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LOS ANGELES (CN) — Disbarred attorney Michael Avenatti, who gained fame for representing adult film actress Stormy Daniels in her legal dispute with President Donald Trump, was sentenced Thursday to 135 months in federal prison, or just over 11 years, for stealing millions of dollars from his former clients.
“Avenatti has done many noble and good things in his life,” said U.S. District Judge James Selna, before he read the sentence on Thursday. “But he’s also done great evil, for which he must answer.”
Avenatti has already served 40 months in prison for defrauding Daniels, time that is credited to Thursday’s punishment because the verdicts were deemed related. He will serve 95 more months, or just under 8 years.
Avenatti pleaded guilty in June 2022 to stealing $7.9 million from four different clients, including from one man who had become a paraplegic from his time incarcerated in LA County jail. He also pleaded guilty to obstructing the IRS’s attempt to collect $3.2 million in payroll taxes from Avenatti’s coffee business, which prosecutors said was partially built on his clients’ stolen settlement money.
For those crimes, Avenatti was initially sentenced to 14 years in prison. But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals came to Avenatti’s rescue in 2024 and threw out the sentence, finding that U.S. District Court Judge James Selna erred by not taking into account the value of Avenatti’s legal services, his costs and the payments he had already made to his victims when determining the amount of money he stole. The panel also found that the sentence should run concurrently with the sentence in the Stormy Daniels case from New York. The new sentence, then, represents a reduction of 33 months.
Prosecutors had asked Selna, a George W. Bush appointee, to resentence Avenatti to just over 13 years in prison.
“He is the same unrepentant person that will say or do anything if he thinks it will benefit him,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett Sagal during Thursday’s hearing in Orange County. “He is the same person who is likely to commit further crimes in the future.” He added later: “He has done far worse things than just what he’s being sentenced for here.”
Avenatti is currently incarcerated at Terminal Island, a federal prison at the very southern end of Los Angeles near the port of Long Beach. The 54-year-old is serving a four-year sentence for stealing money generated by Daniels’ tell-all book, and a separate 30-month sentence for attempting to extort the shoe company Nike. It is unclear if that latter sentence will run concurrently, or will be tacked on to the other sentences.
Avenatti has already served 40 months in prison for defrauding Daniels, time that is credited to Thursday’s punishment because the verdicts were deemed related.
In a sentencing memo filed with the court, Avenatti touted his record as a “model inmate, pointing to his exemplary prison record, having “regularly attended AA meetings and religious services,” completing a “500-hour Residential Drug Abuse Program” and serving as a tutor for fellow inmates studying for their General Education Development test, or GED. He asked for a sentence of no more than 39 additional months.
“Not a day goes by where I do not think of the harm I caused Mr. Johnson, Ms. Gardner, Mr. Barela, and Ms. Phan,” Avenatti wrote in a letter to the judge, referring to the four victims in the case. “They each deserved far better and I deeply regret the pain I caused. I violated the law and equally, if not more importantly, their trust. I will not attempt to offer any excuses for my conduct, because there are none. Full stop.”
Selna was inclined to issue a slightly shorter sentence of 121 months, but was persuaded to give a harsher sentence at the last minute by a victim in the case, Alexis Gardner, a former client of Avenatti’s who was due $1.75 million in settlement money from her lawsuit against an ex-NBA player. Avenatti pocketed the money himself and used part of it to buy a private jet.
During the hearing, Gardener called Avenatti “a legal predator” and “a danger to society.”
“He stole my money the moment he got it,” Gardner told the judge. “The moment he got it.”
After the resentencing, Gardner said she was satisfied.
“Let him go back in there and think about what he’s done,” Gardner said with a wry smile.
Avenatti was also ordered to pay just under $6 million in restitution to his victims, including the IRS. After the hearing, Karie Purcell, the business manager for one of the victims, Michelle Phan, expressed outrage at the amount of the restitution money earmarked for her client. Avenatti stole $4 million from Phan. The judge’s sentence called for him to pay back just $721,000.
“It’s ridiculous,” Purcell said. “I don’t see justice in that.”
Long a successful plaintiff’s attorney, Avenatti gained fame in 2018 while representing Stormy Daniels, who sued Trump twice: first to nullify a non-disclosure agreement she’d signed, and then a second time for defamation. Avenatti became a fixture on cable news channels — according to one analysis, he logged more than 100 appearances on CNN and MSNBC in two months — and was even mentioned as a possible Democratic presidential candidate.
His downfall came even faster than his rise. In March 2019, Avenatti was arrested in New York and charged by federal prosecutors with attempting to extort up to $25 million from Nike, which his client had sued and Avenatti was pressuring to settle. That same day, he was charged by federal prosecutors in California with extorting money from one of his clients. He was later accused of taking some $1.75 million in settlement money intended for a client, Alexis Gardner, who had sued a former NBA player, Hassan Whiteside. Avenatti spent some of the funds on a private jet. Avenatti was later charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for stealing book proceeds from Daniels.
Both the Nike and Daniels cases went to trial, each of which ended in convictions for Avenatti. Both verdicts were upheld on appeal.
After the hearing, federal prosecutor Brett Sager said he was happy with the sentencing.
“We believe he should have received a higher amount,” Sager told reporters in the courthouse hallway. “But getting equivalent of 11 years in a fraud matter — I’m pretty sure he doesn’t see this as a victory.”
When asked if he expected Avenatti to appeal the new sentence, Sager answered, “I do.”
Avenatti’s federal public defenders declined to comment.
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