Lawyer jailed for four years for defrauding client Stormy Daniels of nearly $300k
Lawyer Michael Avenatti has been sentenced to four years in prison for cheating client Stormy Daniels of hundreds of thousands of dollars in book proceeds.
A federal jury in Manhattan convicted Avenatti in February of wire fraud and aggravated identity after a two-week trial, agreeing that he embezzled nearly $300,000 (£222,000) in book proceeds intended for Ms Daniels.
The lawyer, who rose to fame for taking on Donald Trump while he was in office, was found guilty of defrauding porn star Ms Daniels, who claimed she had sexual encounters with the former president.
Avenatti, 51, had already been serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence stemming from his 2020 conviction for trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike Inc.
Jailing him, District Judge Jesse Furman called Avenatti’s conduct “brazen and egregious”.
At his trial earlier this year, Avenatti represented himself, cross-examining his former client for hours about their experiences in early 2018, when she signed a book deal that provided an $800,000 (£590,938) payout.
Prosecutors said he illegally pocketed about $300,000 of her advance on Full Disclosure, published in 2018.
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The book’s publication came at a time when Avenatti’s law practice was failing financially even as he appeared regularly on cable television news channels.
Eighteen months of this new sentence will run concurrently with the Nike sentence, meaning Avenatti faces a combined five years in prison.
He also is awaiting a retrial in Los Angeles on charges that he ripped off clients and others for millions of dollars.
“I have destroyed my career, my relationships and my reputation,” Avenatti told US District Judge Jess Furman before being sentenced in the Daniels case.
