Prosecutors Drop Conspiracy Counts Against Avenatti in Nike Case

Federal prosecutors dropped conspiracy charges against celebrity lawyer <-bsp-person state="{"_id":"0000016e-6715-d283-a77e-ef9d1e170000","_type":"00000160-6f41-dae1-adf0-6ff519590003"}">Michael Avenatti in a case charging him with trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike Inc.

But in a revised indictment, Avenatti faces an additional charge of honest services wire fraud, prosecutors told a judge Wednesday in a letter.

Michael Avenatti

Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

The U.S. claims Avenatti demanded as much as $25 million from Nike in exchange for canceling a potentially damaging press conference about the company. At the time, Avenatti was representing a coach who claimed to have information about improper payments made to athletes.

“This case should have never been filed,” Avenatti ...