Thread by @obarcala

It's worth looking at some of the particular charges to illustrate how big of a scumbag Avenatti is (alleged to be)

Avenatti rep'd a client in a lawsuit against LA County, got $4M in a settlement

He refused to show the client the settlement, lying and saying it had to be confidential, and said LA couldn't pay until they'd set up a special needs trust b/c the client is disabled

Of course, there was no confidentiality and LA had agreed to a lump sum payment

He deposited the whole settlement in his trust account, didn't tell the client, then immediately transferred $3.125M to his business account, then his personal accounts

To everyone who defended Avenatti from the prev indictment b/c "duh, lawyers pay themselves a percentage of the settlement," please focus on this sentence

"By no later than July 6, 2015, defendant AVENATTI had drained all of the settlement proceeds out of EA Trust Account 8541"

A 100% payment isn't a contingency fee, bud, that's embezzlement

But wait, it kind of gets worse

Avenatti paid his client advances from the money he stole. Knowing the deal had been inked (but never seeing it), the client asked if he'd get the money in time to buy a house. Avenatti said sure, even helped him find a broker

After the client was in escrow on a buying a house, Avenatti told him he couldn't buy it after all b/c the settlement still hadn't come through

The settlement that Avenatti had drained for personal use about a year and a half ago

So he couldn't get a house, big deal. He was still living large on those Social Security payments for his disability, right?

Avenatti graciously offered to respond to the Social Security Admin's request for info to evaluate the client's eligibility for benefits

But Avenatti knew that the info could uncover his fraud, so he just...never responded. His client's benefits got cancelled. Truly despicable

To cap it off, Avenatti tricked his disabled, mentally-ill client into signing a document stating that he was satisfied with Avenatti's representation

Client 2 got off easier. Agreed to a $3M settlement, an initial payment of $2.75M was paid into Aenatti's trust account

Avenatti lied and said the initial payment would only be to cover his fees, then the defendant would pay 96 installment payments

Then Avenatti transferred $2.5M to another law firm and used it to buy a plane for his company, "Passport 420"

The remaining $250k was transferred to his new law firm, Avenatti & Associates