The suspect charged with setting off the deadly Palisades fire that claimed a dozen lives in January 2025 was motivated by anti-capitalist beliefs, according to federal prosecutors.
Court documents submitted ahead of trial in the case against 30-year-old alleged arsonist Jonathan Rinderknecht indicate he resented the rich, felt “enslaved” by them, and admired Luigi Mangione, who is accused of assassinating UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
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According to the government’s trial memorandum, Rinderknecht, while working as an Uber driver, ranted to passengers about capitalism, vigilante violence, and Mangione on New Year’s Eve 2024, the night before he allegedly started a small brush fire in the mountains known now as the Lachman fire. That blaze became the precursor to the Palisades fire, which destroyed thousands of homes.
“Many of defendant’s Uber passengers on December 31, 2024 and January 1, 2025, described defendant as angry, intense, driving erratically, and ranting about being ‘pissed off at the world’ and Luigi Mangione, capitalism, and vigilantism,” trial attorneys for the Justice Department wrote.
When investigators later asked Rinderknecht why someone might commit arson in the Pacific Palisades, per prosecutors, he invoked Mangione and cited animosity against wealthy residents.
Rinderknecht “responded that [the crime] would be out of resentment of the rich enjoying their money as ‘we’re basically being enslaved by them’ and compared such an act of ‘desperation’ to the murder for which Mangione was charged,” the prosecution said.
Mangione has become a celebrated Robin Hood-like figure on the political Left, especially among revolutionary activists engaged in class struggle. According to a copy of Mangione’s alleged manifesto, his suspected murder of Thompson, one of the wealthiest healthcare executives in the country, was meant as a rebuff of the U.S. medical insurance industry, its claims denial practices, and corporate greed.
In the trial memo, federal officials said Rinderknecht was obsessed with Mangione to the point of “fixation,” scoured the internet for “Mangione-related news,” and looked online about “free[ing]” him.
Prosecutors said Rinderknecht also sought out content on “killing all the billionaires” in the weeks leading up to one of the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles history. In total, the Palisades fire killed 12 people, displaced thousands, and caused billions of dollars in damage.
According to the court filing, Rinderknecht searched “lets take down all the billionaires” and “reddit lets kill all the billionaires” between Dec. 12 and 13, 2024, less than a month before he allegedly ignited the Lachman fire.
Following the devastation, authorities discovered that the Palisades fire was a “holdover” fire, a continuation of the Lachman fire that began just after midnight on Jan. 1, 2025.
Although firefighters quickly suppressed the Lachman fire, the fire continued to burn underground within the root structure of dense vegetation. Heavy winds eventually caused the fire to surface and spread above ground, ultimately turning into the Palisades fire.
Rinderknecht was arrested in October 2025 on suspicion of “maliciously” sparking a fire near the affluent Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Law enforcement determined, based on witness statements, video surveillance, and geolocation data, that Rinderknecht set the Lachman fire overnight on land owned by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, a federally funded organization.
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A grand jury indicted Rinderknecht on charges of property destruction by means of fire, arson affecting property used in interstate commerce, and timber set afire. If convicted on all counts, Rinderknecht could face a statutory maximum sentence of 45 years in federal prison.
Rinderknecht, who pleaded not guilty, is scheduled to stand trial on June 8, starting with jury selection.
