Michael Avenatti, the former lawyer for Stormy Daniels, was charged with attempting to extort more than $20 million from Nike, it was reported.
Avenatti met in March 2019 with a Nike attorney, threatening to release damaging information about the firm if it didn’t make a payment worth several million to himself and another person, according to a criminal complaint.
“I'll go take $10 billion off your client’s market cap...I’m not [expletive] around,” Avenatti said, the complaint said.
“And I’m not continuing to play games,” he continued. “You guys know enough now to know you’ve got a serious problem and it’s worth more in exposure to me to just blow the lid on this thing.”
The court papers said the co-conspirator, who was not identified in court papers, is also an attorney licensed to practice in California. It said the co-conspirator, like Avenatti, represents celebrities and public figures.
The court papers said the client is a coach of an amateur athletic union men’s basketball program in California. The complaint said the AAU program coached by the Avenatti client was sponsored by Nike for $72,000 annually.
“This criminal conduct reaches the highest levels of Nike and involves some of the biggest names in college basketball,” he wrote.
He became famous as the lawyer for Daniels, who made claims about President Trump. Both he and Daniels became the subject of cable news broadcasts and shows for months.
Daniels recently cut ties with Avenatti.
“Knowing what I know now about Michael Avenatti, I am saddened but not shocked by news reports that he has been criminally charged today,” Daniels tweeted. “I made the decision more than a month ago to terminate Michael’s services after discovering that he had dealt with me extremely dishonestly and there will be more announcements to come.”
Last year, Avenatti also considered running as a Democrat in the 2020 election, but he ultimately didn’t. More recently, he has been representing women who said that they were abused by singer R. Kelly.