Michael Avenatti has been sentenced to 14 years in prison in Southern California on Monday for defrauding clients of millions of dollars and has been ordered to pay more than $10 million in restitution.
The incarcerated lawyer's sentence should run consecutively to his current five-year prison sentence for separate convictions in New York, said US District Judge James V. Selna during a hearing in Santa Ana, California.
Michael Avenatti's Prison Sentence
The sentencing is the last of three major federal criminal cases to wrap up the case against the 51-year-old defendant. He was known to have risen to fame as he represented porn actor Stormy Daniels during the latter's legal battles with former United States President Donald Trump, becoming one of the Republican businessman's leading adversaries.
Earlier this year, Avenatti pleaded guilty to four counts of wire fraud as well as a tax-related charge despite not entering a plea deal with federal prosecutors. He said that he wanted to be accountable for his actions so that his family can be spared from further embarrassment, as per Yahoo News.
The lawyer has been accused of negotiating and collecting settlement payments on behalf of his clients and then channeling the money to accounts that he had control over. He then used the funds to spend on his own lavish lifestyle, including the purchase of a private jet.
During a trial, prosecutor Brett Sagel said that despite the significant advantages that Avenatti had, which he noted as a first-rate education and a thriving legal career, he chose to commit the deplorable acts time and time again.
According to Axios, on top of defrauding his clients, Avenatti was also accused of blocking the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) efforts to collect more than $3 million in payroll taxes from a coffee business that he owned. The convict was also found guilty of attempting to extort Nike out of more than $20 million.
Defrauding Clients
In a statement after the sentencing, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said that despite Avenatti claiming he was fighting for the little guy, he was actually only interested in furthering his own agenda.
An attorney for Avenatti, Dean Steward, released a statement saying that the sentence "was overly harsh and uncalled for," adding that the defendant described it in court as being "off the charts." Steward added that the unfairness could be seen when it was compared with similar high-profile cases.
The sentencing on Monday represents the latest development in the years-long legal battle involving Avenatti. A senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig said that Avenattie's fraud case was egregious and noted that the sentence was meant to show that the court simply wanted to send a strong message.
The Justice Department earlier this year decided to drop the remaining 31 fraud counts against Avenatti after the latter agreed to plead guilty to a handful of charges. In a court filing, prosecutors said that they would no longer move ahead with the 31 counts of wire fraud, bank fraud, and tax-related charges, CNN reported.
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