Micahel Avenattie ended up on our radar when he brought a frivolous defamation suit against President Trump which he later lost, including the cost of legal fees. But he was a darling on CNN, attention which we warned might not be good for him.
From his media whore peak – during which he was pondering a run for president, he has fallen far. Culminating in a recent 36 count indictment that includes charges of fraud, embezzlement, and tax evasion.
Federal prosecutors in California announced 36 new charges Thursday against Mr. Avenatti, accusing him of failing to file or pay his taxes for several years, and detailing more lurid stories of bilking clients.
He’s been screwing over clients in a Ponzi-like scheme to prop up his own failing business. A practice that lead him to try and extort money from Nike.
Authorities said he failed to pay income and Social Security taxes from his coffee shop business, falling millions of dollars in arrears. When the IRS tried to collect, he lied about the payments, then ordered employees to begin hiding cash assets to shield them from detection, the IRS says.
He used money bilked from clients to keep the coffee shops afloat, the government charged.
CNN even had the sense to stop having him on as a consultant early enough to free itself from the scandal spatter, but one report had the Trump-hating loud mouth making as many as 200 appearances in a just a few months.
He still has Twitter where he insists he is innocent and will be proven so.
His next scheduled appearance is in a courtroom, this time as the defendant
