Hollywood director Carl Rinsch, who was found guilty of defrauding Netflix out of US$11 million for a show that never materialized, was sentenced Monday to 30 months in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Rinsch, best known for the 2013 samurai fantasy film 47 Ronin, was convicted in December of federal wire fraud and other charges.
According to prosecutors and trial testimony, he told Netflix he needed $11 million to finish a show called White Horse, then diverted the money into a personal account and ultimately spent whopping sums on luxury cars, watches, clothes and household goods, including $638,000 on two mattresses.
Rinsch and his lawyers told the court Monday that his behaviour was fuelled by mental health struggles and medication problems, which they said he is now addressing with a new care provider, according to The Associated Press.
“This process has forced me to confront things about my health, my judgment and my life,” Rinsch said.
He apologized for his behaviour, acknowledged that “real harm was caused” and explained: “I failed to recognize the danger of the state I was in.”
Prosecutors argued that Rinsch should serve five years in prison.
“Mr. Rinsch had every possible advantage,” including family money, an elite education, famous friends and a high-flying career, prosecutor David Markewitz told the court. Rinsch’s motive, the prosecutor said, “was naked greed.”
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Prosecutors said Netflix had initially paid Rinsch about $44 million between 2018 and 2019 for an unfinished sci-fi series and then sent another $11 million around March 6, 2020, after he said he needed additional funding to wrap up the production.
Instead of putting the money toward the show, Rinsch transferred the cash into a “number of different bank accounts before consolidating them in a personal brokerage account,” according to prosecutors.
Rinsch then used those funds to make a number of personal and speculative purchases. He made a series of failed investments, losing around half of the $11 million in a couple of months, prosecutors said.
He then put the remaining funds into the cryptocurrency market and “on personal expenses and luxury items, including at least $1.7 million on credit card bills; at least $3.3 million on furniture, antiques, and mattresses; at least $387,000 on a Swiss watch; and at least $2.4 million on five Rolls Royces and a red Ferrari,” according to prosecutors.
Judge Jed Rakoff said that Rinsch’s sentence “should be sufficient but no more than necessary.”
“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,” Rakoff added.
In a statement following the sentencing, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said, “Carl Erik Rinsch orchestrated a scheme to steal millions by seeking $11 million from a subscription streaming service, falsely claiming that money would be used to finance a television show that he was creating.”
“Instead of using the money to make the show, Rinsch made risky bets on highly speculative stock options and cryptocurrency, and spent millions of dollars on luxury goods for himself. Today’s sentence sends a deterrent message: fraud will not be tolerated,” Clayton added.
In addition to Rinsch’s 30-month prison term, he was also sentenced to three years of supervised release, $11 million in forfeiture and $700 in mandatory special assessments, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
He is due to report to prison on Sept. 1.
Ahead of his sentencing, actor Keanu Reeves wrote a letter to Rakoff and asked for him to consider “leniency and mercy.”
Reeves asked that Rinsch’s sentence “be tempered with measures of leniency and mercy as well as justice.”
“I have known Carl for about fifteen years. He directed me in a film titled 47 Ronin in 2011, and we stayed in touch after production, later becoming friends,” the 61-year-old Canadian actor wrote. “I attended his wedding in Uruguay in 2014. Over the years I would periodically visit with Carl and his wife at their Los Angeles home and catch up on and discuss life and art.”
Reeves said that during one of his visits, Rinsch showed him a project he was working on called White Horse, which was the sci-fi series Netflix was funding.
“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 added.
The John Wick actor noted that he is “not a therapist or psychologist” but he wanted to write the letter as “an artistic peer of Carl’s, and as a friend.”
“In my opinion, Carl can self-sabotage by amplifying the scale, scope and landscape of what had been negotiated, accordingly placing himself and his counterparties at odds,” he continued. “I do not intend to share this as an excuse of diminishment of what he has been found to have done, but offer this solely as perhaps an insight into why.”
“To the extent you deem appropriate, I believe such leniency would be a healing act, to go along with the punishment he will live with,” Reeves’ letter concluded.
—With files from The Associated Press
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