Michael Avenatti sentenced to 2 1/2 years in Nike extortion scheme
NEW YORK CITY – Michael Avenatti, the attorney who previously represented adult film star Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against President Donald Trump, was sentenced Thursday to 2 1/2 years in prison for attempting to extort millions of dollars from athletic brand Nike.
U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe handed down the sentence more than a year after a jury found Avenatti, 50, guilty of attempted extortion and honest services fraud. Prosecutors said the celebrity attorney tried to shake down Nike for as much as $25 million while representing a Los Angeles youth basketball league organizer who was upset the brand had ended its league sponsorship.
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“Mr. Avenatti had become drunk on the power of his platform, or what he perceived the power of his platform to be,” Gardephe said Thursday, according to The Washington Post. “He had become someone who operated as if the laws and rules which apply to everyone else didn’t apply to him.”
Prosecutors had asked that Avenatti face a stiff penalty for his crimes, although Gardephe declined to give the attorney the maximum sentence, citing the Justice Department’s decision against charging another attorney who was considered a “key player” in the scheme, the Post reported.
In a victim impact statement filed in court, representatives of Nike said Avenatti caused substantial harm to the company’s reputation, falsely trying to link it to a scandal in which bribes were paid to the families of NBA-bound college basketball players to steer them to powerhouse programs. An employee of Adidas, a Nike competitor, was convicted in that prosecution.
In April 2019, after authorities arrested Avenatti on the extortion allegations, the attorney wrote in a tweet that Nike had bribed high school players in order to get them to play at collages affiliated with the company and claimed that the company’s senior executives “knew about it and looked the other way, as did many of the colleges.”
Avenatti was tearful Thursday in court, telling the judge that he “lost his way,” CNN and Reuters reported.
“TV and Twitter, your honor, mean nothing,” Avenatti said, according to Reuters. “Everyone wants to ride in a limo with you, but very few are willing to sit next to you on the bus. Even fewer, your honor, are willing to take your calls from prison.”
In addition to the charges in New York, Avenatti is facing allegations that he misappropriated funds meant for Daniels when he was representing her in cases against Trump. He is expected to appear in a federal court to face charges connected to the allegation in 2022, according to the Post.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
