SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Incarcerated lawyer Michael Avenatti was sentenced in Southern California on Monday to 14 years in jail and ordered to pay $7 million in restitution after admitting he cheated 4 of his shoppers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The sentence ought to run consecutively to the five-year jail time period he's at present serving for separate convictions in New York, U.S. District Choose James V. Selna mentioned throughout a listening to in Santa Ana, California.
Avenatti pleaded responsible earlier this yr to 4 counts of wire fraud and a tax-related cost with out reaching a plea take care of federal prosecutors, saying he needed to be accountable and spare his household additional embarrassment. He was accused of negotiating and accumulating settlement funds on behalf of his shoppers and as an alternative funneling the cash to accounts he managed.
Earlier than sentencing, Avenatti apologized to the 4 victims within the case, three of whom have been within the courtroom.
“I'm deeply remorseful and contrite,” Avenatti mentioned. “There is no such thing as a doubt that every one of them deserve a lot better, and I hope that sometime they are going to settle for my apologies and discover it of their coronary heart to forgive me.”
Prosecutor Brett Sagel instructed the courtroom that Avenatti’s legal conduct “arose from calculated decisions and egregious violations of the belief” his shoppers positioned in him.
“He didn’t flip to his legal actions by desperation, by want, by the shortcoming to do the rest,” Sagel mentioned. “Regardless of the numerous benefits that this defendant had — a first-rate training, a thriving authorized profession — he selected to commit the deplorable acts on this case time and time once more.”
The federal government dropped all different remaining fees towards Avenatti stemming from a 36-count indictment.
Avenatti is at present serving time in a Southern California jail on two separate circumstances. He was convicted of stealing ebook proceeds from Stormy Daniels, the porn actor who catapulted him to fame as he represented her throughout her authorized battles with then-President Donald Trump, and of making an attempt to extort Nike if the shoemaker didn’t pay him as much as $25 million.
Avenatti represented Daniels in her lawsuit to interrupt a confidentiality settlement with Trump to remain mum about an affair she mentioned that they had and have become one among Trump’s main adversaries, attacking him on cable information applications and Twitter.
In California, prosecutors mentioned Avenatti collected $4 million from Los Angeles County for a person who suffered in-custody accidents and was left paraplegic after a suicide try, however denied the settlement was acquired and paid the person smaller quantities starting from $1,000 to $1,900 that he referred to as advances on the broader settlement. In one other occasion, prosecutors mentioned Avenatti collected a $2.75 million settlement fee for a shopper and used a lot of the cash to purchase a personal airplane.
Prosecutors had requested for Avenatti to be sentenced to a further 17.5 years in jail on prime of the 5 he's already serving.
Avenatti, who represented himself within the proceedings, requested that he be given a sentence of not more than six years that might run concurrently to the time he's serving.
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