Michael Avenatti charged with extortion

fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
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That's pretty amazing. Considering the job of a plaintiff's attorney is to threaten companies until they pay you money he must have really gone above and beyond here.
 
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UNCjigga

Lifer
Dec 12, 2000
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That's pretty amazing. Considering the job of a plaintiff's attorney is to threaten companies until they pay you money he must have really gone above and beyond here.
Yeah well usually you're looking for a nice large settlement...for your CLIENT. I have no idea who Avenatti's client was, but it seems like he was trying to arrange wire payments to accounts that he controlled. So yeah, extortion plain and simple.

This guy was always a tool. At times he was a useful tool, as he knew how to push Trump's buttons like no other. Takes an asshole to know an asshole, I guess. But he never should have been considered some kind of champion or standard-bearer of progressive politics and causes. I always thought he was using #MeToo to line his pockets...that he never really cared about the movement. I half expected he'd have his own #MeToo moment, in all the wrong ways.
 
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Luna1968

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Pictures MUST contain commentary in this forum.

Daveybrat
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Maxima1

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Jan 15, 2013
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I see they also say he defrauded a bank by submitting false tax returns to get loans. Funny, Donnie has been doing that for more than a decade. 'Course, there's only one conservatives will be "outraged" and giddy about.
 

Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
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This guy is one dumbass. If the spotlight is going to be on you. Then make sure you are clean. Extorting Nike for 20 million. Who would had thought that would backfire?
 
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fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
83,717
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This guy is one dumbass. If the spotlight is going to be on you. Then make sure you are clean. Extorting Nike for 20 million. Who would had thought that would backfire?

What's even dumber is that they had him call back later and repeat his criminal requests over the phone.

As has been said many times if you commit a crime and then someone else who knows about it calls you back and asks you to recount your criminal behavior over the phone, hang up and run away.
 

echo4747

Golden Member
Jun 22, 2005
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Mark Geragos has also been charged in that Avenetti case! He’s the Clinton fixer who also stepped in to keep Lewinsky’s mouth shut. and recently represented Jesse Smollet
 

hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
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Mark Geragos has also been charged in that Avenetti case! He’s the Clinton fixer who also stepped in to keep Lewinsky’s mouth shut. and recently represented Jesse Smollet
I guess in one form or another, there will always be ambulance chasers in the profession.
 

compuwiz1

Admin Emeritus Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
27,113
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I see they also say he defrauded a bank by submitting false tax returns to get loans. Funny, Donnie has been doing that for more than a decade. 'Course, there's only one conservatives will be "outraged" and giddy about.

Yeah, too bad the IRS hasn't figured that out yet. :rolleyes:
Pure speculation.
 

Bitek

Lifer
Aug 2, 2001
10,647
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Saul Goodman-Avenatti is going away for longer than Cohen. Maybe they can bunk together

Those Twitter fights were classic tho. Good times
 

Stopsignhank

Platinum Member
Mar 1, 2014
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He done fucked up.

Details from the DOJ

In a scheme that unfolded in less than a week, AVENATTI and a co-conspirator not named as a defendant in the Complaint (“CC-1”) used threats of economic and reputational harm to extort NIKE, Inc. (“Nike”), a multinational corporation engaged in, among other things, the marketing and sale of athletic apparel, footwear, and equipment. Specifically, AVENATTI threatened to hold a press conference on the eve of Nike’s quarterly earnings call and the start of the annual National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) men’s basketball tournament at which he would announce allegations of misconduct by employees of Nike. AVENATTI stated that he would refrain from holding the press conference and harming Nike only if Nike made a payment of $1.5 million to a client of AVENATTI’s in possession of information damaging to Nike (“Client-1), and further agreed to “retain” AVENATTI and CC-1 to conduct an “internal investigation” – an investigation that Nike did not request – for which AVENATTI and CC-1 demanded to be paid, at a minimum, between $15 and $25 million. Alternatively, and in lieu of such a retainer agreement, AVENATTI and CC-1 demanded a total payment of $22.5 million from Nike to resolve any claims Client-1 might have and additionally to buy AVENATTI’s silence.

The March 19 Meeting With Avenatti

As alleged, AVENATTI first met with representatives of Nike last Tuesday, March 19, 2019, in New York, New York. At that meeting, AVENATTI claimed to represent a coach of an amateur youth travel basketball team sponsored by Nike, i.e., Client-1. AVENATTI claimed the team coached by Client-1 had recently lost its sponsorship with Nike, one worth approximately $72,000 a year, and that his client had information that Nike employees had been engaged in illicit payments to the families of high school student athletes. AVENATTI further stated that he planned to hold a press conference the next day announcing allegations of misconduct at Nike, and made clear that he had approached Nike now because he knew that the annual NCAA tournament – an event of significance to Nike and its brand – was about to begin, and further because he was aware that Nike’s quarterly earnings call was scheduled for March 21, 2019, thus maximizing the potential financial and reputational damage his press conference could cause to Nike.

AVENATTI further stated that he would refrain from holding that press conference and damaging Nike if Nike agreed to two demands: (1) Nike must pay $1.5 million to Client-1 as a settlement for any claims Client-1 might have regarding Nike’s decision not to renew its contract with the team coached by Client-1; and (2) Nike must hire AVENATTI and CC-1 to conduct an internal investigation of Nike, with a provision that if Nike hired another firm to conduct such an internal investigation, Nike would still be required to pay AVENATTI and CC-1 at least twice the fees of any other firm hired. AVENATTI made clear that Nike would have to agree to accept those demands on a very short time frame. Nike immediately contacted the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which launched an investigation in conjunction with the FBI.

The March 20 Call With Avenatti

In a follow-up call on March 20, 2019, recorded by law enforcement, AVENATTI reiterated both his threat, stating, in substance and in part, that unless Nike immediately agreed to his financial demands, he would hold his press conference and, as AVENATTI threatened: “I’ll go and I’ll go take ten billion dollars off your client’s market cap. But I’m not fucking around.” During the same call, AVENATTI made clear that his demands included not simply that he and CC-1 be paid for an “internal investigation,” but that he be paid more than $9 million. As AVENATTI stated during the call: “I’m not fucking around with this, and I’m not continuing to play games. . . . You guys know enough now to know you’ve got a serious problem. And it’s worth more in exposure to me to just blow the lid on this thing. A few million dollars doesn’t move the needle for me. I’m just being really frank with you. So if that’s what, if that’s what’s being contemplated, then let’s just say it was good to meet you, and we’re done. And I’ll proceed with my press conference tomorrow. . . . I’m not fucking around with this thing anymore. So if you guys think that you know, we’re gonna negotiate a million five, and you’re gonna hire us to do an internal investigation, but it’s gonna be capped at 3 or 5 or 7 million dollars, like let’s just be done.”

The March 21 Meeting With Avenatti

On March 21, 2019, at the direction of law enforcement, representatives of Nike met again with AVENATTI and CC-1. During the meeting, AVENATTI reiterated his demand for a

$1.5 million payment for his client and, with respect to his demand to be retained for an internal investigation, AVENATTI stated, in substance and in part, that he and CC-1 would require a $12 million retainer to be paid immediately and to be “deemed earned when paid,” with a minimum guarantee of $15 million in billings and a maximum fee of $25 million, “unless the scope changes.” When informed by an outside attorney for Nike (“Attorney-1”) that Attorney-1 has never received a $12 million retainer from Nike and never done an investigation for Nike “that breaks $10 million,” AVENATTI responded, in substance and in part, by asking whether Attorney-1 has ever “held the balls of the client in your hand where you could take five to six billion dollars market cap off of them?”

When Attorney-1 asked, in substance and in part, whether Nike could resolve the demands just by paying Client-1, rather than retaining AVENATTI and CC-1, AVENATTI and CC-1 conferred privately. AVENATTI then stated: “If [Nike] wants to have one confidential settlement and we’re done, they can buy that for twenty-two and half million dollars and we’re done. . . . Full confidentiality, we ride off into the sunset. . . .” AVENATTI then laid out again his threat of harm to Nike, adding that “as soon as this becomes public, I am going to receive calls from all over the country from parents and coaches and friends and all kinds of people – this is always what happens – and they are all going to say I’ve got an email or a text message or – now, 90% of that is going to be bullshit because it’s always bullshit 90% of the time, always, whether it’s R. Kelly or Trump, the list goes on and on – but 10% of it is actually going to be true, and then what’s going to happen is that this is going to snowball . . . and every time we got more information, that’s going to be the Washington Post, the New York Times, ESPN, a press conference, and the company will die – not die, but they are going to incur cut after cut after cut after cut, and that’s what’s going to happen as soon as this thing becomes public.”

Shortly after the March 21, 2019, meeting ended, and consistent with the threats AVENATTI communicated, AVENATTI posted a message to Twitter writing, in reference to an article about a prior prosecution involving employees of a rival company: “Something tells me that we have not reached the end of this scandal. It is likely far far broader than imagined…”
 

compuwiz1

Admin Emeritus Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Wonder what he's gonna do for a living after he is disbarred, which should be happening immediately?