Disgraced lawyer Michael Avenatti has been sentenced to 4 years in jail for defrauding his former shopper, Stormy Daniels.
Mr Avenatti was convicted in February of dishonest Ms Daniels, an grownup movie actress, out of about $300,000 in proceeds from her memoir. Mr Avenatti had represented the actress in a number of high-profile, drawn-out authorized battles in opposition to former president Donald Trump, with whom Ms Daniels claimed she had had an affair. (Mr Trump denies this.)
At his sentencing, Mr Avenatti expressed regret for his actions.
“I’ve destroyed my profession, my relationships and my status,” the lawyer instructed US District Choose Jesse Furman, in accordance with Reuters.
Prosecutors say that in 2018 and 2019, Ms Daniels repeatedly requested Mr Avenatti why she had not but obtained advance funds for her e-book, Full Disclosure, totalling $297,500. Mr Avenatti allegedly instructed her the writer hadn’t paid them but. Later, Ms Daniels says she discovered Mr Avenatti had secretly diverted the cash to an account that he managed.
“I felt very betrayed and silly,” Ms Daniels testified. “Michael had been mendacity and stealing from me.”
On 4 February, Mr Avenatti was discovered responsible of wire fraud and aggravated id theft. The latter cost required a sentence of at the least two years.
The lawyer is already serving a 30-month jail sentence for his extortion try in opposition to the sportswear firm Nike, which he was convicted of in 2020.
Mr Avenatti will serve 18 months of his new sentence concurrently with the Nike sentence. In whole, he’s anticipated to spend 5 years in jail.
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