Michael Avenatti is accused of keeping a $4M personal injury settlement payout from a paraplegic man

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Michael Avenatti has been accused of improperly keeping a $4 million personal injury settlement payout away from a paraplegic man, a Los Angeles court heard.

The embattled attorney, 48, was also alleged to have hid almost $1 million from creditors, a hearing was told on Friday.

The news comes as Avenatti was charged with wire and bank fraud on Monday, with federal authorities saying he attempted to extract more than $20 million from Nike.

The hearing held at federal court came as part of Avenatti's former legal partner Jason Frank's case against his old colleague.

According to a court judgment, Avenatti owes Frank $10 million in unpaid profits from his former law firm Eagan Avenatti, sending his firm into bankruptcy proceedings.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/michael-avenatti-is-accused-of-keeping-a-dollar4m-personal-injury-settlement-payout-from-a-paraplegic-man-with-mental-health-issues-according-to-his-former-legal-partner/ar-BBVdtf4?li=BBnb7Kz

[BigmanPigman]

1. CNN just said that he could get 50 years

from the CA case alone. I am not justifying or making excuses but if he gets even one day of jail time he will be getting more than most of the fucking moron's enablers who broke a zillion laws. Our equal justice system seems to be lacking in the "equal" definition of justice.

[moonscape]

3. If these are true, likely they're also the

tip of the iceberg. He just might have broken a zillion laws, or the same ones over and over ...

He disgusts me just like the rest of them do. Stealing a paraplegic's settlement?

[madaboutharry]

2. Michael Avenatti wore out his welcome quickly, but

I am somewhat surprised at the gravity of these allegations.

If these allegations are true, disbarment will be the least of Avenatti's problems.

[gldstwmn]

4. The timing of this seems highly suspicious.

I have no idea what they have on him and hope it isn't true. The Nike thing seems like a settlement call gone awry.

[Tipperary]

6. Grifters gonna grift.

He finally got caught.

[gldstwmn]

8. An Orange threatening revenge

and talking about all the very bad people today? Hoo... I just don't know.

[Tipperary]

10. He did this himself. It has nothing to do with rump.

Many of his misdeeds occurred years before any of the rump stuff was going on.

[jberryhill]

7. The CA stuff has been building for a while

A lot of information came out in the suit with his ex-partner, and he defrauded a bank and defaulted on the loan.

The Nike thing had nothing to do with settling a claim.

If you read the indictment, you would find that Avenatti was demanding 1.5 million for his client, and millions more for himself to conduct an internal investigation for Nike.

Nike met with him and got video of the meeting, in which Nike offered him EVERYTHING he was asking for his client, but nothing for Avenatti.

AVENATTI TURNED THAT OFFER DOWN.

This was not zealous representation. This was actually fucking his client for his own sake.

[gldstwmn]

9. Mark Geragos was just named

by CNN as the unindicted co conspirator in the CA case. WTH?

[Tipperary]

11. Poor Jussie Smollett. Now his lawyer is in trouble too.

You cannot make this stuff up.

[gldstwmn]

13. Lol. I know Here's an interesting tweet from Lanny Davis:

Link to tweet

(Sorry I suck at embedding stuff.)

[tblue37]

22. Here:

Link to tweet

[gldstwmn]

24. Thank you. n/t

[tblue37]

23. Click the tweet and go to it. Copy paste the URL, but then remove "mobile." ( including the

period after "mobile." If the URL has a question mark and a bunch of junk after the question mark, then also remove the question mark in the URL and everything that follows the question mark.

[jberryhill]

14. No. In the NY case

There is no co-conspirator in the CA case.

[uponit7771]

12. +1, I'll wait ... I don't trust Barr or Red Don 1 bit

[jberryhill]

16. Uh huh...

Link to tweet

[uponit7771]

17. Whoa

[jberryhill]

18. The information in the CA case has been known for a while

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/100211713857

...and because of the lawsuit brought by the former partner to collect on the judgment that Avenatti still hasn't paid, all of the relevant bank records were included as exhibits.

People have been willfully ignoring the circus of corruption that is Michael Avenatti for so long, that this is a "surprise" to them.

He left Daniels in a $293k hole and ran off with the GoFundMe money.

He pocketed the money from his PAC and didn't support a single candidate.

None of this stuff has been hidden. People just stick their fingers in their ears and say "LA LA LA LA LA..." when it is presented to them.

[uponit7771]

29. Or crooks dirt is hard to keep up with, know a guy who didn't know collusion wasn't a crime in the

... context of Red Don but he knew mostly everything else about Benedict Donald's Russia dealings.

[MadDAsHell]

19. There was nothing to settle. His client demanding money had no relationship with Nike.

Just someone that claimed to have damaging information and was willing to blackmail Nike to keep it secret.

[theboss]

21. It's more than that

The client wanted $1 million for hush money. Avenatti wanted $25 million personally for some kind of consulting fee.

Basically, the “settlement was $26 million of which Avenatti gets $25.33 personally.

[MadDAsHell]

31. Right, but there was nothing to "settle."

"Settle" implies the client had been harmed by Nike, which would give them legitimate legal standing in a trial or settlement.

Instead, this sounds like it was just someone who had damaging info on Nike and decided to use it for blackmail purposes, and Avenatti got on board with them to try to make a huge chunk of money himself.

[theboss]

20. Read the filings in the Nike case. They are comical

Nike’s attorney basically keeps asking him to explain specifically how his blackmail will work....AND HE DOES.

[onenote]

27. No it sounds like an extortion attempt.

It's not a settlement demand when you don't have a personal stake in the legal claim you're trying to settle. Avenatti and Geragos were seeking $1.5 million for an AAU coach who claimed Nike wrongfully terminated its $72K a year sponsorship. That in and of itself is an exorbitant demand. But threatening to reveal damaging information unrelated to the coach's allegation of wrongful termination and seeking $20 million for yourself to do a sham internal investigation -- that's extortion.

And it was Avenatti that dictated the timing of his arrest. No one else.

[LuvLoogie]

5. I remain skeptical of Mr. Avenatti

[JCMach1]

15. Let's wait and see... But also know this is Trump's payback

It can be both and also be true...

However, let's see what the courts say I'm the end

[onenote]

28. So in your opinion, Avenatti plotted with Trump to get himself arrested

Last edited Tue Mar 26, 2019, 08:14 AM - Edit history (1)

by seeking to extort $20 million from Nike and setting the date for when he was going to carry out his threat?

Cause that seems absurd.

[JCMach1]

30. Not at all... He has had DOJ on his Avenatti's tail

It didn't just appear out of the blue... What Aveneatti di, or didn't do is still TBD, what's certain is Trump has had people digging through all of his garbage...

[onenote]

32. Nike contacted the FBI. Didn't require anyone "digging"

Why would you go out of your way to defend a scum bucket like Avenatti?

[Trenzalore]

25. I was skeptical of the guy from the beginning

Decided he was a dishonest actor after the Kavanaugh hearings when the woman he brought forward lacked serious credibility and was making the most outrageous of claims which during the process hurt the democratic side.

The fact that he is now being proven to be a grifter is not surprising.

Is he on Trump's "enemy list" probably. Doesn't make him a good guy. The Nike thing sounds like it was filed before he had the opportunity to go through with his threats.

[Jarqui]

26. I think the Nike extortion was a last desperate act as

his financial house of cards was tumbling down around him.

He needed millions of dollars to get out of trouble.

He owes
- his ex-partner $10 mil
- his ex-wife $2 mil +
- the paraplegic $4 mil
- another client in the CA case $1.5 mil
- $800,000 to the IRS for 2009-2010
- taxes for 2011-2014 plus some taxes in years after that
====================================
$18.3 mil plus taxes for other years.

That's just what we know about. More might come forward with this news.

He needed that $20 mil from Nike to pay his debts.

Let's talk history ... He's it!

[jberryhill]

33. You nailed it

The Ponzi scheme was running out of juice. That's why he was constantly flailing about and trying to attach himself to every news item which came along the pike.

Real lawyers don't do that.

It is unfortunate that folks have gotten this idea that "media presence" = "good lawyering". Nothing could be farther from the truth.

[Jarqui]

34. I do think he had some talents

Most people are not that slick or as fast on their feet in front of a microphone as he is.
He was right on a number of things.
I appreciated him as a media bulldog for some of our causes.
So we are witnessing some tragedy - a person with real capabilities has destroyed their professional life, reputation and probably their personal life in front of the whole country.
I don't think it has sunk in with him yet - like he was still in denial. He didn't have a lawyer to represent him yesterday - maybe none would - to sit him down and spell it out. He had some court appointed counsel.

Obviously, he was a shyster so I do not feel really sorry for him.

Like a computer genius I knew in college, he couldn't balance his checkbook.
Unlike that computer genius, he resorted to unethical/illegal/ponzi schemes to remedy his financial mess. The financial house of cards finally collapsed.

On the View, he said "All of my sexual fantasies involve handcuffs." so maybe he won't find being locked up as bad as most. Though, I have my doubts.