Michael Avenatti May Spend Less Time in Prison After Appeals Court Decision

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: US News and World Report/Reuters

Oct. 23, 2024, at 4:58 p.m.


(Reuters) - Michael Avenatti, the disgraced celebrity lawyer who represented porn actress Stormy Daniels, will have his 14-year prison term for defrauding four other clients recalculated, following a federal appeals court decision on Wednesday that could shorten his sentence.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California said the trial judge who sentenced Avenatti erred by applying an obstruction of justice enhancement, and not accounting for the value of Avenatti's legal services to his clients and the money he paid them.

Avenatti, 53, has been serving a combined 19-year prison term, including five years for his 2020 and 2022 convictions in New York for trying to extort $25 million from Nike and defrauding Daniels out of proceeds from her memoir. Before being charged, Avenatti became famous representing Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, in litigation against Donald Trump, and becoming a vocal adversary on cable TV and Twitter of the former U.S. president.

In Wednesday's decision, the three-judge appeals court panel gave an additional potential ground for a shorter sentence. It said the trial judge should have viewed Daniels' case and the other fraud cases as similar, when deciding if Avenatti's five-year sentence and the new sentence should run concurrently.

Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2024-10-23/michael-avenatti-may-spend-less-time-in-prison-after-appeals-court-decision

[The Wizard]

1. He was an effective advocate

Greed got the best of him.

[MichMan]

3. Not for his clients whose judgements he pocketed for himself

In the case of Geoffrey Johnson, Avenatti represented Johnson in a lawsuit against the County of Los Angeles that alleged, among other things, Johnson became a paraplegic as a result of the county violating his constitutional rights. The county paid a $4 million settlement in January 2015, but within months Avenatti had drained the entire settlement payment from his law firm’s trust account and used portions of the settlement to finance his coffee business and pay personal expenses. Avenatti never told Johnson about the settlement agreement and terms, and he concealed from Johnson the receipt of the settlement payment from the county. Instead of giving Johnson his portion of the settlement, Avenatti gave Johnson periodic “advances” of no more than $1,900 and paid the rent for his assisted living facility to falsely reassure him that Avenatti was continuing to work on his behalf.

Alexis Gardner obtained a $3 million settlement in a matter, which included a payment of $2.75 million in early 2017. Avenatti never provided a copy of the settlement agreement to Gardner or told her the true terms of the settlement. Upon receipt of the settlement money, Avenatti took the bulk of this money – $2.5 million – and used it to purchase his portion of a jet, while falsely telling Gardner that the settlement called for monthly payments over eight years. Avenatti gave Gardner a small “advance” for rent and made approximately 12 monthly payments, totally approximately $227,500, making them appear to come from the individual who paid the settlement, but then Avenatti stopped paying Gardner.

Gregory Barela was to receive a $1.9 million settlement in an intellectual property dispute. Avenatti embezzled the first installment of $1.6 million in January 2018, in part by providing Barela with a bogus settlement agreement indicating that the payment was going to be made two months later. Avenatti used the money to pay expenses at his coffee business and to pay his own legal expenses.

Michelle Phan and Long Tran hired Avenatti to negotiate a “Common Stock Repurchase Agreement” for the sale of nearly $27.5 million worth of Phan’s shares of ipsy, a company founded by Phan, and then another sale of approximately $8.15 million worth of Phan’s shares. When the first payment was made, Avenatti took his fees for the overall $35 million sale and sent the balance to Phan. But when the second stock sale was finalized and the company sent nearly $8.15 million, all of which belonged to Phan, Avenatti kept $4 million for himself and used this money to pay some of his law firm’s bankruptcy creditors, including the IRS; to provide funding for his various businesses; and to make lulling payments to Johnson, Gardner and Barela. When Phan and Tran demanded Phan’s money, Avenatti falsely told them that the stolen $4 million already had been wired to them and provided them with a wire transfer confirmation document which actually documented the transfer of an earlier $4 million payment.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/lawyer-michael-avenatti-sentenced-14-years-federal-prison-stealing-millions-dollars#:~:text=SANTA%20ANA%2C%20California%20%E2%80%93%20Suspended%20plaintiffs%E2%80%99%20lawyer%20Michael,in%20payroll%20taxes%20from%20an%20Avenatti-owned%20coffee%20business.

[marble falls]

5. I agree. I thought we had a new and effective voice and then he turned to crime. One of the biggest disappointments ...

... in a whole series of disappointments at the time, including Anthony Weiner and Alan Grayson, who both advocated well for the people and had problems outside of government.

[JustAnotherGen]

2. He broke the law

But DJT isn't in prison. He's never going to be able to practice law again. This doesn't bother me.

[samnsara]

4. whatever you think of him he did get the stormy daniels story into the public

.and it started trumps down hill slide.

and maybe it took a person like him to dig into the dirty underbelly of sleazy sex storys

[maxsolomon]

6. He's doing more time than murderers and rapists.

Feels excessive, but I know DUers love long prison terms.

[MichMan]

7. IMO, people convicted of murder should be jailed for a lot more than 14 years

[maxsolomon]

8. I know.

But minimum sentences for 2nd degree can be 10 to 15.