Avenatti gets 14 years for fraud
Lawyer also told to pay $10m
SANTA ANA, Calif. — Incarcerated lawyer Michael Avenatti was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Monday in Southern California and ordered to pay more than $10 million in restitution after admitting he cheated four of his clients out of millions of dollars.
The sentence should run consecutively to the five years in prison he is currently serving for separate convictions in New York, U.S. District Judge James V. Selna said during a hearing in Santa Ana.
It is the last of three major federal criminal cases to wrap up against the 51-year-old Californian, who rose to fame as he represented porn actor Stormy Daniels during her legal battles with Donald Trump and became one of the former president’s leading adversaries.
Avenatti pleaded guilty earlier this year to four counts of wire fraud and a tax-related charge despite not reaching a plea deal with federal prosecutors, saying he wanted to be accountable and spare his family further embarrassment. He was accused of negotiating and collecting settlement payments on behalf of his clients and funneling the money to accounts he controlled, and spending it on his own lavish lifestyle, including a private jet.
“Despite the significant advantages that this defendant had — a first-rate education, a thriving legal career — he chose to commit the deplorable acts in this case time and time again,” prosecutor Brett Sagel told the court.
His voice breaking, Avenatti apologized to the clients he bilked, including two who told the court about how losing the money and their trust in someone they thought had their back upended their lives.
“I am deeply remorseful and contrite,” Avenatti said. “There is no doubt that all of them deserve much better, and I hope that someday they will accept my apologies and find it in their heart to forgive me.”
Avenatti is currently serving prison time for stealing book proceeds from Daniels — who sued to break a confidentiality agreement with Trump to stay mum about an affair she said they had — and for trying to extort Nike if the shoemaker didn't pay him up to $25 million.
In California, authorities said Avenatti carried out what amounted to a “sophisticated Ponzi scheme” by collecting settlement payments on behalf of vulnerable clients and using the money to fund his exorbitant lifestyle.
In one instance, prosecutors said Avenatti collected a $2.75 million settlement payment for a client and used much of the money to buy a private airplane. In another, he collected a $4 million settlement from Los Angeles County for a man who suffered in-custody injuries and was left paraplegic after a suicide attempt, but never told him the money was received. Instead, authorities said Avenatti used the funds to finance his coffee business and pay personal expenses.