Former Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti was found guilty of trying to extort Nike.
A jury in a New York federal court determined that Avenatti, 48, was guilty of three charges on Friday: transmission of interstate communications with intent to extort, attempted extortion, and honest services wire fraud.
Prosecutors said the disgraced lawyer attempted to extort between $15 million and $22.5 million from the company “by threatening to use his ability to garner publicity to inflict substantial financial and reputational harm on the company if his demands were not met.”
“Today a unanimous jury found Michael Avenatti guilty of misusing his client’s information in an effort to extort tens of millions of dollars from the athletic apparel company Nike,” said Geoffrey Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a statement. “While the defendant may have tried to hide behind legal terms and a suit and tie, the jury clearly saw the defendant’s scheme for what it was — an old fashioned shakedown.”
Avenatti’s lawyers promised to appeal the decision. “Of course there will be an appeal,” Scott Srebnick, Avenatti’s lead defense attorney, told CNN.
His sentencing is June 17.
Avenatti was charged in March after Nike’s lawyers contacted prosecutors in New York about the lawyer’s threats. Law enforcement recorded some of the conversations between Avenatti and Nike.
Avenatti was accused of telling Nike that his client, an Amateur Athletic Union basketball coach, possessed evidence that the athletic apparel company paid recruits in exchange for their commitment to specific college teams sponsored by Nike. If Nike’s lawyers wanted them to remain quiet, Avenatti said, they would need to be paid a large sum of money to conduct an “internal investigation” into the athletics apparel company. Avenatti said they would agree to a $22.5 million hush-money payment from Nike if the company did not want to keep them on retainer.
“I’m not f—ing around with this, and I’m not continuing to play games,” Avenatti said in a March phone call. “I’ll go take a billion dollars off your client’s market cap. But I’m not fucking around.”
In August, Avenatti asked a federal judge to dismiss the indictment, saying he was targeted by a “vindictive and selective prosecution” because of his quarrel with President Trump.
But U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe found no malicious intent to indict the lawyer, writing, “Avenatti is being prosecuted for activities wholly unrelated to the political arena.” Gardephe also refused to drop the extortion charges.
Avenatti denied all allegations against him. In a 2019 tweet, he thanked his supporters for their “kind words and support.”
Avenatti additionally faces separate charges of tax, wire, and bank fraud in California and fraud and aggravated identity theft charges in New York for allegedly taking money that was supposed to be paid to Daniels, an adult film star who claims to have had an affair with Trump. The president has denied the allegation.
