Source: TM/Bauer-Griffin / Getty
Corrupt lawyer Michael Avenatti will have to do jail time after attempting to extort Nike for $25 million.
Avenatti was actually convicted last year, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, his sentencing was delayed. As CNN explains, “Avenatti, who rose to fame as Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, was convicted in February 2020 of three counts for threatening to publicly accuse the sportswear company of illicitly paying amateur basketball players unless Nike paid him.”
“I betrayed my own values, my friends, my family and myself,” Avenatti commented in court on Thurdsay. “I, and I alone, have destroyed my career, my relationships, my life.”
Nike reportedly went to prosecutors after initial conversations with Avenatti, after which the FBI began recording conversations that occurred thereafter. In exchange for not going public with his claims that Nike illegally paid players, Avenatti reportedly demanded Nike pay his client (youth basketball coach Gary Franklin) $1.5 million, as well as pay Avenatti and another attorney $12 million, and guarantee up to $25 million in payments for an internal investigation.
Several outlets report the disgraced attorney will spend 2 1/2 years behind bars. He’s also facing two additional indictments, “one in New York over allegations he defrauded Daniels, his former client, out of $300,000 from her book advance, and another in California, for allegedly defrauding other clients of his law firm,” CNN reports. The site goes on to state the judge has ordered Avenatti to report to a federal prison camp in Sheridan, Oregon by September 15.
Corrupt Lawyer Michael Avenatti Sentenced In Nike Extortion Case [Details] was originally published on cassiuslife.com
