Michael Avenatti reported in December 2017 that he had a total asset of 412k.
But just two months later, he paid off nearly 8 million in debt. How did he do that? What else happened to him in February? Oh, yes. He took on Stormy Daniels as a client.
Last week, Avenatti put out a strong statement denying receiving money from anyone to take on Stormy:
And here is his bankruptcy filing:
And here are the payments he made in February:
** $4.85 Million to his law firm employees he defrauded
** Close to $2 Million in back taxes for payroll taxes on his law firm
** Nearly another $1 million to other creditors
“In January 2018, #Avenatti got an unidentified source of income that allowed him to pay $4.85M to his law firm employees he defrauded, close to $2M in back taxes for payroll taxes on his law firm, and near another $1M to other creditors. Same time as: new client ”
In January 2018, #Avenatti got an unidentified source of income that allowed him to pay $4.85M to his law firm employees he defrauded, close to $2M in back taxes for payroll taxes on his law firm, and near another $1M to other creditors. Same time as: new client #StormyDaniels. https://t.co/svr125THxe
— Robert Barnes (@barnes_law) May 13, 2018
Either someone gave him a large sum of money or his accountant uses common core math. For his part, Avenatti has said that his legal fees are either being paid by Daniels or crowdfunding from CrowdJustice, an online platform where you can give small donations to certain legal causes.
“Despite the fact that I have answered this repeatedly, many refuse to accept the answer,” Avenatti wrote in a statement posted to the Dropbox account of his law firm Avenatti & Associates.
“Once again (for at least the 20th time) — ALL fees and expenses of this case have either been funded by our client, Ms. Stephanie Clifford (Stormy Daniels), or by donations from our crowdjustice.com page. Please read that if you are unclear. Read it again if need be. Keep reading it until you get it.”
As humorously Biff Tanner-like as that terse statement may be, there are several problems with it. First, while he’s busy banging journalists’ heads against the wall so that they’ll read what he had to say, he probably should instruct his own client to read it, since her own statements in the matter directly contradict this. And second, it doesn’t explain why he seems to have come into $8 million as the Daniels case began to explode earlier this year.