Michael Avenatti has been sentenced to 2 and a half years in prison for extortion Corruption News

The lawyer was convicted of allegedly trying to “push his own agenda” against the US company Nike for millions of dollars.

Michael Avenatti, a shameless lawyer who gained fame on behalf of porn actor Stormy Daniels Lawsuits against Donald Trump Before the whirlwind of criminal charges ended his legal career, he was sentenced on Thursday to 2-1 / 2 years in prison for trying to extort Nike.

Manhattan U.S. District Court Judge Paul Gardephe said Avenatti, 50, was “drunk on the power of his platform” for his client, a young basketball coach, for his own good.

“Sir. Avenatti’s behavior was horrible,” Gardeph said. “He hijacked his customer’s claims, and used those claims to advance his agenda, which is to get Nike millions of dollars for himself.”

The sentence has been a drastic drop for a lawyer who was obscure in 2018, which became cable news in 2018, underestimating the then-president Trump and flirting with the White House chief.

Those political intentions came to a head when prosecutors in California and New York accused Avenatti of fraud in March 2019. The California prosecutor said he was making a living on $ 200,000 a month when he was defrauding customers of millions of dollars and not paying hundreds of thousands of dollars. Revenue Service.

A few weeks later, Daniels was accused of cheating the profits from a book deal. Avenatti has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The recordings showed Avenatti telling Nike lawyers he would “explode the lid” on the sportswear company and cut $ 10 billion in market value if he didn’t bow to his demands.

Prosecutors said Avenatti was counting on a big day’s salary to cover his debts. Nike has denied the wrongs.

Avenatti coach Gary Franklin was also convicted of fraud, saying he would not be fixed without a probe.

Franklin was angry that Nike had stopped sponsoring his program and said he wanted to restore the relationship between them. He said Avenatti had “destroyed my reputation” in his community.

Before receiving the sentence, Avenatti lost his composure as he confessed that he had “lost his way,” and apologized to Franklin and others.

“Television and Twitter, your honor, don’t mean anything,” Avenatti told the judge. “Everyone wants to ride in the lemon with you, but very few are willing to sit next to you on the bus. Even less, in your honor, the calls are ready to come out of jail.

“Only me and I have destroyed my career, my relationships, my life,” he added.

Michael Avenatti replaced the actor in the adult film Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against former President Donald Trump [File: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters]

The prosecutor called for a “very substantial” sentence, with the U.S. Department of Probation recommending an eight-year prison sentence. Avenatti’s lawyers said a six-month prison sentence and a one-year arrest sentence were enough.

In a statement to the effect of the victims, Nike’s lawyers said Avenatti did a lot of damage to the company when it tried to link it to the fake, paying the bribes to the families of NBA-linked college basketball players to drive them to potential programs. An Adidas employee, a Nike competitor, was convicted in the indictment.

Lawyers say Avenatti will do billions of dollars in damage to Nike and then falsely tweet that Nike’s criminal behavior has reached “the highest levels”.

In a previous filing of the sentence, Avenatti’s lawyers said the client had suffered enough, citing horrific public shamelessness and difficulty in prison last year, after lawyers said he was particularly vulnerable to coronavirus.