Michael Avenatti sentenced to 14 years jail in California fraud case By Reuters

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) – Michael Avenatti, the already imprisoned lawyer who represented porn actress Stormy Daniels in litigation in opposition to Donald Trump, was sentenced on Monday to a different 14 years in jail after he admitted to dishonest 4 different purchasers, together with a paraplegic, out of thousands and thousands of {dollars}.

The sentence imposed by U.S. District Choose James Selna in Santa Ana, California is along with the 5 years in jail that Avenatti, 51, was already serving for 2 unrelated convictions in Manhattan federal courtroom.

Selna additionally ordered Avenatti to pay $10.8 million in restitution to the purchasers and the Inside Income Service. The company stated he obstructed it from gathering greater than $3 million in payroll taxes from a espresso enterprise he owned.

“Michael Avenatti was a corrupt lawyer who claimed he was combating for the little man. In truth, he solely cared about his personal egocentric pursuits,” U.S. Legal professional Martin Estrada in Los Angeles stated. “Now he’ll serve a well-deserved jail sentence.”

Prosecutors had sought a 17-1/2 12 months jail time period, on high of the present 5 years, after Avenatti pleaded responsible in June to 5 prices of wire fraud and obstruction.

Avenatti, who just isn’t a prison lawyer however represented himself, in a courtroom submitting had requested for one further 12 months in jail, or six years total.

He stated he ought to be sentenced primarily based on his life as an entire, and “not his notoriety; the will of the federal government and others to make an instance out of him; unbridled vindictiveness; and/or what these within the media, or on social media, might say.”

Avenatti’s earlier imprisonment stemmed from his convictions in 2020 for making an attempt to extort as much as $25 million from Nike Inc (NYSE:), and in February for embezzling practically $300,000 in e-book proceeds from Daniels.

When making an attempt to assist Daniels break a confidentiality settlement over her alleged affair with Trump, Avenatti turned a fixture on cable TV information, attacking Trump and flirting together with his personal presidential run. Trump denied having an affair.

Avenatti had confronted 36 prices in California. A trial on 10 of them led to an August 2021 mistrial.