Avenatti Seeks Delay, Says Nike Aims to ‘Curry Favor’ With U.S.
Avenatti Seeks Delay, Says Nike Aims to ‘Curry Favor’ With U.S.
(Bloomberg) -- Embattled celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti told a judge he needs more time to prepare for his extortion trial, and indeed he has a lot to prepare.
Avenatti, charged with trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike Inc. while representing the coach of an elite youth basketball team, has centered his defense on proving rampant corruption in youth basketball by Nike, which he says his client aimed to expose.
The evidence will show he was acting reasonably in confidential settlement talks with Nike when he demanded $1.5 million for his client and as much as $25 million for him and another attorney to conduct an internal probe of the company, the California lawyer contends. He says Nike expressed an interest in such an investigation before he suggested being paid to do it, and that the company may be trying to “curry favor with the government” by helping to prosecute him.
But to muster that evidence, Avenatti said, he needs time to deal with expected challenges to his subpoenas. In a court filing Thursday in Manhattan, he said the trial should be delayed by two months to Jan. 6.
“Posturing and puffery about the value of the claim and the demands made to settle the claim -- which can include requests for changes in corporate governance, appointment of costly monitors and inspectors, etc. -- are routine in confidential settlement discussions among lawyers,” Avenatti said in his filing.
Nike has declined to comment on the specifics of the case, relying on a statement it first put out in April. “Nike will not respond to the allegations of an individual facing federal charges of fraud and extortion,” the statement reads. “Nike will continue its cooperation with the government’s investigation into grassroots basketball and the related extortion case.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter Jeffrey
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