Michael Avenatti, the attorney who gained fame through his representation of adult film actress Stormy Daniels in her legal fight with President Donald Trump, has been arrested for allegedly hatching a multimillion dollar extortion plot against sportswear maker Nike, and is also facing charges of misappropriating a client’s money.
According to a criminal complaint unsealed on Monday in the southern district of New York, reported by the Financial Times, Mr Avenatti and a fellow lawyer approached Nike’s representatives last week with supposedly damaging information about payments the company had made to high school basketball players.
“Unless Nike handed over at least $22.5m, Mr Avenatti threatened to hold a press conference that he claimed would “take ten billion dollars off your client’s market cap . . . I’m not fucking around”, the complaint said. The money included $1.5m for Mr Avenatti’s client — a California youth basketball coach, whose team’s contract with Nike had lapsed — and the remainder for him and another lawyer to conduct an internal investigation.”
Mr Avenatti could not immediately be reached for comment.
Via FT
