WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th July, 2021) A Federal judge has sentenced New York City lawyer Michael Avenatti to two and a half years in prison for trying to extort more than $20 million out of the Nike Company and for defrauding his own client, the US Department of Justice said on Thursday.
"Audrey Strauss, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Michael Avenatti was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court by United States District Judge Paul Gardephe to 30 months in prison for attempting to extort Nike and for defrauding a client," the Justice Department said in a press release.
Avenatti was previously found guilty on February 14, 2020, following a three-week jury trial. He had demanded to be paid between $15 million and $25 million by the company as a retainer or get a total payment from it of $22.5 million to resolve any claims his client might have and to buy his silence, the release said.
"Michael Avenatti used illegal and extortionate threats and betrayed one of his clients for the purpose of seeking to obtain millions of Dollars for himself. Not only did Avenatti attempt to weaponize his law license and celebrity to seek to extort payments for himself, he also defrauded his own client," the release also said.
According to the complaint, superseding indictment, court documents and evidence presented at trial, Avenatti used threats of economic and reputational harm to seek to extort Nike while defrauding his client and had threatened to hold a press conference on the eve of Nike's quarterly earnings call at which he would announce allegations of misconduct by employees of the company, the release added.
