Michael Avenatti

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Michael Avenatti charged with trying to extort $20 million from Nike

Remember Avenatti?

 

David Covucci

Tech

Posted on Mar 25, 2019   Updated on May 20, 2021, 4:22 pm CDT

Today in a spin of the giant wheel containing every possible sequence of known events in the multiverse, former potential 2020 Democrat and Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti is being charged with trying to extort $20 million from Nike.

No one saw this coming.

According to a criminal complaint obtained by CNBC, Avenatti “devised a scheme to extort a company by means of an interstate communication by threatening to damage the company’s reputation if the company did not agree to make multi-million dollar payments to Avenatti and [co-conspirator], and further agree to pay an additional $1.5 million to a client of Avenatti’s.”

Avenatti, authorities say, threatened to take $10 billion off Nike’s market cap over a phone call. He is being charged with wire and bank fraud. Prosecutors are expected to elaborate on the charges in a press conference today.

Just hours earlier, Avenatti teased a press conference involving Nike, which probably won’t be happening now.

Avenatti rose to prominence as a lawyer for Daniels, who took a $130,000 payment from President Donald Trump in the run-up to the 2016 election to keep quiet about a purported affair.

Avenatti used his perch as Daniels’ lawyer to increase his own fame, eventually even flirting with a bid for president in 2020 before it was derailed by accusations of both domestic violence and tax evasion.

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*First Published: Mar 25, 2019, 12:51 pm CDT