JUST DID IT
Avenatti guilty in $20M+ Nike extortion plot
Michael Avenatti was swooshed Friday by a Manhattan jury that said the bulldog lawyer was guilty of trying to shake down shoe giant Nike.
The verdict virtually assures Avenatti’s downfall, but he has not yet hit rock bottom. He faces two more trials, one in Manhattan and another in Los Angeles.
The California lawyer, 48, stared straight ahead and showed no reaction as the verdict was read. He stood at attention as jurors left the courtroom, appearing to steel himself.
“Good job,” he said to members of his defense team, who vowed an appeal. He faces a maximum sentence of 42 years in prison for two counts of extortion and one count of honest services fraud.
“Today a unanimous jury found Michael Avenatti guilty of misusing his client’s information in an effort to extort tens of millions of dollars from the athletic apparel company Nike. While the defendant may have tried to hide behind legal terms and a suit and tie, the jury clearly saw the defendant’s scheme for what it was – an old fashioned shakedown,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said.
The trial in Manhattan Federal Court revealed that Avenatti, nearly $11 million in debt, tried to take advantage of an elite youth basketball coach’s legal claims against Nike. The coach, Gary Franklin, said Nike execs had ordered him to make secret cash payments to the families of prominent players — a violation of NCAA rules and potentially a federal crime.
Franklin hired Avenatti to represent him — and then the lawyer went rogue. Franklin testified he wanted to get paid, clean up the corruption at Nike and then reestablish a relationship with the company that had sponsored his well-known youth basketball team, the California Supreme.
Avenatti, best known for representing porn star Stormy Daniels, instead launched scorched-earth negotiations in March 2019 that prompted Nike attorneys to contact the feds.
“I’m not f—-ing around with this, and I’m not continuing to play games. And I don’t — you know, this isn’t complicated. You guys know enough now to know you’ve got a serious problem,” Avenatti said.
“And it’s worth more in exposure to me to just blow the lid on this thing. A few million dollars doesn’t move the needle for me. I’m just being really frank with you … I’ll go take $10
billion off your client’s market cap. But I’m not f—-ing around.”
Avenatti demanded more than $20 million from Nike while keeping his client in the dark, testimony revealed. He said the company should hire him and another prominent attorney representing Franklin, Mark Geragos, to conduct an internal investigation.
“What I thought I was engaging in was a stickup,” Nike attorney Scott Wilson testified during the Manhattan trial.
“I thought this was a crazy thing to be saying to me. We were in ‘The Twilight Zone.’ ”
Wilson testified that he cautioned Avenatti that a press conference about the bribery allegations could ruin the careers of young basketball players who hoped to become pro.
“I don’t give a f—k about these kids,” Avenatti replied, according to Wilson.
Avenatti’s defense attorneys argued that Franklin had approved of his hard-charging negotiating strategy.
The combative lawyer became a near-constant presence on 24-hour TV news by representing Daniels in legal battles with President Trump and his former fixer, Michael Cohen. He even toyed with running for president.
But last year his reputation was destroyed. In addition to the Nike charges, Manhattan federal prosecutors accused him of swindling Daniels out of nearly $300,000 for a book deal. He’s charged in Los Angeles with screwing over clients, lying in bankruptcy proceedings, failing to pay taxes and other financial crimes.
Donald Trump Jr., who Avenatti wrongly predicted would be indicted by the end of 2018, gloated on Twitter. “MAGA: Michael Avenatti Going Away,” Trump Jr. wrote.
Avenatti was locked up after prosecutors in Los Angeles charged that he violated bail by illegally moving money to dodge creditors. His defense team complained prior to the start of the Nike trial that Avenatti was being held in solitary confinement in a cell once occupied by Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
In a statement later Friday, Avenatti’s lawyers said they believe they have “substantial legal grounds” for an appeal.
“Michael Avenatti has been a fighter his entire life,” the statement said. “The inhumane conditions of solitary confinement he has endured over the past month would break anyone but he remains strong. We are all obviously deeply disappointed by the jury’s verdict.”
A beloved social worker fatally shot in East Harlem was just caught in the crossfire, and not part of the gunfight as cops initially believed, his sister and police said Friday.
Purcell Gowie, 43, a counselor for the Services for the Underserved who helped the homeless, was shot in the chest outside a storefront church on E. 116th St. and Third Ave. Wednesday evening, police said.
Investigators initially suspected that Gowie, of Brooklyn, was shot while arguing with a group of young men, but police said Friday that detectives were rethinking that narrative.
“He just happened to walk into a cross fire between two gangs,” sister Linda Bryan told the Daily News on Friday. “(The police) told me to give them some time but they said from looking through the videos my brother had nothing to do with it. He just happened to walk by.”
Surveillance video from the scene showed two groups of men fighting moments before Gowie walked by. One of the suspects pulled a gun and fired at a rival, but shot the social worker instead.
Gowie’s co-workers were stunned to hear about his death, just seven blocks away from his job. Friends said he was walking to the doctor’s office.
“He is not on this earth anymore and I am trying to figure out why,” longtime friend Paul Mayers, 50, told The News on Thursday.
Gowie dedicated his life to bettering himself and others, his sister said.
“When he was around you, he always had that energy that made you believe that you could do it too,” Bryan, 49, said. “He was never a violent person or anything like that. He loved family like nobody’s business.”
Gowie had just gotten his degree in social work over the summer, and worked full-time while in school, she said.