The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.
Bloomberg
US prosecutors ridiculed celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti’s claim that he was charged with trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike Inc as payback for his feud with President Donald Trump, calling the allegation a “fantastic notion†based on hyperbole and insinuation.
Avenatti asked a judge in August to throw out the case, claiming it was a vindictive prosecution inspired by his high-profile lawsuit against Trump on behalf of actress Stormy Daniels.
“There is no vast government scheme, involving multiple
people, at multiple agencies, to prosecute the defendant — an allegedly innocent man — as a result of a purported ‘feud’ with the executive branch,†prosecutors said in a court filing in
Manhattan.
The government says there is overwhelming evidence that Avenatti, while representing a youth basketball coach, tried to force Nike to pay him as much as $25 million to conduct an internal probe at the company and weed out what he says is a vast scheme to corrupt elite youth players.