"47 Ronin" Director Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison After Defrauding Netflix of $11 Million

Carl Rinsch, the filmmaker behind the 2013 action fantasy film 47 Ronin, has been sentenced to 30 months in United States federal prison after being convicted of defrauding Netflix out of approximately $11 million meant for an unfinished science fiction series.

The sentencing was handed down in New York on June 29, months after a jury found the 48-year-old director guilty of wire fraud and money laundering charges tied to the production of the Netflix project, originally titled White Horse before later being renamed Conquest.

Prosecutors said Netflix provided Carl Rinsch with roughly $55 million to produce the sci-fi series, including an additional $11 million in 2020 after he claimed more funding was needed to complete production.

Instead of using the money for the show, prosecutors said the director transferred the funds into a personal account, where he made high-risk investments in stock options and cryptocurrency. Court filings stated that while he initially lost a significant portion of the money, later cryptocurrency gains were used to finance a string of luxury purchases.

Authorities said those purchases included a red Ferrari, five Rolls-Royces, designer clothing, expensive furniture, and other high-end items. According to AFP, the director was also ordered to forfeit approximately $11 million.

Although the director faced a substantially longer prison term under federal sentencing guidelines, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff sentenced him to 30 months behind bars, followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay roughly $11 million in restitution, undergo outpatient mental health treatment, abstain from narcotics and certain other drugs, and pay a $700 fine, according to BBC and Variety.

Before sentencing, Carl Rinsch addressed the court and accepted responsibility for his actions. “I made a mistake,” he said, according to Variety. “This process has forced me to confront things about myself that I never fully understood before.”

Variety reported that the director’s legal team urged the court to consider his mental health, saying he has since sought treatment after previously refusing help.

Among those who wrote to the court was actor Keanu Reeves, who starred in 47 Ronin. Keanu described the director as “an exceptional artist” and asked the court to show “leniency and mercy.” He also wrote that he had previously participated in an effort to encourage the director to seek professional mental health care, according to AFP and Variety.

“Relatedly,” Keanu wrote, “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.”

Although prosecutors did not publicly identify Netflix during the criminal proceedings, the case centered on the unreleased sci-fi series White Horse, later retitled Conquest. Court documents described the project as following a scientist who creates powerful clones that are exiled to a walled-off area in a Brazilian city, where they develop advanced technology and come into conflict with humans and one another, according to AFP.

The series was never completed. During the trial, Netflix executives testified that the streamer had approved only one season and that the director ultimately failed to deliver the project, BBC reported.