This tweet seems to be making some major waves this morning...
@MichaelAvenatti
Tmrw at 11 am ET, we will be holding a press conference to disclose a major high school/college basketball scandal perpetrated by @Nike that we have uncovered. This criminal conduct reaches the highest levels of Nike and involves some of the biggest names in college basketball.
Related...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...xtort-nike-nke
California lawyer Michael Avenatti was charged by federal prosecutors in New York with attempting to extort millions of dollars out of Nike Inc. by threatening to release damaging information about the company, which did not meet his demands, Bloomberg News reports
I was just about to post the article you added about his arrest... Avenatti has always come across as slimy to me and his arrest over this Nike shakedown proves it.
But to be fair, maybe he has something... But I don't think his credibility (or lack of) will help him.
I had little doubt that Nike was doing it too. When one does it to gain an edge, others will follow to not be left behind.
Same can be said with cheating among universities. Pure collegiate sports died a long time ago. Heck this goes back to Dixie Classic (Big four tournament) days.
Its like the thief in the Army. One person started it and others are just trying to get back what it is theirs.
If I had some dirt on Nike that I wanted to reveal, Avenatti would be about the last lawyer I'd ask to help me. Stormy Daniels had a tale to tell but everything else he's touched ended up as a fiasco.
Well this in very interesting. MA has absolutely no credibility so I'm not sure what to believe here re: Nike.
MAGA
Michael Avenatti Got Arrested
I just hope that if there is dirt on Nike revealed that it doesn't touch Duke (I can list at least 1 other school that I hope gets tainted...I'd say nailed but they have too much $$ to ever be touched)
Although Avenatti isn't the greatest of guys his heroic efforts against Bif have been great this past year or so.
Avenatti has also been charged today by California prosecutors who say he embezzled from a client and committed bank and wire fraud. He's got a whole heap of problems ahead of him at the moment. I doubt anyone will pay any attention to his extortion scheme with Nike other than to laugh at him.
Yup, that's exactly what I said to Donald when he sent the initial Nike story to me. That was before we even knew about the extortion and other charges.
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill
President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club
Nassir Little was already implicated in the Adidas scandal (as he is clearly "Player-12," who was being offered $150,000 by Miami). The FBI also indicated that "Player-12" had a matching $150,000 offer from another school that was affiliated with another shoe company.
https://nypost.com/2019/03/25/michae...20m-from-nike/
Some more details about what Mr. Avenatti may have been trying to do. I, for one, would NOT believe a SiNGLE thing he alleges, on anything!
You have to speculate how this particular lawyer ended up with any details about Nike that other investigators haven't uncovered? in light of the Adidas scandal, you have to think that all shoe (endorsement / agent) deals are under the microscope, so how did he find out anything that no one else has?
Even if someone decided to blow the whistle, certainly they could have found a better lawyer to rep this than this guy. Geez.
Per this purported US vs Avenatti complaint, Avenatti was representing a client who perhaps solicited Avenatti's services.
"Client-1" is a coach of an amateur athletic union ("AAU") men's basetball program based in California. For a number of years, the AAU program coached by Client-1 had a sponsorship agreement with Nike pursuant to which Nike paid the AAU program approximately $72,000 annually.(The players were not specified in this document)AVENATTI stated, in substance and in part, that he represented Client-1, an AAU coach, whose team had previously had a contractual relationship with Nike, but whose contract Nike had recently decided not to renew. According to AVENATTI, Client-1 had evidence that one or more Nike employees had authorized and funded payments to the families of top high school basketball players and/or their families and attempted to conceal those payments, similar to conduct involving a rival company that had recently been the subject of a criminal prosecution in this District. AVENATTI identified three former high school players in particular, and indicate that his client was aware of payments to others as well.
How could a guy who graduated first in his class from law school do something so stupid? Avenatti’s precarious financial position has been in the news recently (i.e. that he owes a lot of money and has been sued for more). Maybe this is what true desperation looks like. It reminds me of when John DeLorean’s automobile venture was going south and to keep it afloat he decided to sell a little cocaine.
"I'm not f---ing around with this, and I'm not continuing to play games," Avenatti was recorded as saying.
"You guys know enough now to know you've got a serious problem. And it's worth more in exposure to me to just blow the lid on this thing. A few million dollars doesn't move the needle for me. I'm just being really frank with you."
"I'll go and I'll go take $10 billion off your client's market cap. But I'm not f---ing around," he said.
"If [Nike] wants to have one confidential settlement and we're done, they can buy that for $22.5 million and we're done," Avenatti is quoted as saying. "Full confidentiality, we ride off into the sunset."
the more i think/read about this, the more it seems like the most likely story here is he had no scoop...and figured he'd slander Nike to extort money.
If you DID have a scoop, why would you try to extort? And if there WAS a story, why wouldn't nike come to a hush-hush arrangement instead of blowing this up?
Wonder if he also sold a metric ton of one-week calls on Nike as well...
April 1