Michael Avenatti Arrested In Extortion Plot Against Nike
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Mon, 03/25/2019
Update: Just minutes after lawyer Michael Avenatti tweeted his tease of a press conference tomorrow claiming Nike is involved in a college basketball scandal, Bloomberg reports that Avenatti was just charged by federal prosecutors in New York with attempting to extort millions of dollars out of Nike Inc. by threatening to release damaging information about the company, which did not meet his demands.
Avenatti is alleged to have told Nike that he would cancel a press conference critical of sports apparel company only if it paid an unidentified client $1.5 million, and hired him and another California lawyer to conduct an internal investigation for $15 million to $25 million.
Avenatti is accused of wire fraud and bank fraud. He was arrested Monday, prosecutors said.
CNN’s Erica Orden tweeted the details:
” SDNY is charging Michael Avenatti for “attempting to extract more than $20M in payments from a publicly traded company by threatening to use his ability to garner publicity to inflict substantial financial & reputational harm on the company if his demands were not met.””
According to the complaint filed in federal court, Avenatti told Nike attorneys by phone last week if his demands were not met, “I’ll go take ten billion dollars off your client’s market cap … I’m not f*cking around.”
And Nike shares are rebounding…
The Rest…HERE
