Michael Avenatti arrested for extortion, bank and wire fraud

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ASPartOfMe
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25 Mar 2019, 2:45 pm

Stormy Daniels’ ex-lawyer Michael Avenatti arrested for alleged $20 million extortion scheme against Nike, embezzling client’s money, defrauding bank

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Celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti was arrested Monday in New York City on charges of trying to extort up to $25 million from Nike by threatening to reveal claims that company employees authorized payments to the families of top high school basketball players.

Avenatti also was separately charged in a second federal case in Los Angeles with embezzling a client’s money “in order to pay his own expenses and debts” and those of his law firm and coffee company, and of “defrauding a bank in Mississippi,” prosecutors said.

Daniels replaced Avenatti as her lawyer earlier this month after a fallout with him.

Daniels, in a statement released by her new lawyer Clark Brewster, told CNBC that, “Knowing what I know now about Michael, I’m saddened but not shocked regarding his arrest.”

“I made the decision weeks ago to terminate Michael’s services after discovering that he had dealt with me extremely dishonestly, and I will have my own announcement coming soon,” Daniels said.

Avenatti, 48, was arrested in Midtown Manhattan at the law offices of Boies Schiller Flexner at 12:30 p.m. ET by FBI agents, about 15 minutes after he tweeted that he would be disclosing a big high school and college basketball scandal “perpetrated by” Nike that he supposedly had uncovered.

The co-conspirator was identifed by sources to NBC News as Mark Geragos, a high-profile California criminal defense lawyer, who is now representing actor Jussie Smollet in a case where the “Empire” cast member is accused of lying to Chicago cops about a purported hate-crime attack.

A person who answered Geragos’s office phone told CNBC, “We are not at liberty to speak on the matter. We are not releasing any comments.”

Nike stock initially nose dived after Avenatti’s tweet, but later recovered much of the losses.

According to a criminal complaint, Avenatti had offered to not hold that press conference “only if Nike made a payment of $1.5 million to a client of Avenatti’s in possession of information damaging to Nike ... and agreed to ‘retain’ Avenatti and [a co-conspirator] to conduct an ‘internal investigation’ — an investigation that Nike did not request — for which Avenatti and [the co-conspirator] demanded to be paid, at a minimum, between $15 [million] and $25 million.”

The client of Avenatti’s is “a coach of an amateur athletic union ... men’s basketball program based in California,” who for a number of years had a sponsorship agreement with Nike, the complaint said.

The complaint says that on Wednesday, Avenatti and a cooperating witness spoke by phone with lawyers for Nike “during which Avenatti stated, with respect to his demands for payment of millions of dollars, that if those demands were not met ‘I’ll go take ten billion dollars off your client’s market cap ... I’m not f---ing around.’”

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, speaking at a press conference in Manhattan, said, “By engaging in the conduct alleged in the complaint, Avenatti was not acting as an attorney. ”

“A suit and tie does not mask the fact that at its core, this was an old-fashioned shake down,” Berman said. The prosecutor said the investigation is continuing.

Avenatti is due in Manhattan federal court on Monday on charges of conspiracy, extortion and transmitting interstate communications with intent to extort. That is the same court where Trump’s ex-lawyer Cohen pleaded guilty last year to crimes that included campaign finance law violations related to the hush-money payments to Daniels.

Avenatti is charged in the Los Angeles case with two criminal counts, wire fraud and bank fraud.

In a statement, Nike said, “Nike will not be extorted or hide information that is relevant to a government investigation.”

“Nike has been cooperating with the government’s investigation into NCAA basketball for over a year,” the company said. “When Nike became aware of this matter, Nike immediately reported it to federal prosecutors. When Mr. Avenatti attempted to extort Nike over this matter, Nike with the assistance of outside counsel at Boies Schiller Flexner, aided the investigation.”

In the Los Angeles federal case, Avenatti is accused in a 197-page complaint of negotiating a $1.6 million settlement for a client in a civil case, but then giving the client “a bogus settlement agreement with a false payment date of March 10, 2018.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles said “Avenatti misappropriated his client’s settlement money and used it to pay expenses for his coffee business, Global Baristas US LLC, which operated Tully’s Coffee stores in California and Washington state, as well as for his own expenses.”

“When the fake March 2018 deadline passed and the client asked where the money was, Avenatti continued to conceal that the payment had already been received,” according to prosecutors.

“Mr. Avenatti is facing serious criminal charges alleging he misappropriated client trust funds for his personal use and he defrauded a bank by submitting phony tax returns in order to obtain millions of dollars in loans,” U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said.

Hanna’s office said Avenatti also allegedly defrauded a bank in Mississippi by submitting to that bank fake tax returns to get three loans totaling $4.1 million for his law firm and coffee business in 2014.

The tax returns indicated that he had “substantial income even though he had never filed any such returns with the Internal Revenue Service,” the prosecutor’s office said. “The phony returns stated that he earned $4,562,881 in adjusted gross income in 2011, $5,423,099 in 2012, and $4,082,803 in 2013. ... Avenatti allegedly also claimed he paid $1.6 million in estimated tax payments to the IRS in 2012 and paid $1.25 million in 2013.”

“In reality, Avenatti never filed personal income tax returns for 2011, 2012 and 2013 and did not make any estimated tax payments in 2012 and 2013,” Hanna’s office said.

“Instead of the millions of dollars he claimed to have paid in taxes, Avenatti still owed the IRS $850,438 in unpaid personal income tax plus interest and penalties for the tax years 2009 and 2010. Avenatti also submitted a fictitious partnership tax return for his law firm,” the investigators saiD.


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JohnPowell
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25 Mar 2019, 3:02 pm

He was a Democratic party hero last year. All going a bit wrong now.


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25 Mar 2019, 9:56 pm

I saw this, this morning and starting laughing hysterically. I have no illusions that republicans are less hypocritical and corrupt, but have too many liberal colleagues whose "holier than thou" attitude rubs me the wrong way. Maybe just some of them will realize that the blue team is not intrinsically better than the red team, and that the whole idea of picking teams in politics is stupid.


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26 Mar 2019, 2:02 am

Yeah I laughed too.

I read that Stormy is planning on going at it again with a new lawyer.



BaronHarkonnen85
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26 Mar 2019, 4:19 pm

I saw the tweet he made about Nike. I'm sure that doesn't help his extortion case. lol


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24 Jan 2020, 12:23 pm

LOL, he's the gift that keeps on giving. I'm so old I remember when leftist talking heads were gushing about what a great presidential candidate he would be. :lol:


Michael Avenatti Arrested By IRS Agents, Accused Of Committing More Financial Crimes While Out On Bail

Washington Post, Michael Avenatti, Arrested by IRS agents and Accused of Violating Bail Terms, to Remain in Jail, Judge Rules:

"Michael Avenatti, the attorney who rose to prominence as the legal counsel for adult-film actress Stormy Daniels during her lawsuit against President Trump over a hush-money deal, will remain in jail following his rearrest by IRS agents, a judge in Los Angeles ruled Wednesday after prosecutors alleged he continued to commit financial crimes while out on bail.

"Avenatti — who is accused of extorting athletic apparel maker Nike for up to $25 million and stealing millions of dollars from those he once represented, including Daniels — was arrested Tuesday evening while appearing before the State Bar Court in Los Angeles, in the middle of a disciplinary hearing alleging he stole about $840,000 from a former client."


https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blo ... n-bai.html


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Darmok
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14 Feb 2020, 3:56 pm

And to think, he was on the verge of being one of the Democrats' presidential candidates. 8)


Michael Avenatti found guilty on all counts in Nike extortion case, faces 42 years in prison

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – A jury ruled attorney Michael Avenatti guilty on all accounts in the Nike extortion trial on Friday.

Avenatti, who became a household name after representing porn star Stormy Daniels in her lawsuits against President Donald Trump, was convicted in Manhattan Federal Court.

He was found guilty of all the charges—transmission of interstate communications with intent to extort, attempted extortion and wire fraud. The charges carry a combined potential penalty of 42 years in prison.


https://1010wins.radio.com/articles/mic ... -nike-case


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EzraS
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14 Feb 2020, 4:14 pm

He and Stormy were entertaining features in the circus that has revolved around Trump.



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14 Feb 2020, 10:12 pm

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15 Feb 2020, 12:14 am

News from the dim-bulb media.

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15 Feb 2020, 2:46 am

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16 Feb 2020, 12:51 pm

Everything you need to know about the media in one composite clip.


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