http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/la...-and-bank-fraud-charges/ar-BBVdojw?ocid=ientp
--Avenatti is in deep doo doo
Los Angeles attorney Michael Avenatti has been arrested and charged with financial crimes by federal law enforcement officials in separate cases in Los Angeles and New York, authorities said Monday.
In Southern California, federal prosecutors accused Avenatti of misusing $1.6 million in funds earmarked for a client’s settlement to cover “expenses for his coffee business, Global Baristas US LLC, which operated Tully’s Coffee stores in California and Washington state, as well as for his own expenses,” the statement read.
Avenatti, 48, is separately accused of fraudulently obtaining more than $4 million in loans from a Mississippi bank in 2014 by submitting false tax returns that showed he had raked in millions in profits from 2011 to 2013, according to a criminal complaint filed in Los Angeles. In reality, Avenatti had not submitted a personal tax return with the Internal Revenue Service in any of those years, according to the filing.
Prosecutors in Manhattan also accused the attorney of “attempting to extract more than $20 million in payments from a publicly traded company by threatening to use his ability to garner publicity to inflict substantial financial and reputational harm on the company if his demands were not met,” according a statement from the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. The company in question was Nike, according to the complaint, which Avenatti has been sparring with in recent months.
--Avenatti is in deep doo doo
Los Angeles attorney Michael Avenatti has been arrested and charged with financial crimes by federal law enforcement officials in separate cases in Los Angeles and New York, authorities said Monday.
In Southern California, federal prosecutors accused Avenatti of misusing $1.6 million in funds earmarked for a client’s settlement to cover “expenses for his coffee business, Global Baristas US LLC, which operated Tully’s Coffee stores in California and Washington state, as well as for his own expenses,” the statement read.
Avenatti, 48, is separately accused of fraudulently obtaining more than $4 million in loans from a Mississippi bank in 2014 by submitting false tax returns that showed he had raked in millions in profits from 2011 to 2013, according to a criminal complaint filed in Los Angeles. In reality, Avenatti had not submitted a personal tax return with the Internal Revenue Service in any of those years, according to the filing.
Prosecutors in Manhattan also accused the attorney of “attempting to extract more than $20 million in payments from a publicly traded company by threatening to use his ability to garner publicity to inflict substantial financial and reputational harm on the company if his demands were not met,” according a statement from the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. The company in question was Nike, according to the complaint, which Avenatti has been sparring with in recent months.
