Michael Avenatti, the tough-talking, creepy porn lawyer who vowed to take down President Trump in 2020, landed a 14-year prison sentence for robbing his clients and blocking the Internal Revenue Service from collecting taxes he owed.
Sentenced by U.S. District Judge James V. Selna, Avenatti pleaded guilty in June to wire fraud and the tax charges. He’ll pay more than $10 million in fines.
Avenatti became famous when he falsely accused then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of gang rape, and built on that fame to become a full-time, professional Trump Hater who showed up on ABC’s The View.
Now, he’s just another thieving lawyer with three federal convictions.
Wire Fraud, Tax Obstruction
The four counts of wire fraud to which he pleaded guilty involved flat-out theft and bald lies to clients.
Avenatti “received money on behalf of clients into client trust accounts, misappropriated the money, and then lied to the clients about receiving the money or, in one case, claimed that the money had already been sent to the client,” the U.S. Justice Department explained.
Avenatti stole $7.6 million from the four clients, one of whom, incredibly, was a paraplegic:
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.
In another case, he pocketed a $2.5 million settlement from a client and purchased “his portion of a jet.” He told the client that she would receive the settlement in monthly installments for eight years.
As for the taxes, “Avenatti corruptly obstructed and impeded the IRS’s efforts to collect more than $3.2 million in unpaid payroll taxes, which includes money that he withheld from the paychecks of employees of Global Baristas US LLC, the Avenatti-owned company that operated Tully’s Coffee, and should have paid to the IRS but never did,” the Justice Department continued:
Avenatti obstructed the agency’s efforts to collect the monies that his company owed by making false statements to an IRS revenue officer; directing employees to stop depositing cash receipts; and changing the company name, Employer Identification Number, and bank account information listed with his credit card processing company to avoid IRS levies.…
Avenatti failed to file individual tax returns or pay any personal income taxes for 2011 through 2017, even though he had a substantial income and lived lavishly.…
He also failed to file partnership returns or pay taxes — including payroll taxes — for his now-defunct Newport Beach-based law firm Eagan Avenatti LLP, of which he was the managing partner, for 2013 through 2017, even though the law firm received many millions of dollars during those years.
Furthermore, Avenatti failed to file corporate tax returns or pay taxes for Avenatti & Associates, of which he was president, for 2011 through 2017, even though this entity also received substantial funds.
Avenatti must pay $10,810,709 in restitution.
Other Sentences
This is the third of Avenatti’s convictions.
In June, a judge sentenced the light-fingered lawyer to four years in prison for robbing former porn star Stormy Daniels, who retracted her claim that she had an affair with President Trump.
In that case, Avenatti robbed the blue-movie actress by directing her agent to send an advance on book royalties to an account that Avenatti controlled.
He stole $297,500 by sending the agent a fraudulent letter that Daniels supposedly signed. “In fact, Avenatti wrote the letter himself, never received authorization from Daniels, and caused Daniels’ signature to be copied and pasted from another document onto the letter without her consent,” the Justice Department explained.
In July 2021, Avenatti received a 30-month prison sentence for trying to extort as much as $25 million from Nike.
Avenatti’s 14-year sentence in the client-bilking case will run consecutively to the two previous sentences.
Kavanaugh Lie
Avenatti rocketed to fame in 2018 after feminist Christine Blasey Ford falsely accused Kavanaugh, then in the middle of Senate confirmation hearings, of sexually assaulting her at a party in high school. The Judiciary Committee hired a respected prosecutor to investigate. She concluded that Ford’s claims were nonsense.
Avenatti’s client, a professional litigant called Julie Swetnick, made Ford look relatively sane. She claimed that Kavanaugh masterminded gang-rape parties in high school that no one, mysteriously, reported to police or school authorities. Swetnick alleged that Kavanaugh plied girls with drugs and alcohol to rape them.
Swetnick retracted those claims in an interview with NBC’s Kate Snow.
Then Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), concluded that Avenatti and Swetnick lied to the committee and called their accusations a “fraud.”
Grassley wrote two letters to the Justice Department asking for an investigation.
Avenatti has not been charged with perjury.
