A federal grand jury charged Michael Avenatti with extortion and wire fraud on Wednesday – crimes that could carry a fifty year prison sentence.
According to the complaint by Nike, Avenatti threatened to hold a press conference to announce alleged “misconduct” by them unless they agreed to hire Avenatti and his co-conspirator to conduct an internal investigation for over $20 million.
“A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment today against Michael Avenatti in the SDNY case in which he is charged with attempting to extort millions from Nike, per court filings. The superseder drops the conspiracy charges & adds 1 count of honest services wire fraud,” reported CNN’s Erica Orden.
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Thegatewaypundit.com reports: As previously reported, Avenatti was arrested in New York on federal extortion charges, Nicolas Biase, with the United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York announced in March of this year.
Avenatti was arrested on charges related to a $20 million extortion scheme of Nike, according to federal authorities.
A criminal complaint against Avenatti says he “devised a scheme to extort a company by means of an interstate communication by threatening to damage the company’s reputation if the company did not agree to make multi-million dollar payments to Avenatti and [co-conspirator], and further agree to pay an additional $1.5 million to a client of Avenatti’s.”
Michael Avenatti, dubbed the ‘Creepy Porn Lawyer’ for representing porn star Stormy Daniels, has been in a downward spiral professionally and financially in the last year.
Avenatti is no longer representing Stephanie Clifford AKA Stormy Daniels, but he left her with a hefty $293,052 judgment.
Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles announced separate charges of wire fraud and bank fraud against Avenatti in March of this year as well.
According to reports, Avenatti faces 50+ years in prison if convicted on charges of wire fraud and extortion in just one of the cases against him.
