Our live coverage has concluded. Scroll through the posts below to read more about Michael Avenatti’s arrest.
Attorney Michael Avenatti will be released this evening on a $300,000 bond.
Avenatti, who was represented by two federal defenders, was not asked to enter a plea and did not do so.
When the judge asked Avenatti if he understood the charges against him, he replied, “I do, your honor.”
He was also ordered to give up his passport and cease contact with an unnamed witness. Avenatti will only be allowed to travel to New York and California.
Attorney Mark Geragos is the unnamed co-conspirator referred to in the Southern District of New York’s criminal complaint against Michael Avenatti, a source familiar confirms to CNN.
The complaint described the co-conspirator as “an attorney licensed in California who’s known for his representation of celebrity and public figure clients.”
Geragos has not been charged with a crime.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report that Geragos was the unnamed co-conspirator.
Geragos did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Geragos, who has represented a number of high profile clients including Chris Brown and Jussie Smollett, was a CNN contributor.
Avenatti was arrested this morning outside of the offices of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP in Manhattan, according to a source.
A Nike lawyer, who cooperated with the investigation and is referred to as “Attorney-1” in in the charges, is Boies Schiller Flexner LLP partner Scott Wilson, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Nike released a statement today after prosecutors in New York announced charges against attorney Michael Avenatti for attempting to extort more than $20 million from the company.
Read the statement:
Geoffrey Berman, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, laid out the timeline of attorney Michael Avenatti’s alleged extortion scheme, which Berman said played out over a course of less than a week.
The scheme began on March 19 with a meeting with Nike, where Avenatti claimed that he had a client who had information about potential misconduct by the company. Avenatti threatened to hold a news conference at which he would make the allegations public.
Avenatti met with Nike again the next day, and he continued to make what Berman described as “graphic threats.”
At the end of his meeting on March 2, Avenatti and Nike agreed that there would be one final meeting, which was set to take place today.
After Thursday’s meeting, Avenatti issued a tweet with a veiled threat to Nike.
“This was Avenatti’s shot across the bow,” Berman said.
Berman made it clear that by engaging in this type of conduct, Avenatti was not acting as an attorney.
Avenatti was arrested in Manhattan, at the location where Monday morning’s meeting with Nike was supposed to happen, William Sweeney, assistant director-in-charge of the New York’s FBI office, told reporters.
The Southern District of New York tweeted a timeline of the Avenatti case on Monday afternoon, outlining the events from March 19 to 21.
According to the timeline, Avenatti made the initial threats to Nike on March 19. Shortly afterward, Nike informed federal prosecutors in New York of the threats.
After that, interactions between Avenatti and Nike were recorded and monitored by the FBI, US Attorney Geoffrey Berman said.
“By engaging in the conduct alleged in the complaint, Avenatti was not acting as an attorney. A suit and tie doesn’t mask the fact that at its core, this was an old-fashioned shakedown,” Berman said.
If convicted on both charges of wire fraud and bank fraud in California, attorney Michael Avenatti will face a statutory maximum sentence of 50 years in federal prison, said US attorney Nick Hanna at a press conference Monday afternoon.
US Attorney Nick Hanna said that while the California case against attorney Michael Avenatti is “completely separate” from the New York case, officials coordinated his arrest today.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have charged Avenatti for attempting to extort more than $20 million from Nike. Meanwhile, prosecutors in California charged him for wire and bank fraud.
Federal Law enforcement officials will hold a news conference in New York at 2:30 p.m. ET to announce additional charges against Michael Avenatti for attempting to extract more than $20 million in payments from Nike.
The New York news conference comes as federal prosecutors in California wrap up their own briefing.
Avenatti is facing wire and bank fraud charges in the California case, which is separate from the New York case.
Nick Hanna, US attorney for the Central District of California, spoke at the press conference on Monday afternoon, describing “a series of allegations that paint an ugly picture of lawless conduct and greed.”
Avenatti, who is charged in California for wire fraud and bank fraud, was “a corrupt lawyer who instead fights for his own selfish interests by misappropriating close to a million dollars that rightfully belonged to one of his clients,” Hanna said.
Avenatti allegedly used those embezzled funds to pay expenses at his coffee business, Global Baristas US LLC, which prosecutors said operates Tully’s Coffee stores in California and Washington.
Avenatti also allegedly secured bank loans worth millions of dollars by submitting false personal income tax returns, never filed federal income tax returns for years, and never paid the federal income tax reflected on the false returns, Hanna said.
Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles are currently detailing the charges of wire fraud and bank fraud they filed against attorney Michael Avenatti.
US Attorney Nick Hanna is speaking now. Mark Pearson, assistant special agent in charge of IRS criminal investigation, is expected to speak next.
You can watch the presser in the video player above (refresh this page if you don’t see it).
Note: These charges are separate from the charges in Manhattan that were announced at roughly the same time. We’ll learn more about those in a press conference after this one.
Attorney Michael Avenatti was charged with wire and bank fraud in connection with using his client’s money to pay his own personal expenses, including operations for his coffee business, according to the US Attorney’s office in Los Angeles.
Here are the allegations against Avenatti, according to federal prosecutors:
Stormy Daniels has tweeted out a statement in response to the news that Michael Avenatti was arrested this morning and charged in separate cases in New York and California.
In the statement, Daniels, who up until recently was represented by Avenatti, said she was “saddened, but not shocked.”
See the tweet:
Federal prosecutors in California will announce more details about the charges against Michael Avenatti at a 2 p.m. ET news conference in Los Angeles.
He is facing wire and bank fraud charges, the US attorney’s office said. This is separate from charges he faces in New York for attempting to extort more than $20 million from Nike.
Attorney Michael Avenatti was arrested this morning and charged with attempting to extort more than $20 million from Nike, according to the Manhattan US Attorney’s office.
He also faces wire and bank fraud charges in California, according to the US attorney’s office.
Here’s what we know about Avenatti:
Attorney Michael Avenatti was arrested Monday morning in Manhattan, law enforcement officials tell CNN.
He will appear in court later this afternoon. A time has not been given yet.
Michael Avenatti’s charges in New York stem from a threat he made to Nike. According to the criminal complaint, Avenatti said he had evidence that one or more employees of the company “had authorized and funded payments to the families of top high school basketball players and/or their families and attempted to conceal the payments.”
According to the complaint, Avenatti demanded that Nike pay his client $1.5 million because Nike was not renewing his client’s contract and that Nike hired Avenatti to conduct an internal investigation. Avenatti’s client is not named in the complaint.
“I’m not f***ing around with this,” Avenatti said, according to the complaint. “And I’m not continuing to play games. You guys know enough now to know you’ve got a serious problem and it’s worth more in exposure to me to just blow the lid on this thing.”
Notably, earlier on Monday, Avenatti tweeted that he would be holding a press conference Tuesday announcing a Nike scandal that he had uncovered.
Shortly after, these charges were announced. Avenatti is also facing separate charges from federal prosecutors in California.
Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles will also announce charges of wire fraud and bank fraud against attorney Michael Avenatti today.
These charges are separate from the charges in the Manhattan US attorney’s office that were announced at roughly the same time, a source told CNN.
The Manhattan US Attorney’s office said Monday that it is charging attorney Michael Avenatti “for 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.”
