[Editor’s Note: Following the publication of this post, we learned some new details about what happened in California after Avenatti was arrested there last Tuesday: e.g., he was transported from California to New York City via a private jet rather than on Con-Air. We have now updated this post to reflect those new details].
When last we caught up with embattled superstar attorney Michael Avenatti, the trial concerning his alleged theft of $300,000 from Stormy Daniels had just been postponed until April 21, 2020.
Stormy & Michael back during friendlier times.
Shortly after that post, the trial concerning his alleged attempt to extort $25 million from Nike, Inc. – which was scheduled to start last November 12th – was also postponed until January 21, 2020.
Meanwhile, Avenatti’s legal problems have continued to grow like Topsy.
Just last Tuesday, Avenatti was re-arrested by IRS agents – and charged with committing new financial crimes while he was out on bail.
The arrest came during a break in a California State Bar disciplinary hearing in which he has been charged with stealing $840,000 from a former client in that state. The purpose of the hearing was to decide whether Avenatti should be placed on “involuntary inactive status” – which would temporarily prohibit him from practicing law in California.
On Wednesday, after reviewing the newest charges against Avenatti, U.S. District Court Judge James Selna revoked his bail – and ordered him to remain in custody for the time being. [He might as well get used to it, Avenatti is likely to be in jail/prison for the rest of his life. He likely saw his last day of freedom this past week.]
The newest charges include allegations that Avenatti has “brazenly attempted” to hide his assets – and that he has continued to defraud people and entities to which he owes millions of dollars.
Prosecutors introduced evidence to show that while he was out on bail, Avenatti had illegally structured numerous bank transactions so that he could “acquire a Mercedes-Benz and continue living a lavish lifestyle”.
Prosecutors also indicated that they planned to charge Avenatti with mail fraud and wire fraud in conjunction with his latest misdeeds.
The victims of Avenatti’s latest deceit include a former law partner who is owed $5 million, a former client who is owed $2.2 million and an ex-wife who is owed $2.5 million in spousal and child support. He also now owes the State of Washington $1.5 million in unpaid taxes.
What a swell guy Avenattit has turned out to be…
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Avenatti’s Life Continues To Crumble
2019 was certainly not a good year for the man who was the darling of cable network news shows for several months.
The fine lad was a hero to Democrats and liberal news media since he was a frequent critic of Donald Trump and said he was going to run for president against him.
2020 is not looking much better.
Avenatti is currently facing criminal charges in three separate federal actions.
In addition to the charges regarding Stormy Daniels and Nike – both of which will be heard in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York – Avenatti is also facing 36 felony counts in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California regarding his alleged theft of funds from five clients there.
If convicted on both of the charges related to Stormy Daniels – wire fraud and aggravated identity theft – Avenatti could be facing up to 22 years in prison.
For the Nike-related charges, the maximum sentence he’s facing is 47 years.
And if he’s convicted on all the original counts in California, he could be facing 335 years in federal prison (And “No”, that was not a typo).
So, yeah, 2020 is looking like it might be kind of an off-year for the man who was once being talked about as the potential nominee of the Democratic party for the upcoming presidential elections.
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Timing Of Nike Trial Is Now in Doubt
The jury selection process in the Nike trial was scheduled to begin next week.
Nike Logo
But after two phone conferences with Avenatti’s attorneys and the four U.S. Assistant Attorneys who are scheduled to handle the prosecution, the presiding judge, Paul G. Gardephe, acknowledged that Avenatti’s arrest “has essentially thrown the trial into chaos” – and temporarily postponed it.
U.S. District Court Judge Paul Gardephe
Last Friday, Avenatti was flown on a private jet from California to New York City, thereby avoiding a fun-trip on Con-Air (At least two U.S. Marshals accompanied him on the flight).
Once he arrived in New York, Avenatti was transferred to the Manhattan Correctional Center (MCC) – which is, of course, the same facility where Jeffrey Epstein allegedly committed suicide last August. {That’s not a good sign – for Avenatti].
Manhattan Correctional Center
Judge Gardephe has scheduled a status conference in the Nike case for Tuesday, January 21st.
And Gardephe has told both sides that he is still hopeful that the trial can start on the following Monday.
During one of the conference calls, Avenatti’s attorneys in the Nike case expressed concern about Avenatti’s ability to pay for several aspects of his planned defense: e.g., retaining expert witnesses, procuring daily transcripts of the proceedings, etc.
One of those attorneys, Jose Quinon stated: “We were dealing with very little resources, and now we have none”.
Quinon also stated that in light of the allegations in California, he could not advise Avenatti to spend money on his Nike trial. “It’s like going to war without weapons on our side right now.”
Avenatti is also being represented by Scott Srebnick – who indicated that Avenatti may request that the court provide funding for some of his defense expenses.
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Pre-Trial Filings & Rulings Do Not Bode Well for Avenatti
Things have also not gone well for Avenatti in the run-up to the start of the Nike trial.
In late December, the prosecution filed documents showing that Avenatti was $15 million in debt at the time he allegedly tried to extort money from Nike in 2019 (That basically establishes motive in the Nike case).
This, of course, is the same Michael Avenatti who was retained by Clare Bronfman to pursue her civil claims against Frank Parlato (Bronfman fired Avenatti shortly after he was arrested in the Nike case – and brought back William F. Savino to represent her in the Parlato case).
Clare Bronfman with Mark Geragos
The $15 million of debt included money that Avenatti owed to his one-time lawyer, Mark Geragos, who just happened to be Bronfman’s lead attorney in her own criminal trial.
It is unknown whether Geragos talked Bronfman into hiring Avenatti so that Avenatti could pay off what he owed Geragos.
It is also unknown whether Geragos will appear as a prosecution witness in the Nike case. Geragos was with Avenatti during at least one of his meetings with Nike but was not named as a co-conspirator in the related indictment. He is reportedly an unindicted coconspirator.
Earlier this week, Judge Gardephe denied a motion to dismiss the criminal charges in the Nike case. That motion was based on the claim that those charges were initiated against Avenatti because of his ongoing dispute with President Trump
“Avenatti is being prosecuted for activities wholly unrelated to the political arena,” Judge Gardephe wrote in his order dismissing the case.
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Avenatti Will Likely Die in Federal Prison
Back in October, I wrote that it was “…likely that Michael Avenatti will die in federal prison’.
Nothing that’s happened since then has caused me to change my mind about that prediction.
If anything, Avenatti has continued to dig himself into more and more legal trouble over the course of the past four months.
And based on what happened this week, it appears that Avenatti may have already begun what is going to be a lifetime behind bars.
Of course, when you’re being held at MCC, a “lifetime” doesn’t necessarily mean a “long time”.
Just ask Jeffrey Epstein about that the next time you see him…
