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Alexis Gardner was living out of her car in West Hollywood when she hired Los Angeles lawyer Michael Avenatti in 2016 to reach a settlement with her ex-boyfriend, pro basketball player Hassan Whiteside.
Avenatti quickly cut a deal, but prosecutors say he stole Whiteside’s initial $2.75-million payment to Gardner and spent most of it on a private jet.
Avenatti covered up the theft, they say, by telling his client that Whiteside, then with the NBA’s Miami Heat, would send her monthly payments of $16,000 for eight years.
Gardner complained in a text to Avenatti more than a year later that Whiteside had fallen behind with the payments.
1996 Penn graduate Michael Avenatti sentenced to 30 months in prison in Nike extortion case
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Michael Avenatti gets 2-1/2 years in prison for Nike extortion scheme
Reuters | Jul 08, 2021 03:53 PM EDT
Attorney Michael Avenatti exits, following his sentencing for an extortion scheme against Nike Inc., at the United States Courthouse in the Manhattan borough of New York City, (Photo : REUTERS/Brendan McDermid)
Michael Avenatti, the brash lawyer who shot to fame representing porn actress Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against Donald Trump before a swirl of criminal charges ended his legal career, was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison on Thursday for trying to extort Nike Inc.
U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe in Manhattan said Avenatti, 50, had become drunk on the power of his platform in betraying his client, a youth basketball coach for his own gain.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Michael Avenatti, the brash lawyer who shot to fame representing porn actress Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against Donald Trump before a swirl of criminal charges ended his legal career, was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison on Thursday for trying to extort Nike Inc.
U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe in Manhattan said Avenatti, 50, “had become drunk on the power of his platform” in betraying his client, a youth basketball coach, for his own gain.
“Mr. Avenatti’s conduct was outrageous,” Gardephe said. “He hijacked his client’s claims, and he used those claims to further his own agenda, which was to extort millions of dollars from Nike for himself.”