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Filmmaker Carl Rinsch, best known for directing Keanu Reeves starrer '47 Ronin', has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison - half of the government's recommended sentence after Judge Jed Rakoff considered evidence of his mental health issues from Reeves and other witnesses, reported Variety.
In December last year, a jury convicted Rinsch of wire fraud and money laundering charges after prosecutors stated that he defrauded Netflix out of roughly USD 11 million during production of the never-completed sci-fi series 'White Horse', also known as 'Conquest'. Instead of completing the project with the funds, the filmmaker gambled much of the money in the cryptocurrency market before spending millions more on luxury purchases, as per the Variety report. "I made a mistake. This process has forced me to confront things about myself that I never fully understood before," Rinsch told the judge during his trial inside a Lower Manhattan courtroom before sentencing. Defence attorney Daniel McGuinness explained that the filmmaker "was under the care of a doctor during the production and was not doing what he was supposed to be doing. He is facing mental health issues." In recent months, Rinsch completed his treatment and is now "feeling better and seeing things more clearly," McGuinness said. During the trial, the attorney referenced several letters where Rinsch was "described as a positive role model," including one from Keanu Reeves, who became friends with the director after starring in '47 Ronin'. In his letter, Reeves noted that he participated in "an effort in 2019 to get Carl some support by means of an intervention and professional mental health care, which Carl rejected," as Variety reported. "Relatedly. I believe circumstances arose where his mental health was compromised by misuse of medications and perhaps other issues, which amplified the acts of his self-sabotage and grandiosity, impacting his relationships, work, and ability to complete 'Conquest,'" Reeves continued. Taking the letters into consideration, the prosecution explained that the prison sentence would have been "much higher" had it not been for Rinsch's positive character references and otherwise clean criminal record. (ANI)
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