Trump foe Michael Avenatti sentenced to 14 years in prison for stealing millions from clients
Michael Avenatti earned fame for being a major antagonist of then-President Donald Trump. At one time he even considered a White House candidacy himself.
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Lawyer Michael Avenatti speaks to the media after he walks out of federal court in New York, New York, U.S., March 25, 2019.
Carlo Allegri | Reuters
The tax charge related to his trying to interfere with the IRS's effort to collect more than $3 million owed by Avenatti's coffee business for payroll taxes.
While details of Avenatti's scams on the client victims differed from each other, "the general pattern was the same," prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum.
Avenatti "would lie about the true terms of the settlement agreement he had negotiated for the client, conceal the settlement payments that the counterparty had made, secretly take and spend the settlement proceeds that belonged to the client," prosecutors wrote.
He then would "lull the client into not complaining or investigating further by providing small 'advances' on the supposedly yet-to-be-paid funds," the memo said.
Avenatti first came to widespread public attention in 2018, during Trump's presidency, while representing Daniels in connection with her having been paid $130,000 in hush money by Trump's personal lawyer before the 2016 election in exchange for keeping quiet about a sexual tryst she said they had.
Trump denies that he cheated on his wife Melania with the adult film actress.
For months in 2018, Avenatti was a ubiquitous presence on television news shows, where he delighted in verbally skewering the president and Trump's former personal attorney, Michael Cohen.
Avenatti briefly contemplated launching a campaign for the presidency, but dropped that idea weeks after he was arrested by Los Angeles police after an accusation of domestic violence by an actress with whom he had been living. The L.A. City Attorney later declined to lodge charges in that case.
United States Attorney Martin Estrada of the Central District of California blasted Avenatti in a statement Monday that called him "a corrupt lawyer who claimed he was fighting for the little guy."
"In fact, he only cared about his own selfish interests," Estrada said.
"He stole millions of dollars from his clients — all to finance his extravagant lifestyle that included a private jet and race cars," the top prosecutor said. "As a result of his illegal acts, he has lost his right to practice law in California, and now he will serve a richly deserved prison sentence."
