Keanu Reeves asks judge to give Netflix fraudster Carl Rinsch a light sentence

Keanu Reeves is asking a federal judge to show leniency in sentencing Carl Rinsch, the director convicted of defrauding Netflix of $11 million.

The actor's letter was included in a Tuesday night sentencing submission for Rinsch, who directed Reeves in the 2013 movie "47 Ronin."

Reeves wrote that Rinsch tends to "self-sabotage" by pushing the boundaries of negotiated agreements. "I am, of course, not a therapist or psychologist," Reeves wrote in a letter to US District Judge Jed Rakoff. "I write instead as an artistic peer of Carl's, and as a friend."

A Manhattan federal jury convicted Rinsch of defrauding Netflix after he took millions of dollars to make an ambitious sci-fi epic called "White Horse" — and never finished the project. Prosecutors said Rinsch used the money for a lavish spending spree that included more than 480 food deliveries from Postmates and Uber Eats, a $439,000 handmade Swedish mattress, and other luxury goods.

Reeves continued to champion Rinsch after "47 Ronin" flopped at the box office. A Netflix executive testified at Rinsch's trial that she greenlit "White Horse" after reading the script at Reeves' home. Preliminary episodes and concept art were included in the evidence in Rinsch's criminal trial.

"In my opinion, Carl is an exceptional artist and 'White Horse,' in the form in which I saw it, was a superb and visionary work of art, although unfinished," Reeves wrote in his letter. Rinsch has brought "creative inspiration" and "exceptional joy and warmth" to people around him, Reeves wrote.

Two paragraphs of Reeves' letter are redacted without explanation. Records related to Rinsch's health have been redacted elsewhere on the court docket.

Other friends who wrote letters for the sentencing submission referred to Rinsch having had "a period of severe psychological instability" and "a break from reality" when he was making "White Horse." His brother wrote in a letter, which is also partially redacted, that Rinsch was "no longer reasoning clearly" during that time period.

At trial, Rinsch testified that Netflix abandoned the project after cost overruns and complications from the Covid-19 pandemic, and that the bulk of the $11 million was meant to reimburse him for out-of-pocket production costs.

Reeves "was pleased simply as a friend and artist" to write a letter supporting Rinsch ahead of his sentencing hearing, his lawyer Matthew Rosengart told Business Insider.

Rinsch's sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 29. His attorneys have asked for the judge to impose a sentence that does not include any prison time. Federal prosecutors are scheduled to file their own sentencing recommendation in June.

"Carl is deeply grateful to Mr. Reeves and to all the friends and family who stepped forward to paint a fuller picture of who he is beyond the facts of this case," Rinsch's attorney, Daniel McGuinness, told Business Insider. He said they offer a consistent account of Rinsch as "a remarkably talented man of strong character who confronted extraordinary challenges in the period leading up to these events."

In addition to $11 million in restitution, Netflix asked that Rinsch be ordered to pay $3.4 million in legal fees for a related civil legal dispute between them, as well as an additional $500,448 for the streamer's legal costs of helping prosecutors prepare the criminal case, according to Tuesday's filing.

Rinsch's lawyers say he shouldn't be obligated to pay those legal fees. They wrote that "the devastating reputational and professional fallout" from the case has already deterred him from future wrongdoing.

"The conduct at issue in this case — obtaining $11 million from a global streaming company to deliver a creative project with no oversight — will certainly not reoccur," they wrote.