This Friday (Feb. 14), Attorney Michael Avenatti was convicted of attempting to extort Nike of approximately $25 million. According to CNBC, Avenatti was accused of threatening to reveal evidence of Nike allegedly bribing amateur basketball players to secretly promote their products. If Nike wasn't willing to pay up, the lawyer stated he would make the information public.
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According to court documentation, Michael Avenatti told Nike's lawyers the following before being arrested last year:
"I’m not f*cking 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."
Prosecutors claim that Michael Avenatti was targeting Nike in an attempt to get himself out of the $11 million debt he's currently in. Avenatti recently rose to prominence after representing Stormy Daniels in her legal dispute with President Donald J. Trump.
Avenatti currently has multiple impending cases against him regarding his fraudulent business practices. The celebrity attorney allegedly scammed Stormy Daniels out of $300,000 in publishing revenue upon the release of her best-selling tell-all book, Full Disclosure (2018). In California, he's accused of swindling some of his clients out of millions, perjury, and tax fraud.
Michael Avenatti is currently facing a maximum sentence of twenty years in prison after being convicted on three different charges in relation to attempting to extort Nike out of $25 million. The sleazy lawyer is set to be sentenced on June 17, but most likely will not receive the maximum sentence previously stated. With NBA All-Star weekend upon us, check out this weekend's Jordan Brand and Nike releases, here.