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.
