GET to know all the facts of when and why Michael Avenatti was sentenced.
Avenatti has long been involved in scandals and lawsuits, some even involving Donald Trump.
Who is Michael Avenatti?
Avenatti is an American attorney from California and was born on February 16, 1971.
He is best known for representing adult film actress Stormy Daniels in her lawsuits against then-President Donald Trump.
He often appeared on cable news programs to disparage the Republican president.
Avenatti explored running against Trump in 2020, boasting that he would “have no problem raising money.”
Those political aspirations evaporated when prosecutors in California and New York charged Avenatti with fraud in March 2019.
California prosecutors said he was enjoying a $200,000-a-month lifestyle while cheating clients out of millions of dollars and failing to pay hundreds of thousands to the Internal Revenue Service, but he pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Why is Michael Avenatti being sentenced?
Avenatti was convicted on charges that he tried to extort up to $25million from sportswear giant Nike when he represented a Los Angeles youth basketball league organizer upset Nike had ended its league sponsorship.
In March 2019, he had threatened to go public with evidence that the company had bribed ameatur basketball players and their families unless he received a payout.
The celebrity lawyer, 50, was found guilty on February 14.
A top prosecutor called the scheme “an old-fashioned shakedown.”
What is Avenatti's sentence?
Aventatti's sentencing took place on July 8, 2021 in New York.
He was sentenced to 30 months in prison for the attempted extortion.
The judge working his case said Avenatti "became drunk on the power of his platform" and "betrayed" his clients.
Avenatti, 50, now faces the start of a fraud trial next week in LA, a second California criminal trial later this year and a separate trial next year in Manhattan, where he is charged with cheating Daniels out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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