The lawyer is accused of more than three dozen crimes, including forging a letter to Ms. Daniels’s literary agent to secure funds that he put toward the monthly payment on a Ferrari.
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged the celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti with misappropriating hundreds of thousands of dollars belonging to a former client, the pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels.
The indictment, announced by the United States Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, marks the disintegration of a relationship that propelled Mr. Avenatti to national prominence and adds to his mountain of legal troubles as he stands accused of more than three dozen crimes in California and New York.
Mr. Avenatti is accused of taking more than $295,000 from Ms. Daniels, who is named in the indictment as “Victim-1” and was identified as the actress by a person with knowledge of the case.
After helping her secure a book contract last year, according to the charges, Mr. Avenatti sent “a fraudulent and unauthorized letter” bearing Ms. Daniels’s signature to her literary agent, demanding that a portion of the book advance be wired to a client trust account he controlled.
Mr. Avenatti is accused of putting the money toward his personal expenses, including plane tickets, hotel stays, meal delivery, dry cleaning and a monthly payment on a Ferrari.
Mr. Avenatti denied all of the charges against him on Wednesday and said he looked forward to fighting them in court.
“At no time was any money misappropriated or mishandled,” he told The New York Times, saying that any funds related to the book were part of his representation agreement.
“She received millions of dollars worth of legal services, and we spent huge sums in expenses,” he added, referring to Ms.
