Federal prosecutors in New York and California announced charges against Michael Avenatti on Monday in separate cases targeting the former personal attorney for adult film actress Stormy Daniels.Avenatti, who was arrested in New York City on Monday morning, stands accused of attempting to extort Nike for $20 million in New York and faces additional charges of bank- and tax-fraud in California.
Charges in the separate cases were announced almost simultaneously. Avenatti was expected to make a court appearance Monday afternoon.In their criminal complaint filed on Sunday, prosecutors in New York wrote that Avenatti and an unnamed co-conspirator threatened to release damaging information about Nike if the sportswear giant refused to make multi-million dollar payments to them and an additional $1.5 million payment to an individual Avenatti claimed to represent.
In a phone call with lawyers for Nike last week, Avenatti and the unnamed co-conspirator allegedly said if those demands were not met, "I'll go take $10 billion dollars off your client's market cap. I'm not f***ing around,” according to the criminal complaint.
Earlier Monday, Avenatti tweeted plans to hold a press conference “to disclose a major high school/college basketball scandal perpetrated by @Nike.”
Federal investigators told ABC News that Avenatti was taken into custody approximately 15 minutes later.
Avenatti, 48, gained prominence for representing Daniels in a defamation lawsuit against President Donald Trump. In December, a federal judge in California ordered Daniels to pay Trump just under $300,000 in legal fees throwing out her defamation suit in October.
Poster Comment:
Who would have guessed this guy is a scumbag?