Avenatti accused of embezzling $1.5M from NBA player Hassan Whiteside
This is brilliant.
Whiteside's former girlfriend had some kind of legal claim against Whiteside, so she hired Michael Avenatti. They reached a confidential settlement under which Whiteside paid $2.75M to Avenatti, from which he was to deduct his fees and disburse the rest to her.
Instead, he kept it all, and doled out small payments to her while claiming Whiteside wasn't paying.
The best part is that when confronted, Avenatti tweets this:
https://thehill.com/homenews/news/439933-avenatti-accused-of-embezzling-15m-from-nba-player-hassan-whiteside-report
"I look forward to ALL of the details coming out regarding Hassan Whiteside’s settlement, the money received by the client, the money deducted for fees and costs, etc. and the reason why he paid the money. I especially look forward to the inquiry by the @NBA and its commissioner," he said on Twitter.
After he allegedly embezzled the money from Whiteside, Avenatti told Gardner he would pay out the money she was owed in monthly installments over eight years, the Times reported.
Avenatti ultimately made 11 payments to Gardner that totaled about $194,000 before the payments stopped in June 2018, prosecutors allege, according to the Times. Avenatti then began deceiving Gardner, claiming that Whiteside was skipping payments, prosecutors say.
Because, yeah, nothing says "confidential settlement" better than one of the lawyers threatening to reveal all of the details on his own.
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