{"id":19285,"date":"2021-07-09T00:57:05","date_gmt":"2021-07-09T04:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=19285"},"modified":"2021-07-09T00:57:05","modified_gmt":"2021-07-09T04:57:05","slug":"michael-avenatti-celebrity-lawyer-sentenced-to-30-months-in-prison-for-extortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2021\/07\/09\/michael-avenatti-celebrity-lawyer-sentenced-to-30-months-in-prison-for-extortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Avenatti: Celebrity lawyer sentenced to 30 months in prison for extortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Disgraced US lawyer Michael Avenatti has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for attempting to extort up to $25m (\u00a317.4m) from Nike.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Avenatti, 50, who represented adult film star Stormy Daniels in a lawsuit against President Donald Trump, was found guilty last year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He shot to fame while representing Ms Daniels, at one point suggesting he might run for president.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On Thursday, a New York judge said Avenatti had become “drunk” on power.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Federal prosecutors alleged Avenatti met a lawyer for Nike in March 2019 and threatened to release damaging information about the company unless it paid him between $15m and $25m.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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At the time, Avenatti was representing a client who ran a youth basketball league in Los Angeles. Court papers said Avenatti had threatened to say that Nike had made illicit payments to young players in the city.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The jury heard he had been at least $11m in debt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Appearing for his sentencing in a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday, Avenatti told Judge Paul Gardephe he had “lost his way”, betraying his values, friends, family and the legal profession.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“There is no doubt that I deserve to pay, have paid, and will pay a further price for what I have done,” he said, fighting back tears.<\/p>\n

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Prosecutors last month urged a New York judge to impose a “very substantial” prison sentence on Avenatti. They argued he had “betrayed his client’s trust and sought to enrich himself by weaponising his public profile in an attempt to extort a publicly traded company out of tens of millions of dollars”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Avenatti was found guilty by jury after a three-week trial in February 2020 on all three of the counts he faced: extortion, transmission of interstate communications with intent to extort, and wire fraud.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He now faces another set of legal battles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Avenatti is due to begin a separate trial next week on a series of charges in California, where prosecutors allege he defrauded clients out of millions of dollars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Next year, he will be back in Manhattan federal court on charges related to his most famous client, Stormy Daniels. He is accused of stealing $300,000 of Ms Daniels’ advance for her book contract.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He denies all those charges.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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