{"id":1763730,"date":"2022-12-05T16:48:28","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T21:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1763730"},"modified":"2022-12-05T16:48:34","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T21:48:34","slug":"michael-avenatti-sentenced-to-14-years-in-prison-for-financial-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/michael-avenatti-sentenced-to-14-years-in-prison-for-financial-crimes\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Avenatti Sentenced To 14 Years In Prison For Financial Crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmichael-avenatti-sentenced-to-14-years-in-prison-for-financial-crimes%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1763730&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti was sentenced to more than a decade in prison Monday for stealing millions of dollars from some of his clients.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. District Judge James V. Selna in Santa Ana, California, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/12\/05\/politics\/michael-avenatti-prison-sentence-client-embezzlement\/index.html?utm_term=link&#038;utm_content=2022-12-05T20%3A48%3A51&#038;utm_source=twcnnbrk&#038;utm_medium=social\">sentenced<\/a> Avenatti to 14 years in prison and ordered him to pay approximately $8 million in restitution to his victims and $3.2 million to the government for taxes that he owes.<\/p>\n<p>The 14-year prison sentence will be served after he finishes serving a five-year prison sentence for extortion and fraud crimes.<\/p>\n<p>Avenatti was a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2022\/12\/05\/michael-avenatti-sentenced-to-14-years-in-prison-in-california-fraud-case\">rising star<\/a> in the Democrat Party and received lots of attention in the mainstream media, especially far-Left cable news networks <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbusters.org\/blogs\/nb\/pj-gladnick\/2022\/06\/04\/avenattis-hundred-plus-appearances-cnn-skipped-report-his\">CNN<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbusters.org\/blogs\/nb\/curtis-houck\/2021\/07\/09\/embarrassing-msnbc-ignores-buddy-michael-avenatti-being-sentenced\">MSNBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>One of the clients that Avenatti <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/michael-avenatti-be-indicted-36-counts-including-ashe-schow\">stole<\/a> money from was Geoffrey Ernest Johnson, a man who is mentally disabled and a paraplegic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo this day, I do not know why Michael lied and deceived me, why he broke my trust, why he broke my heart,\u201d Johnson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2022-12-05\/michael-avenatti-sentenced-prison-california\">wrote<\/a> in a statement. \u201cI trusted him implicitly, I believed the things he told me, but it was all part of his plan to defraud me of my settlement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo this day, I have a hard time trusting people because of what Michael did, and I live in constant fear of being taken advantage of again, particularly given my physical disability,\u201d Johnson added.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Justice <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-cdca\/pr\/lawyer-michael-avenatti-sentenced-14-years-federal-prison-stealing-millions-dollars\">highlighted<\/a> additional details from court documents:<\/p>\n<p>Alexis Gardner obtained a $3 million settlement in a matter, which included a payment of $2.75 million in early 2017. Avenatti never provided a copy of the settlement agreement to Gardner or told her the true terms of the settlement. Upon receipt of the settlement money, Avenatti took the bulk of this money \u2013 $2.5 million \u2013 and used it to purchase his portion of a jet, while falsely telling Gardner that the settlement called for monthly payments over eight years. Avenatti gave Gardner a small \u201cadvance\u201d for rent and made approximately 12 monthly payments, totally approximately $227,500, making them appear to come from the individual who paid the settlement, but then Avenatti stopped paying Gardner.Gregory Barela was to receive a $1.9 million settlement in an intellectual property dispute. Avenatti embezzled the first installment of $1.6 million in January 2018, in part by providing Barela with a bogus settlement agreement indicating that the payment was going to be made two months later. Avenatti used the money to pay expenses at his coffee business and to pay his own legal expenses.Michelle Phan and Long Tran hired Avenatti to negotiate a \u201cCommon Stock Repurchase Agreement\u201d for the sale of nearly $27.5 million worth of Phan\u2019s shares of ipsy, a company founded by Phan, and then another sale of approximately $8.15 million worth of Phan\u2019s shares. When the first payment was made, Avenatti took his fees for the overall $35 million sale and sent the balance to Phan. But when the second stock sale was finalized and the company sent nearly $8.15 million, all of which belonged to Phan, Avenatti kept $4 million for himself and used this money to pay some of his law firm\u2019s bankruptcy creditors, including the IRS; to provide funding for his various businesses; and to make lulling payments to Johnson, Gardner and Barela. When Phan and Tran demanded Phan\u2019s money, Avenatti falsely told them that the stolen $4 million already had been wired to them and provided them with a wire transfer confirmation document which actually documented the transfer of an earlier $4 million payment.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 \u2013 including payroll taxes \u2013 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 &#038; Associates, of which he was president, for 2011 through 2017, even though this entity also received substantial funds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMichael Avenatti was a corrupt lawyer who claimed he was fighting for the little guy. In fact, he only cared about his own selfish interests,\u201d said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. \u201cHe stole millions of dollars from his clients \u2013 all to finance his extravagant lifestyle that included a private jet and race cars. As a result of his illegal acts, he has lost his right to practice law in California, and now he will serve a richly deserved prison sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>This is a breaking news story; refresh the page for updates.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti was sentenced to more than a decade in prison Monday for stealing millions of dollars from some of his clients. U.S. District Judge James V. Selna in Santa Ana, California, sentenced Avenatti to 14 years in prison and ordered him to pay approximately $8 million in restitution to his victims and &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":1505629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1763730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1763730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1505629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1763730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1763730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1763730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}