Former Newport Beach attorney Michael Avenatti re-sentenced to roughly 11 years in prison for fleecing clients
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Disbarred Newport Beach attorney Michael Avenatti, who gained fame representing adult film actress Stormy Daniels in her litigation against President Donald Trump, was sentenced Thursday to 95 months in federal prison for stealing millions of dollars from his former clients.
Avenatti, who is currently incarcerated at Terminal Island near the Port of Long Beach, was before a judge in Santa Ana, thanks to an appellate court ruling that overturned his original 14-year federal prison sentence for fraud.
Prosecutors were seeking 160 months, just shy of the 14 years U.S. District Judge James Selna handed down Dec. 5, 2022, Avenatti was seeking 78 months, with 39 of those months having already been served.
Probation officials recommended 97 months, or 58 more months taking into account time served.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judges in October overturned Selna’s 14-year sentence because they found he erred when he did not account for the value of Avenatti’s legal services to his victims and improperly upped the punishment on the grounds of obstruction of justice based on perjury.
Selna “failed to make explicit findings as to the elements of obstruction of justice based on perjury, so the enhancement must be vacated,” the appellate judges ruled.
The appellate judges also sided with Avenatti on Selna erring in an enhancement of the punishment based on his calculation of the $12.3 million from the losses due to fraud.
Avenatti’s public defenders argued in court papers that he has been a model inmate while in custody.
“A recent Bureau of Prisons report notes that he ‘has shown exceptional character, growth, and capacity for change over the last three years,’ has ‘shown considerable humility and patience, often under difficult
circumstances,’ and ‘has consistently demonstrated remorse and accountability for his crimes,’” his attorneys argued.
Avenatti was selected as a suicide watch companion for fellow inmates and has completed hundreds of hours of classes, including a drug abuse program, and has regularly attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and religious services and has served as a GED tutor for fellow inmates, his attorneys said.
“Mr. Avenatti acknowledges that nothing can change how much he hurt the former clients he was entrusted to help,” his attorneys said. “Nothing can change the shame he still feels. But Mr. Avenatti has tried his best to show that his remorse and concern for others are real, not through his words, but through his actions while in custody.”
Avenatti pointed to the 57-month sentence for Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter for Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, as a comparison.
Avenatti also contested the loss amounts claimed by his victims, arguing that many services he provided for the clients were not included in the calculations.
Avenatti argued “the correct loss amount is $1.5 million to $3.5 million.”
Prosecutors argue that the loss to victims is $8.123 million. They also allege that Avenatti obstructed justice by lying in various civil and criminal proceedings, but Avenatti disputed that he was ever dishonest in his testimony.
Prosecutors also argued that a criminal history score of him “substantially under-represents his likelihood of recidivism, given his grudging (at best) admission of what he did wrong in the instant case, and his lack of remorse for his victims, as reflected in his efforts to prevent his victims from recovering any of the monies he stole from them from third parties.”
Prosecutors added that his “crimes were exceedingly serious. Defendant inflicted tremendous harm on his wire fraud victims, who testified about those harms at trial and have submitted victim impact statements that further describe the financial and emotional harms defendant caused.”
One of his clients, who sued and won a settlement after he became a paraplegic, said, “To this day, I do not know why Michael lied and deceived me, why he broke my trust, why he broke my heart. I trusted him implicitly, I believed the things he told me, but it was all part of his plan to defraud me of my settlement. To this day, I have a hard time trusting people because of what Michael did, and I live in constant fear of being taken advantage of again, particularly given my physical disability.”
Prosecutors said all Avenatti has offered was a “bare bones apology” at his original sentencing.
“In sum, defendant used his clients as pawns to line his pockets, live his lifestyle, and buy a jet,” prosecutors said.
Avenatti had made an open plea to tax and wire fraud, meaning he had no guarantee what his sentence would be, in June 2022. Selna’s sentence came down after Avenatti had received five years in prison in New York for an extortion scheme against Nike, and for stealing from Daniels. Selna ordered the punishment to run consecutively.
—Daily Pilot staff contributed to this report.
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