison sentence, adding that its request would have been “much higher” had it not been for Rinsch’s positive character references and otherwise clean criminal record. In its sentencing memo, the government stated that the sentencing guidelines called for a term of 11-13 years, due mostly to the high dollar amount of the fraud.
Prosecutors also argued that Rinsch displayed “time and again” a “disdain for the law” while repeatedly seeking additional Netflix funding despite having access to “a high-paying trust fund” and affluent Hollywood friends who could have financially supported his ambitious sci-fi project. The government also argued that Rinsch’s “willingness to doom” the production of “White Horse” harmed the careers of the many actors and crew members who had hoped the series would succeed.
Before imposing the sentence, Rakoff reflected on the effectiveness of a prison sentence in white-collar cases. “There’s lots of suggestions in the literature that prison can have a positive effect on white-collar offenders,” he said, questioning whether a sentence of more than five years would accomplish meaningfully more than one lasting two or three.
“The sentence should be sufficient but no more than necessary,” Rakoff concluded. “It is so easy to say, ‘He did wrong. Send him away for a long, long time!’ This is another human being, and for all his issues, needs to be considered as a human being.”
In addition to the 30-month prison sentence, Rakoff ordered Rinsch to pay approximately $11 million in restitution, participate in an outpatient mental health treatment program, abstain from “narcotics and other such drugs.”
Michael Schafler, appearing on behalf of Netflix, described the case as “unusual” and said the streamer would leave it to the court to determine a repayment schedule for the stolen funds. Rakoff acknowledged it was unlikely Netflix would ever recover the full restitution award, saying Rinsch would probably never have the means to repay the roughly $11 million he owes.
“I don’t recommend to him that he keep investing in cryptocurrency,” Rakoff joked. “It’s just a market for gambling.”
The judge ordered Rinsch to surrender to prison on Sept. 1, granting him 60 days before reporting.
“Mr. Rinsch is a very talented person who will still find ways to make use of those talents once released from prison,” the judge concluded. “But he had no reason to do this. He chose to do this and covered it up for years.”
