Michael Avenatti, who represented porn star Stormy Daniels
Stephanie Clifford born March 17, 1979, known professionally as Stormy Daniels, is an American pornographic actress, stripper, and director. She has won numerous industry awards, and is a member of the NightMoves, AVN and XRCO Halls of Fame. In 2009, a recruitment effort led her to c…
Stormy's ex-lawyer has federal charges in Los Angeles and New York that involve alleged extortion, theft of millions, cheating on taxes and lying to investigators.
He was found guilty on both counts of wire fraud and identity theft for wrongly pocketing about $300,000 of the $800,000 advance that was paid to Daniels for her book, "Full Disclosure," which included details about an affair she says she had with Donald Trump.
A federal jury on Friday convicted Michael Avenatti on charges that he stole from his former client, one-time adult film actor Stormy Daniels, who wrote an explosive 2018 book.
Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels' one-time attorney, sentenced for$25M Nike extortion plot. Avenatti represented Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had a tryst with Donald Trump. He was convicted of fraud related to LA youth basketball and a Nike sponsorship. He faces fraud two more trials this year, and another in 2022, on fraud and other charges.
Exit Full Screen. Avenatti represented Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had a tryst with Donald Trump. He was convicted of fraud related to LA youth basketball and a Nike sponsorship. He faces fraud two more trials this year, and another in 2022, on fraud and other charges.
An employee of Adidas, a Nike competitor, was convicted in that prosecution. The lawyers said Avenatti threatened to do billions of dollars of damage to Nike and then falsely tweeted that criminal conduct at Nike reached the "highest levels.".
Avenatti represented Daniels in 2018 in lawsuits against Trump, appearing often on cable news programs to disparage the Republican president. Avenatti explored running against Trump in 2020, boasting that he would "have no problem raising money.". Daniels said a tryst with Trump a decade earlier resulted in her being paid $130,000 by Trump's ...
Avenatti, the judge added, "had become drunk on the power of his platform, or what he perceived the power of his platform to be. He had become someone who operated as if the laws and the rules that applied to everyone else didn't apply to him.".
Those political aspirations evaporated when prosecutors in California and New York charged Avenatti with fraud in March 2019. California prosecutors said he was enjoying a $200,000-a-month lifestyle while cheating clients out of millions of dollars and failing to pay hundreds of thousands to the Internal Revenue Service.
Celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti walks out of a New York court house after a hearing in a case where he is accused of stealing $300,000 from a former client, adult-film actress Stormy Daniels on July 23, 2019 in New York City. “You guys know enough now to know you’ve got a serious problem,” he said.
Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, whose office prosecuted Avenatti, said in a prepared 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.”.