Updated: June 18, 2019 / 3:55 p.m.
Celebrity attorney, Michael Avenatti, is scheduled to go to trial on November 12 in a Manhattan federal court, on charges related to extorting Nike Inc.
Paul Gardephe, who is the U.S. District Judge, had scheduled the trial at a hearing which took place on Tuesday, according to a court record. Avenatti has pleaded not guilty to the charges that are currently against him.
“I look forward to a New York jury hearing all of the relevant evidence relating to Nike,” the California lawyer wrote in an email. “I have complete confidence in the truth and am confident that I will be exonerated at the end of the trial.”
Avenatti, 48, was arrested on March 25 in New York on charges of trying to extort more than $20 million from the brand Nike. Avenatti did this by threatening to expose the giant by what he called their improper payments to recruits for college basketball teams that the company sponsored. Nike has denied wrongdoing in connection to the allegations Avenatti made against them.
Avenatti has also been charged separately in two other cases.
In one, prosecutors claim that Avenatti defrauded famous porn star Stormy Daniels, who is a client that lead him to fame. Prosecutors allege that he diverted two $148,750 installment payments from Daniels’ $800,000 book advance to himself by forging her signature in a letter to her literary agent and directing that the money be sent to his bank account.
In the second case, prosecutors in Los Angeles claim that Avenatti had stolen millions of dollars from clients to pay for both his personal and business expenses while lying to a bank in Mississippi and the Internal Revenue Service regarding his finances.
Avenatti, who currently remains free on bail, has pleaded not guilty in both cases. Trial dates have not yet been scheduled.