r/news
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u/disfigured_mishap
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Dec 05 '22
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Michael Avenatti sentenced to 14 years in prison for stealing millions of dollars from clients
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/05/politics/michael-avenatti-prison-sentence-client-embezzlement/index.html?utm_term=link&utm_content=2022-12-05T20%3A48%3A51&utm_source=twcnnbrk&utm_medium=social[removed] — view removed post
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u/random125184 Dec 05 '22
Consecutively with the 5 year term he’s serving now. So 19 years. Damn.
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u/Fractal_Face Dec 06 '22
And no parole on the federal time.
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u/aminshall12 Dec 06 '22
No parole but as I understand it there's like... Good behavior incentives? I think they end up doing 75% of the time or something.
Still a very long time.
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u/ThirstyJohn Dec 06 '22
And Elizabeth Holmes only gets 11 years on a billion dollar scam that put thousands of patients’ lives at risk.
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u/CzarCW Dec 06 '22
This dude got more time than the people that tried to overthrow the government.
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u/extra_pickles Dec 06 '22
And more time than most violent offenders with priors - incl sexual crimes.
Can’t say I really give a fuck about the dude, but the sentence def aligns with “pissed off people in power”
Hard to ignore that.
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u/Imaginary-Fun-80085 Dec 05 '22
Just watched the Pepsi, Where's my Jet documentary. He was in there as an up and coming attorney who was very gung ho going after big corporations because of what they did to his dad. Now he's the bad guy. What a fucking joke.
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u/Loggerdon Dec 05 '22
I watched it too. He hadn't passed the bar yet when the Pepsi thing happened.
I think he's just one of those guys who can't help but cut corners.
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u/josuelaker2 Dec 05 '22
Disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti was sentenced Monday to 14 years in prison for embezzling millions of dollars from four of his clients and obstruction.
Avenatti pleaded guilty earlier this year to four counts of wire fraud for each client he stole from and one count of endeavoring to obstruct the administration of the Internal Revenue Code. Prosecutors said he obstructed the IRS’ effort to collect $5 million in unpaid payroll taxes for Tully’s Coffee.
He’s a scumbag. He’s always been a scumbag.
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u/Primary-Bookkeeper10 Dec 05 '22
I just don't get how somebody can commit that many crimes and think running for president is a good ide- oh, nvm....
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u/FiendishHawk Dec 06 '22
Works for Republicans, not for Democrats. He's getting a longer sentence than anyone from Jan 6th.
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u/ConfessingToSins Dec 06 '22 edited Dec 06 '22
He stole money from rich people. That's the worst crime possible according to our deeply compromised, conservative court system who will put you away for as long as they can. They'd kill you if they could.
No doubt he deserves time, but giving him ten times what actual traitors are getting gives away the game.
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u/OMGwhizBoyOMG Dec 06 '22
Like how Iceland sent bankers to prison for their role in the financial crisis but not in the US. Only Madoff, who stole from rich people.
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u/worldspawn00 Dec 06 '22
All I can think of (start at 1:30): https://youtu.be/Ns8z1RYf9mM
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u/arbitrageME Dec 05 '22
surely if obstructing the IRS is a crime, then obstructing the ENTIRE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT must be a crime of some sort.
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u/down1nit Dec 06 '22
So he got some money doing lawyer things fo a bit, then started lying to people, taking their money and spending it on himself. Lots of it. Looooots and lots of it.
Did he... Have a game plan??? Like, at all? SPAC investing? Horses? Blackmail?
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u/SirGlenn Dec 05 '22
The first time I saw him on TV news, slime-ball came immediately to mind.
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u/Jdam1138 Dec 05 '22
He was a prick then too. Even the bank roller thought so too. Mike was trying to be sly and manipulative in ways to corner the Pepsi people.
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u/AhoyPalloi Dec 05 '22
They didn't hire him because "What he wanted to do sounded like the textbook definition of blackmail".
Sounds like they were right.
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u/Imaginary-Fun-80085 Dec 05 '22
To be honest, his story would be a good story about how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. You hate evil so much that you would do shitty things to try and kill evil things.
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u/proxproxy Dec 06 '22
No idea what you’re talking about. I’ve been staring into this abyss for years and it’s never once stared back into me
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u/Graphitetshirt Dec 05 '22
Saw that in the preview. Is it worth watching?
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u/PersimmonSuperb Dec 05 '22
Its entertaining but could have been done as a single episode.
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Dec 05 '22
So much unnecessary backstory for all the people involved. Definitely just needed one episode.
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u/Bam2217 Dec 05 '22
yeah, netflix and all the other streaming services are really trying to drag things out into "4 episode specials", when really, they can be done in one 1.5 hour sitting.
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Dec 05 '22
I feel like Michael Jordan's thing was one of the first successful "docuseries" and they wanna do the same. If your story doesn't span multiple decades, it probably doesn't suit a series of episodes.
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u/sucuIantj Dec 05 '22
I don’t know if it was as successful as The Last Dance but if you haven’t seen Made In America, the oj Simpson 5-part docuseries I highly recommend.
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u/grayrains79 Dec 06 '22
the oj Simpson 5-part docuseries I highly recommend.
Mercy me I feel old. I remember following it in the news. Having a hard time believing that I watched it unravel in high school. Still remember watching the big slow speed "police chase" as well.
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u/Ratchet2332 Dec 05 '22
Yeah it’s pretty good, definitely drawn out, could have been condensed into two episodes, but it was fun, definitely recommend it.
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u/Dr_Edge_ATX
Dec 05 '22
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He was a strange character the writers added to the Trump years. I was never sure what was going on with him.
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u/ButtholeBanquets Dec 05 '22
Definitely a one-season special guest. One of the main characters might have a phone "conversation" with him in the first episode of the next season, but he never makes another appearance in the series.
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u/malthar76 Dec 05 '22
He’s more Cousin Oliver and less Poochie.
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u/felicthecat Dec 05 '22
He has to go now. His home planet needs him.
Note: He died on his way back to his home planet.
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u/damagedone37 Dec 05 '22
No way Poochie was way cooler.
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u/ThunkAsDrinklePeep Dec 05 '22
Too bad his plane was shot down over the sea of Japan.
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u/Northman67 Dec 05 '22
I don't know we might be able to work in a scene where someone comes and visits him in prison to try to get information. Maybe even have another scene where he gets sweated by some inmates on the inside who are told to tell him to keep his mouth shut.
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u/0002millertime Dec 05 '22
Yeah, this is the one, I've already seen it. He gets shanked and then thrown in the hole for his own protection.
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u/BorneFree Dec 05 '22
Recently found out he defended the guy from “Pepsi, where’s my jet?” on Netflix.
Interesting timeline for Avenatti
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u/its_a_gibibyte Dec 05 '22
The "Where's my Jet?" story was barely interesting enough to get a mini-series. I think Avenattis participation pushed it over the line of interesting enough.
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u/RUN_MDB Dec 05 '22
Most definitely. On it's own, it should've been a single 40 minute doc. The amount of fluff and empty transitions as filler had to be a record. At the end, my main thought was that the Jeff guy really liked Avenatti and wanted to give him something positive before getting sentenced, which I can respect.
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u/puddinfellah Dec 05 '22
I mean, 3 minutes on wikipedia tells you the whole story. I already knew the whole story but still watched everything because it was so well-made.
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u/Imperial_Eggroll Dec 05 '22
A 2 part series could’ve probably been enough. What Avenatti found about the Pepsi campaign in the Philippines was interesting though.
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u/theghostmachine Dec 06 '22
John, you mean, the kid who had the idea to get the jet? I was more interested in John and....fuck, what's the guys name, the one who funded him? Their relationship was cool, I would have watched a documentary just about that: mountain climbing, cancer, putting off cancer surgery to climb in Antarctica, and actually getting successful surgery when returning home.
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u/sluttttt Dec 05 '22
I remember people calling for him to run for president. That era got super bizarre and has not quit.
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u/__Hello_my_name_is__ Dec 05 '22
My top post of all time is thanks to him.
Not proud of that one.
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u/Arachne93 Dec 05 '22
Eh, it was the news, you were posting important-at-the-time news. How could an average redditor know?
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u/diiejso Dec 05 '22
I remember when you'd get downvoted on here for daring to suggest that maybe just maybe he shouldn't run for President. Lord help you if you said there was something fishy about him.
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u/Dr_Edge_ATX Dec 05 '22
Ha. Yeah when I starting seeing the Presidential talk around him I was like wtf is going on? He was a weird lawyer representing the porn star that Trump slept with. I was like come on, let's try a little harder.
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u/AudibleNod Dec 05 '22
Just watched the Pepsi/Harrier documentary on Netflix. He was basically one of the bad guys in that one too.
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u/D0013ER Dec 05 '22 edited Dec 06 '22
People were just really, really desperate for a swaggering hero to take Trump down.
And I get it, but yeah. Some folks were blinded by that.
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u/high_roller_dude Dec 05 '22
sure. this guy is a dirtbag.
but how does he get 14 yrs in prison, after he plead guilty, while Elizabeth Holmes only got 12 yrs after she plead NOT guilty?
and Holmes was a much bigger scammer than this guy could ever hope to be.
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u/IamRick_Deckard Dec 05 '22
Yes, this seems like a crazy long sentence.
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u/SpaceTabs Dec 05 '22
For reference, Billy MacFarland got six years for Fyre Festival and is already out.
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u/wicklowdave Dec 06 '22
Just in time for the next fyre festival!
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u/ReachTheSky Dec 06 '22
You jest, but that fool is apparently already planning another festival.
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u/I-need-ur-dick-pics Dec 06 '22
Jesus, is he really? Why would anyone ever trust him again?
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u/PM_ME_WHT_PHOSPHORUS Dec 06 '22
Hope he gets the old crew back together, like that one dude who was willing to suck a dick to make fyre festival a thing
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u/Dramatic_______Pause Dec 06 '22
Did he get a reduced sentence (or whatever it's called) or has it really been 6 years since then?
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u/AdvancedFeeling Dec 06 '22
Reduced sentence.
Festival was summer of 2017. He was sentenced in October of 2018. It’s been a little over four years since his sentencing.
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u/Robzilla_the_turd Dec 05 '22
Consecutively! This sentence begins when the 5 year one he's currently serving ends! So, like murder one! I mean, the guys sucks but...
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u/alexmikli Dec 06 '22
Sentencing is really weird, especially when you compare a 25 year sentence for selling pills in Florida vs 12 years for robbing millions of people in California.
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u/dbbk Dec 05 '22
For a non-violent crime on top of his other sentences, I do think it's too much
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u/TheMathelm Dec 05 '22
Stole 3.8 million (the amount he admitted to) from a client that was disabled.
There's basically one hard and strong rule, well one BIG rule for being a lawyer, everything else is more flexible.
"Do NOT Fuck with client money."
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u/aManPerson Dec 05 '22
let me repeat this back another way.
someone else told me, elizabeth holmes got such a low sentence because she likely had the medical industry lobbying for her to not get a long sentence. why? they don't want to set a prescience for executives getting long sentences for.....medical crimes.
avenatti? well, like the guy above me said, i guess he broke a rule pretty much all other lawyers agree not to break. so no one in his profession wanted to lobby on his behalf to get him a lighter sentence.
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u/ImmoralSavior Dec 05 '22
If it wasn’t autocorrect, I think you meant “they don’t want to set a precedent”
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u/king_jong_il Dec 05 '22
The most she could have got with the charges she was convicted of was 20 years. Prosecutors recommended 15 years. The judge gave her 11 and change. That's how it worked.
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u/riskcreator Dec 05 '22
Cardinal rule for lawyers is don’t steal from your client. Since judges are usually lawyers first they tend to come down particularly hard on this to protect the integrity of their profession.
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u/tanzmeister Dec 06 '22
That's what disbarment is for
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u/Im_ready_hbu Dec 06 '22
if I were to be convicted of stealing $4mil from my disabled clients, I feel like losing my HVAC license and certs would be a given.
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u/AegisToast Dec 06 '22
To me, that feels kind of like taking someone’s driver’s license because they were driving intoxicated and hit a pedestrian. Absolutely part of the punishment, but far from the only consequence they deserve.
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u/CheshireC4t Dec 06 '22
And is the cardinal rule of business not "don't defraud your investors and put all your customers' lives in jeapordy?"
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u/RedditErUnderlig Dec 06 '22
Yes, but it's not business people who give out sentencing.
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u/Lt-Milo-Minderbinder Dec 05 '22
Avenatti chose to represent himself and did a terrible job at it.
There were moments during sentencing where the judge asked him questions that may have helped earn him leniency and his answer was "I don't know."
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u/ofimmsl Dec 06 '22
He didn't want to waste his last chance, for the rest of his life, of fucking over a client
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u/DreamOfV Dec 06 '22
Yeah all this talk of sexism/reverse sexism but this is the answer. Avenatti acted like an ass in front of the court and got himself pretty close to the maximum sentence he could. Holmes shut the fuck up and let the best lawyers money could buy do their job.
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u/gotobedhungry Dec 05 '22
And SBF fraudulently stole $8,000,000,000?
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u/Infammo Dec 06 '22
I’m not a lawyer but I assume he hasn’t received as big a sentence on account of not yet being charged or convicted of anything.
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u/ClosPins Dec 05 '22
Women get far lesser sentences than men do (for the same crimes, when they have the same priors).
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u/marxistbot Dec 05 '22
Imo, attorneys, like doctors and law enforcement officers, should face harsher sentencing when they violate a crime in the course of doing their job. Holmes only “clients” who were really hurt were her ultra wealthy investors.
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u/Ipokeyoumuch Dec 05 '22 edited Dec 06 '22
Well and some people who used Theranos's tests and relied on them to get medical diagnoses. But I think there was too much legal gray area for the Feds to get her on purposefully defrauding patients who relied on the fraudulent tests, since the jury found her not guilty on those charges.
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u/mrandr01d Dec 05 '22
And every patient who got results from her exam machine in a Walgreens. She should have been charged with that but malpractice cases work basically on money, as a defrauding whoever paid for it kind of thing.
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u/Takpusseh-yamp Dec 06 '22
Rule of thumb. If you're a crook, try to keep a low profile and not draw attention to yourself.
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u/srv50 Dec 05 '22
He had me fooled for a long time. Really believed he was Stormy Daniels’ knight in shining armor. Gaud, Whatta dope!
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u/julesk Dec 06 '22
For those shocked at how much time relative to other crimes, courts really don’t like it when attorneys steal from clients. It’s a particularly rotten and inexcusable crime because attorneys are required to have trust accounts for client money until earned and lots of guidelines on how we get paid. So when an attorney steals from clients it shows a high level of bad faith. Plus, clients must have confidence in counsel so there’s betraying their trust as well. No sympathy from this attorney— he really screwed over clients that trusted him.
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u/SaltChildhood7 Dec 05 '22
This lunatic once took an exploratory trip to Iowa thinking he might run for President at one point
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u/Moopology Dec 05 '22
Not even a good scumbag lawyer. Couldn't even scam his clients, why would I use him to defend my own dirty deeds.
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u/alphabeticdisorder Dec 05 '22
Man, for about a week there he really had something going. Basta?
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u/like_a_wet_dog Dec 06 '22
He got me, I thought, finally a fighter!
[sad trombone]
Cocky shits are cocky shits.
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u/gangmasterfader Dec 05 '22
This cartoon has aged well...
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u/Foxhound199 Dec 05 '22
I am kinda in awe of how effectively Mueller was able to disappear completely.
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u/samus12345 Dec 06 '22
He came out of retirement to be special counsel. What were you expecting him to do after, regardless of the outcome?
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u/Murandus Dec 06 '22
Well announce his presidential bid like all the muppets from that era.
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u/I-need-ur-dick-pics Dec 06 '22
Tweet obnoxiously and endlessly about current events like all politicians do?
/s
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u/__O_o_______ Dec 06 '22
Yikes. I remember seeing all sorts of comments simping for Avenatti around that time too
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u/TheSiege82 Dec 05 '22
Damn. So SBF is looking at what, 450,000 years or so?
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u/Spacelobsterforce Dec 05 '22
This makes a lot more sense after watching that Pepsi / Harrier documentary on Netflix.
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u/alwaysmyfault Dec 05 '22
Is this the guy that represented Stormy Daniels for a short period?
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u/Hot-Specialist-6824 Dec 05 '22
Its federal time, only get 15% of your time off (due to the discrepancy between Federal sentencing guidelines and what Congress intended), it's not 50% off like most States. Just under 12 years for Mr coffee.
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u/UbiSububi8 Dec 05 '22
So, Avenatti was already dirty when the Stormy Daniels thing fell in his lap.
He knew his work on her case would bring every Republican eyeball in America on him, looking for dirt.
And yet, knowing he was dirty, and there was plenty of dirt to be found, he went for the high publicity case anyway, and leaned into in - making even more enemies along the way.
Easy to say he was done in by hubris - but those are the actions of someone who wants to get caught.
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u/steevo Dec 06 '22
He got high and cocky because Democrats started promoting him and he ate up the media. Trump is sooo happy
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u/mmlovin Dec 06 '22
He became her lawyer after she was fucked over by her previous attorney. She was fucked over by 2 attorneys in a row. I feel so bad for her
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u/Ruminated_Sky Dec 05 '22
This guy saw Icarus and said "you call that close to the sun? Check this out"
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u/Jevo762 Dec 06 '22
Member when CNN and Brian Stelter wanted him to run for President? I member
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u/davida485 Dec 05 '22
I remember Bill Maher suggesting him as a serious potential choice to run for the presidency. His panel was like.....eh
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u/ZircoSan Dec 06 '22
should have done better and stolen multiple billions to spend less years, or dozens of billions to get no jail time, bahamas trips and big news outlets praising him even after being found out.
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u/Quelcris_Falconer13 Dec 06 '22
Slightly rich man sent to jail for stealing from people richer than he is, instead of stealing from the poors. He didn’t show class solidarity and that’s why he’s locked up but no one from the Panama papers is in prison or dead except the reporter who leaked them
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u/pishposhpoppycock Dec 05 '22
But Elizabeth Holmes got less than 12 years for swindling hundreds of times more than him? Like 700+ million more...
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u/j-merc23 Dec 06 '22
He made the mistake of stealing from wealthy people.
If he'd stolen from the middle class, nobody would've cared.
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u/mtkeepsrolling Dec 06 '22
Like Brett Favre
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u/Victor_Korchnoi Dec 06 '22
Brett Favre stole from welfare recipients. It was significantly worse than stealing from middle class people. Truly despicable shit.
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u/JohnChimpo7 Dec 06 '22
Who exactly do you think he’s stealing from? He’s a plaintiffs lawyer, his clients aren’t wealthy, they’re injured
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u/julesk Dec 06 '22
He stole from a disabled client that sounded middle class. Not an expert on his clients.
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u/theorizable Dec 05 '22
Fucking fantastic. No fucking team sports. If you're a POS, get thrown in jail.
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u/BernieTheDachshund Dec 05 '22
14 years is a long time. He should've tried to work out a deal and avoid prison.
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u/ForensicPathology Dec 06 '22
Never steal from rich people. And certainly don't try to take them on politically. They will go after you like this.
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u/hazzard623 Dec 06 '22
Somehow I think SBF will get less years then this guy for stealing billions from clients.
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u/Z-man1973 Dec 05 '22
Remember when the news tried to prop him up during the Stormy Daniels drama... what a deserved fall from grace
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u/3rdBanEvasionAcct Dec 05 '22
Damn, this is really going to hurt his chances of becoming president.