Let's see his evidence wrote:
How is this "extortion" rather than just offering Nike an opportunity to avoid bad publicity?
Sounds like a typical NDA sort of thing, no?
There is certainly a gray area between hardball negotiations and extortion. The National Enquirer/Jeff Bezos lawsuit looks like a gray area to me.
If the facts in the complaint are true, he went light years beyond the gray area. He asked for a 7 figure payout for his client as well as an 8 figure payout for himself!
It's gonna awfully difficult to argue that is was NOT extortion given they have audio recordings. Threats were quite clearly made. It blows my mind that at no point did he apparently stop to consider that Nike/their lawyers would do what they did. "sorry could you repeat all the threats that you just made Mr. Avenatti?" "why sure, it'd be my pleasure" What an absolute moron. Can't wait to see what else they nail him before besides today's announcements. Stormy certainly implies there's more to come.
"My head is officially going to explode," Velshi said to NBC News Investigations reporter Tom Winter. "I don’t understand what this is about."
Velshi then complimented Avenatti, calling him "one of the finest people in American in terms of his ability to garner publicity
M. Geragos wrote:
It's gonna awfully difficult to argue that is was NOT extortion given they have audio recordings. Threats were quite clearly made. It blows my mind that at no point did he apparently stop to consider that Nike/their lawyers would do what they did. "sorry could you repeat all the threats that you just made Mr. Avenatti?" "why sure, it'd be my pleasure" What an absolute moron. Can't wait to see what else they nail him before besides today's announcements. Stormy certainly implies there's more to come.
Thanks MG:
https://twitter.com/justinbaragona/status/1110262092689477640Well, he managed to capture the news cycle wrote:
The bank/wire fraud is up to 50 years in prison.
Stormi Daniels, I'm here if you need me.
This from @AlenMCole is spot on.
Pro tip: if you do something shady, and then they go quiet for a while, and then they are like "please, let us have a phone call in which you reiterate your plan to Do Crimes with us," you say "no, that is not a thing" and you hang up and you never talk to them again.
4:29 PM PT -- Avenatti has just been released on a $300,000 bond. He didn't have to pay that amount, but it had to be co-signed by 2 people who say they're good for it.
While he's out on bond, his travel will be restricted to New York and California ... and all travel plans must be approved by the government. Avenatti is also barred from contacting Mark Geragos.
2:53 PM PT -- Avenatti's indictment will NOT have any major impact on the pending R. Kelly criminal case, in which he reps the family of Azriel Clary ... so says Gerald Griggs, who represents Joycelyn Savage's family. Griggs tells TMZ ... that while Avenatti's criminal cases present problems for himself personally, Griggs says they'll have "minimal" effect in the R. Kelly matter. He adds, "[T]he ten charges are based on four independent accusers and other information independent of Mr. Avenatti. The Savage family continues to seek reunification with their daughter, and that process of justice continues on course for all the alleged victims of Robert Sylvester Kelly."
1:15 PM PT -- The Nike indictment says Avenatti had an unnamed co-conspirator, and we've confirmed reports it is famed attorney Mark Geragos.
Nike is represented by Boies, famous for having Harvey Weinstein as a client, and being entangled with Theranos.
In its statement, Nike said it had nothing to hide.
“Nike has been cooperating with the government’s investigation into NCAA basketball for over a year,” the statement read. “When Nike became aware of this matter, Nike immediately reported it to federal prosecutors.”
Nike also said that when it learned of Avenatti’s extortion attempts and Avenatti’s claims of damaging information, it referred both to federal authorities.
“When Mr. Avenatti attempted to extort Nike over this matter, Nike with the assistance of outside counsel at Boies Schiller Flexner, aided the investigation,”
Michael Avenatti Gets Arrested
If only there was an acronym we could use for this that wasn't banned by this website.
"Avenatti 2020" is now "Avenatti 20 to 25"
6:13 PM PT -- Avenatti just held a brief press conference, saying, "I have fought against the powerful -- powerful people and powerful corporations -- I will never stop fighting that good fight." He added he's "highly confident" he'll be "fully exonerated."
So why would Geragos not be named in the indictment, and why wasn’t he arrested also?
Well, he managed to capture the news cycle wrote:
The bank/wire fraud is up to 50 years in prison.
He has lived otherwise blameless life.
Not his only legal woe wrote:
First he himself tweeted that Nike was at fault in a huge proceeding. Then the pendulum swung oppositely.
Nike stock tanked, as he rang them up and tried to exact a $15-25m payout. According to the complaint filed in federal court, Avenatti told Nike attorneys by phone last week if his demands were not met, "I'll go take ten billion dollars off your client's market cap ... I'm not f*cking around.
Avenatti is alleged to have told Nike that he would cancel a press conference critical of sports apparel company only if it paid an unidentified client $1.5 million, and hired him and another California lawyer to conduct an internal investigation for $15 million to $25 million.
Then the SDNY moved in and arrested him.
Just minutes after lawyer Michael Avenatti tweeted his tease of a press conference tomorrow claiming Nike is involved in a college basketball scandal, Bloomberg reports that Avenatti was just charged by federal prosecutors in New York with attempting to extort millions of dollars out of Nike Inc. by threatening to release damaging information about the company, which did not meet his demands.
https://twitter.com/MichaelAvenatti/status/1110213957170749440https://twitter.com/eorden/status/1110225166901100545https://finance.yahoo.com/news/lawyer-avenatti-accused-u-trying-171627220.html
And in a quiet dark room, Flagpole weeps.
OP, why do you refer to Avenatti as creepy porn lawyer? Go sit in your local county courtroom today. Attorneys on a daily basis all over the world represent clients society hold in less than high regard.
The embezzlement charges are of course politically motivated.
Fox News has exclusively obtained text messages and email conversations between Avenatti, 48, and the former client, Gregory Barela, which documented Barela's efforts for several months in 2018 to locate and obtain funds he was owed pursuant to a settlement agreement that resulted from his intellectual property dispute with an out-of-state company.
Financial documents also reviewed by Fox News show that the money had been wired to an account designated by Avenatti on Jan. 5, 2018, but that Avenatti apparently continued to dodge increasingly frantic questions from the client as to where the funds were.
"We did nothing wrong and were entitled to every dollar received," Avenatti told Fox News. "And of course, [Barela] is represented by a person close to Trump."
RIP: D3 All-American Frank Csorba - who ran 13:56 in March - dead
RENATO can you talk about the preparation of Emile Cairess 2:06
Running for Bowerman Track Club used to be cool now its embarrassing
Hats off to my dad. He just ran a 1:42 Half Marathon and turns 75 in 2 months!
Great interview with Steve Cram - says Jakob has no chance of WRs this year
