Michael Avenatti was arrested Monday on federal charges of embezzling money from a client, defrauding a bank and attempting to extort sports-gear giant Nike in separate criminal cases filed in New York and Santa Ana.
The New York complaint accused Avenatti of “attempting to extract more than $20 million” from Nike regarding alleged evidence brought by an AAU basketball coach in California that claimed Nike officials were paying families of high school prospects. Avenatti threatened to hold a news conference if Nike didn’t pay the client and hire Avenatti to conduct an internal investigation of the company, court records show.
Avenatti and Nike had what Berman termed a “final meeting” on Monday, during which the company “would either cede to Avenatti’s demands or suffer the consequences.” Berman said Avenatti was going to attempt to link the company to a wider federal investigation into corruption and the illegal payment of college basketball players, the timing of which could be problematic for Nike in the midst of the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.
From 2015-17, Avenatti allegedly took steps to “obstruct an IRS collection action” related to the coffee company’s failure to pay more than $3 million in payroll taxes, according to an application for a search warrant filed last month. Avenatti allegedly instructed “employees to deposit over $800,000 in cash from Tully’s stores ... into a bank account associated with a separate entity to avoid liens and levies by the IRS,” court documents show.
“I made the decision more than a month ago to terminate Michael’s services after discovering he had dealt with me extremely dishonestly, and there will be more announcements to come,” Daniels said in a tweet.. It is the second time in two years the firm has sought court protection from its creditors.
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