{"id":668868,"date":"2026-05-27T22:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T22:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/668868\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T22:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T22:06:08","slug":"keanu-reeves-wants-leniency-for-director-who-stole-millions-of-netflix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/668868\/","title":{"rendered":"Keanu Reeves Wants Leniency for Director Who Stole Millions of Netflix"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tKeanu Reeves<\/a> is seeking leniency for Carl Rinsch<\/a>, the director of \u201c47 Ronin\u201d who faces years in prison for swindling Netflix<\/a> out of $11 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a letter to Judge Jed Rakoff, Reeves called the director an \u201cexceptional artist\u201d and urged the judge to show \u201cleniency and mercy\u201d in sentencing him.<\/p>\n

\n\tRinsch was convicted<\/a> in December on federal charges of wire fraud, money laundering, and making illegal transactions. Prosecutors alleged that he used Netflix\u2019s money \u2014 intended to fund the sci-fi series \u201cWhite Horse\u201d \u2014 to make lavish purchases, including luxury cars, high-end mattresses, and crypto investments.<\/p>\n

\n\tRinsch directed Reeves in \u201c47 Ronin,\u201d and the actor later served as a mentor and initial investor on \u201cWhite Horse.\u201d In the letter, Reeves acknowledged that he is not a psychologist or a therapist, but spoke to Rinsch\u2019s motivations as an \u201cartistic peer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn 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,\u201d Reeves wrote. \u201cI do not intend to share this as a diminishment of what he has been found to have done, but offer this solely as perhaps an insight into why.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRinsch is due to be sentenced on June 29. Prosecutors are expected to make their sentencing recommendation by June 16.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to the defense calculations, Rinsch would face 8-10 years in prison under federal guidelines. However, the defense argued that Rakoff should give him a sentence well below that, noting that Rinsch is a first-time offender and has already suffered \u201cthe likely end of his career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe judge is expected to order Rinsch to pay $11 million in restitution to Netflix. Netflix is also seeking an additional $4.4 million in attorneys\u2019 fees, which it incurred while defending itself in an arbitration case brought by Rinsch, as well as while it was assisting federal prosecutors.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe defense argues that the attorneys\u2019 fees demand is excessive. Rinsch has been deemed \u201cindigent\u201d under the law and was represented at trial by counsel appointed by the court.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe defense submitted letters on Rinsch\u2019s behalf from Reeves and others, including his mother, brother, and several childhood friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keanu Reeves is seeking leniency for Carl Rinsch, the director of \u201c47 Ronin\u201d who faces years in prison…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[171912,236,88,10490,217],"class_list":["post-668868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-carl-rinsch","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-keanu-reeves","tag-netflix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}