Washington — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a bid by disgraced California attorney Michael Avenatti to overturn his conviction for attempting to extort nearly $25 million from sporting goods giant Nike.
The denial of Avenatti's appeal means his conviction on three federal charges remains in effect.
Avenatti rose to fame representing adult film star Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against former President Donald Trump, but became embroiled in numerous legal scandals. Among them was his scheme to extort millions of dollars of Nike, what he was for found guilty by a jury on three federal counts and sentenced to 30 months in prison.
Avenatti, 53, is currently incarcerated at a federal corrections facility in San Pedro, California. He is expected to be released in 2035, according to Bureau of Prison records. Regardless of the Nike case, he was also convicted Daniels cheating And other customers out of millions of dollars.
Avenatti also represented a woman who accused Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct when he was in high school in the early 1980s, allegations that emerged during his confirmation process to the Supreme Court in 2018. Kavanaugh vehemently denied all claims. He did not participate in the handling of the Avenatti case.
The criminal case before the Supreme Court arose from his representation of sports coach Gary Franklin, whose youth basketball organization Nike sponsored for about a decade. However, the firm's sponsorship ended in 2018. The Justice Department noted that when Avenatti agreed to represent Franklin, he had outstanding judgments of $11 million and his law firm had been evicted for failure to pay rent.
As part of his work for Franklin, Avenatti set up a meeting with Nike's lawyers in March 2019 and told him he would secure him $1 million in compensation and attempt to repair Nike's relationship with him and his youth basketball organization.
During the March 2019 meeting, Avenatti made a series of demands of Nike's lawyers and threatened to hold a press conference to expose allegations that the company was illegally paying elite amateur basketball players. Avenatti, who also threatened to leak the story to the New York Times, claimed that publicly making the allegations would hurt the company financially.
Nike representatives contacted federal prosecutors after the meeting and agreed to let the FBI record their conversations with Avenatti. A day later, Avenatti spoke again with a Nike lawyer and reiterated demands that the company pay Franklin $1.5 million and hire him and another lawyer, Mark Geragos, to conduct an internal investigation into corruption in the basketball.
Avenatti said he should get more than “a few million dollars” for the investigation because “it's worth more to expose me if I just open this thing up,” Avenatti said. court papers. He ultimately demanded a payment of between $15 million and $25 million, but also suggested that if Nike wanted a confidential settlement agreement, it could be “done” if it paid him $22.5 million for his silence.
“Total confidentiality, we're riding off into the sunset,” Avenatti was recorded telling Nike lawyers.
Franklin was unaware that Avenatti intended to threaten Nike into making the alleged misconduct public and that the information was intended to be kept confidential, court papers show.
A federal grand jury in New York indicted Avenatti on three counts. His attempts to dismiss the charges were unsuccessful and he was later convicted. Requests for a new trial and a verdict of acquittal were rejected.
The United States Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit affirmed Avenatti's conviction, ruling that the evidence was sufficient to find him guilty on all three counts.
He then appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing, among other things, that the federal fraud law for which he was convicted is unconstitutionally vague. Avenatti, represented by federal public defenders, also argued that an attorney's settlement demand cannot give rise to federal liability for criminal racketeering.
“This case intensifies all the ills of honest services fraud,” Avenatti's attorneys wrote in a Supreme Court filing submit. “Federal and state law already contains sufficient tools to combat abuses of fiduciary duty – bribery prosecutions, or, as may be relevant here, professional disciplinary proceedings. An amorphous provision that is so open to prosecutorial abuse does more harm than good.”
The Justice Department has urged the Supreme Court to dismiss the case, calling his claims “meritless.” Avenatti's racketeering charge was based on his demand that Nike hire him to conduct an internal investigation, and not on filing lawsuits, Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar said in a statement. submit to the judges.
