Attorney Michael Avenatti has had a knack for staying in the public eye — for good or bad — since gaining notoriety for representing porn star Stormy Daniels, whom President Trump is accused of paying off during the 2016 presidential campaign to stay silent about their alleged affair. Avenatti made news over his messy divorce, was in the spotlight when he presented evidence for the upcoming R. Kelly case. (He reps the family of one of Kelly’s alleged victims, Azriel Clary.) Now, Avenatti has not only charged with bank and wire fraud but has also been accused of trying to shake down Nike.
Avenatti was arrested and charged with trying to extort $20 million out of Nike. According to the feds, Avenatti informed Nike’s lawyers if they didn’t cough up between $15 million and $25 million he would tell the media about allegations of misconduct by employees at the shoe company. He also demanded Nike hire him to conduct an internal investigation.
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Avenatti was representing a client who was the coach of an AAU Youth Club basketball team. Tis coach, he said, had evidence that one or more Nike employees had paid the families of top high school basketball players and attempted to hide those payments.
He gave Nike March 25 deadline. Nike didn’t fold and instead informed the feds, who arrested Avenatti where he was supposed to meet with Nike execs.
Avenatti claims his innocence and tweeted that he “never attempted to extort Nike & when the evidence is disclosed, the public will learn the truth about Nike’s crime & coverup.”
But the feds have more. “Avenatti allegedly siphoned off a $1.6 million settlement he scored for a client in 2017 and hid it in a personal bank account that he controlled … but never told his client a thing about it. The U.S. Attorney alleges Avenatti used that money to fund his lavish lifestyle and to help pay for his coffee business in California and Washington State. All the while, the client never received a penny,” TMZ reported.
As for the bank and wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney and the IRS also alleged Avenatti defrauded a bank for millions of dollars worth of loans by submitting fake tax returns between 2011 and 2013, in which he claimed to have earned around $4-$5 million a year each year and supposedly paid $2.8 million in taxes. The government says all of that was a lie … he didn’t file taxes those years at all.
