Celebrity Los Angeles attorney Mark Geragos is the co-conspirator listed in the Nike extortion case allegedly perpetrated by fellow L.A. attorney Michael Avenatti, sources told The Associated Press.
Geragos has not been charged in the case. He was only listed in the indictment as a co-conspirator.
Can’t make this stuff up. Michael Avenatti’s co-conspirator is being reported as Mark Geragos, who just happens to be Jussie Smollett’s lawyer.
— Matt Glantz (@MattGlantz) March 25, 2019
Stormy Daniel’s lawyer Michael Avenatti was arrested Monday on charges of bank fraud, embezzling a client’s money and attempting to extort more than $20 million from athletic equipment giant Nike in cases filed in Santa Ana and New York.
According to CBS News, the criminal complaint in the New York case states Avenatti and an alleged unidentified co-conspirator “CC-1” — believed to be Geragos, requested a meeting with Nike’s lawyers in New York last Tuesday, March 19th. Two of the attorneys represent Nike as outside counsel at the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, and one of the attorneys works for Nike in-house.
During the meeting at Geragos’ New York office, Avenatti said he represented the coach of an amateur athletic union (AAU) basketball team in California whose contract with Nike had not been renewed. He said the coach had evidence of Nike employees funneling illegal payments to top high school basketball prospects and their families.
Avenatti allegedly threatened to hold a press conference detailing the allegations to coincide with the beginning of the NCAA basketball tournament and Nike’s quarterly earnings call.
The complaint says Avenatti offered to scrap the press conference if Nike paid his client for $1.5 million and hired Avenatti to conduct an internal investigation of the company.
After the meeting later that afternoon, Nike’s attorneys contacted the U.S. Attorney’s Office to report the alleged extortion attempt.
Mark Geragos represented Jussie Smollett. He has also represented Scott Peterson, Michael Jackson and Winona Ryder.
And let’s not forget Colin Kaepernick.
He went on record saying a team was interested in signing Colin within two weeks.
Maybe we can’t actually trust this guy’s word.
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