Keanu Reeves asked a federal judge to give convicted Netflix fraudster Carl Rinsch a light sentence, describing him as an artist who “self-sabotage[s]” agreements and noting letters that reference severe psychological instability during the “White Horse” proje
Keanu Reeves didn’t just show up for Carl Rinsch’s trial. He wrote to the judge.
In a Tuesday night sentencing submission filed ahead of Rinsch’s federal punishment, Reeves urged leniency for the director convicted of defrauding Netflix of $11 million. The actor had directed alongside Rinsch, who also served as director for the 2013 movie “47 Ronin.”
Reeves’s letter was included in Rinsch’s sentencing packet to US District Judge Jed Rakoff. Reeves told the court that he believes Rinsch “tend[s] to ‘self-sabotage’” by pushing “the boundaries of negotiated agreements.”
“I am, of course, not a therapist or psychologist,” Reeves wrote, adding that he was speaking as an artistic peer of Rinsch and “as a friend.”
Reeves’s push for mercy arrives with the case already built on a stark timeline: 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 $11 million for spending on a lavish spree that included more than 480 food deliveries from Postmates and Uber Eats, a $439,000 handmade Swedish mattress, and other luxury goods.
The legal dispute, however, has never been only about the money. Reeves’s letter points to the artist’s record of championing Rinsch even before the criminal case took shape — including after “47 Ronin” flopped at the box office.
At trial, a Netflix executive testified that the streaming company greenlit “White Horse” after reading the script at Reeves’s home. Preliminary episodes and concept art were shown as part of evidence in Rinsch’s criminal trial.
Reeves continued to describe the unfinished project in emotional terms. “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,” he wrote.
Rinsch’s letter to Rakoff also contained parts of Reeves’s larger effort to frame the human side of a case that the prosecution portrayed as fraud. Reeves wrote that Rinsch has brought “creative inspiration” and “exceptional joy and warmth” to people around him.
Some of that story, though, is visible only in part. Two paragraphs of Reeves’s letter are redacted without explanation. The court docket also contains redacted records related to Rinsch’s health.
Other friends who wrote letters for the sentencing submission raised additional mental-health themes. Two additional paragraphs referenced a “period of severe psychological instability” and “a break from reality” during the time Rinsch was making “White Horse.” Rinsch’s brother wrote that. during that period. Rinsch was “no longer reasoning clearly.” Those brother’s remarks were also partially redacted.
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, Rinsch’s lawyer Matthew Rosengart said.
Rinsch’s attorneys are asking Rakoff to impose a sentence that does not include any prison time. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 29. Federal prosecutors are scheduled to file their own sentencing recommendation in June.
Rinsch’s legal team also appears to be fighting for relief beyond time in custody. 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,” Rinsch’s attorneys wrote.
Rinsch’s lawyer Daniel McGuinness said Reeves and the other friends and family who wrote letters “stepped forward to paint a fuller picture of who he is beyond the facts of this case.” McGuinness added that the letters offered 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.”.
By June 29, the court will have to weigh all of it — the spending described by prosecutors, Rinsch’s testimony about pandemic disruption and reimbursement, and the letters that portray psychological instability and artistic vision alongside the $11 million fraud conviction.
Keanu Reeves Carl Rinsch Netflix fraud sentencing Jed Rakoff White Horse 47 Ronin Postmates Uber Eats legal fees restitution