Infamous attorney who previously represented adult film actress Stormy Daniels, Michael Avenatti, has just suffered a major legal setback.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected Avenatti’s appeal and upheld his convictions for transmitting extortionate communications in interstate commerce, attempted Hobbs Act extortion, and honest-services wire fraud.
The court also affirmed a $259,800.50 restitution award to sportswear giant Nike.
At the time of his arrest in 2019, Avenatti was representing Los Angeles youth sports coach Gary Franklin in negotiations with Nike concerning a civil settlement dispute.
During their discussions with Nike representatives, Avenatti made it clear that if his demands were not met he would hold a press conference and have a story appear in the New York Times which could cause financial damage to Nike’s reputation.
Alarmed by this aggressive approach, Nike contacted federal prosecutors which ultimately led to Avenatti’s arrest.
Court documents revealed that at the time of the crimes Avenetti was facing approximately $11 million worth of outstanding judgments against him which highlights how desperate he had become for money to pay these debts off.
This motivation likely fueled him to make such bold threats towards Nike as he attempted to extort them into paying him millions of dollars as well as his client Gary Franklin who he promised would receive a part of this payment as part of their agreement that amounted to a bribe on his behalf.
Although he initially challenged the sufficiency of evidence supporting each count of his conviction as well as questioned both the trial court’s failure to provide requested jury instruction on honest-services fraud and legality of restitution order, none were found by the appellate court to have merit thus affirming the judgment against him.
It appears that Michael Avenatti is now paying dearly for attempting to capitalize off another person’s misfortune.
