Just to follow up on our post from earlier today on Michael Avenatti’s latest arrest, the celebrity porn lawyer is being accused of hiding $1 million from his ex-wife and other creditors, according to prosecutors:
BREAKING: Michael Avenatti faces new fraud and money laundering accusations — was jailed overnight. Hid $1 million from ex-wife & other creditors, prosecutors say. https://t.co/rkQvCfre2b
— Michael Finnegan (@finneganLAT) January 15, 2020
US attorney's office in SoCal asked judge to remand Michael Avenatti alleging in court filings that "defendant has engaged in an extensive pattern of criminal conduct since as early as 2011."
— Kara Scannell (@KaraScannell) January 15, 2020
More details:
CDCA: Avenatti concealed a $1M payment in May 2019, bought cashiers checks and then redeposited them and then repeated to make funds unavailable, made sub-$10,000 cash deposits to structure transactions.
— EminentHat (@Popehat) January 15, 2020
But. . .
To sum up: CDCA appears to have very thoroughly documented that Avenatti was hiding assets and defrauding creditors from May 2019 until at least October 2019. Nature of transactions appears incredibly skeevy. BUT . . .
— EminentHat (@Popehat) January 15, 2020
. . .there’s an open question as to why the feds had to arrest him now just one week before his trial is set to begin in New York:
…what I DON'T see is anything imminent. Or eminent. They argue that if warned he might hide more money, but what I don't see is some big event about to happen or some reason to do this NOW, a week before SDNY trial, rather than just hitting him with a superseding indictment.
— EminentHat (@Popehat) January 15, 2020
There’s a hearing scheduled for 11 a.m. PST:
A hearing for Michael Avenatti has been scheduled for today at 11 a.m. before U.S. District Judge James V. Selna at the Ronald Reagan Federal Building in Santa Ana. Mr. Avenatti was arrested yesterday on allegations he violated the terms of his pretrial release.
— US Attorney L.A. (@USAO_LosAngeles) January 15, 2020
The SDNY did not know about yesterday’s arrest warrant which complicates their case:
SDNY has filed a letter re Avenatti's arrest in Cali saying they had “no knowledge, prior to late yesterday afternoon,” that prosecutors in LA believed he violated his bail. SDNY says if he's detained they'll ask for him to be brought to NY to be available for trial next week.
— erica orden (@eorden) January 15, 2020
To be continued:
Call ends. Bottom line: Avenatti's relationship with SDNY attorneys seriously disrupted, trial disrupted, everyone in SDNY pissed at CDCA.
— EminentHat (@Popehat) January 15, 2020
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