Celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti was over $15 million in debt when he tried to extort up to $25 million from Nike, Manhattan federal prosecutors charge in new court papers.
“The Government expects that the evidence at trial will show that, at the time of his charged conduct, the defendant was in significant debt,” Assistant US Attorney Matthew Podolsky wrote in documents filed late Tuesday in Manhattan federal court.
“Specifically, the Government presently estimates that the defendant’s debts at that time were, conservatively, in excess of $15 million,” the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
Podolsky told the judge that prosecutors want to introduce evidence of his arrears at trial to “establish his desperation for money at that time and thus motive.”
Avenatti is accused of threatening to hold a news conference to discuss allegations of improper payments to college basketball recruits if Nike did not pay him. Nike has denied any wrongdoing.
Attorneys for Avenatti, in court filings Tuesday, argued that their client legally sought the money after Nike’s lawyers said they were interested in having him conduct an internal probe.
Avenatti’s lawyers said thousands of pages of documents submitted to federal prosecutors by Nike in response to a 2017 grand jury subpoena revealed that payments by Nike for the benefit of amateur players “were pervasive,” including payments to high school players through at least 10 different coaches for a Nike-sponsored youth basketball league.
They cited a story by The New York Times that said internal investigations by companies can exceed $100 million, saying Avenatti had sent a link to the story to Mark Geragos, a lawyer he hired to help negotiate with Nike on behalf of an amateur coach who wanted corruption to end.
Avenatti’s lawyers also argued that evidence of the alleged debt – including money owed for a race car, Ferrari and Porsche — should be kept out of the courtroom.
The filings come as Avenatti faces a criminal trial next month in Manhattan.
