Keanu Reeves is asking for a judge to consider “leniency and mercy” for director Carl Rinsch, who was found guilty of defrauding Netflix out of US$11 million for a show that never materialized.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan said that Rinsch used the money for lavish purchases, including a Ferrari, several Rolls-Royces and luxury bedding. He is now facing years in prison ahead of his sentencing on June 29.
In a letter to Judge Jed Rakoff, obtained by Deadline, 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 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.
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“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.”
Reeves said that he has seen Rinsch bring “exceptional joy and warmth to the people around him.”
“I have seen him bring creative inspiration to others through his creativity and visions. I have seen and been a part of wonderful artistic environments where exceptional work was done with him,” the Matrix actor wrote. “I hope you are able to find leniency for this man.”
“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.
In December 2025, Rinsch was found guilty of defrauding Netflix following a one-week trial. He was convicted of one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering — each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced.
He was also found guilty of five counts of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
The director began filming White Horse around 2017, which follows a scientist who creates a human-like species that turns against its creators, according to the indictment.
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.
In a statement to The New York Times at the time, Rinsch’s lawyer, Benjamin Zeman, said he disagreed with the verdict.
“I fear that this could set a dangerous precedent for artists who become embroiled in contractual and creative disputes with their benefactors, in this case, one of the largest media companies in the world, finding themselves indicted by the federal government for fraud,” Zeman said.
Netflix said it had no comment when contacted by Global News about Rinsch’s conviction.
—With files from The Associated Press
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