Michael Avenatti Michael Avenatti. AP Photo: Mark Lennihan

A Manhattan federal judge has denied Michael Avenatti's request to send a criminal case accusing the embattled lawyer of stealing $300,000 from his former client, the adult film star known as Stormy Daniels, to his home state of California.

U.S. District Judge Deborah A. Batts of the Southern District of New York on Tuesday rejected Avenatti's argument that a transfer would streamline criminal proceedings in the Santa Ana, California-based Southern Division of the Central District of California, where he is also facing charges in a sprawling wire fraud case.

Avenatti had argued in August that his case was "virtually identical" to a similar prosecution in Los Angeles federal court, and that a transfer would result in a "single trial, with one judge, and one set of prosecutors."

However, Batts said that granting the request would create more problems than it would solve and noted that Avenatti could afford cross-country travel to New York, where he is accused in a separate case of trying to extort athletic apparel company Nike Inc.

"Transferring this case to California even for the purpose of consolidation would require the New York prosecution team to relocate to California until any motion for consolidation is decided; consolidation would not be automatic," Batts said in a 17-page memorandum and order.

"Relocating the entire Manhattan-based prosecution team would be unduly burdensome to the Government and would be against the interests of justice," she said.

Avenatti is accused of diverting two payments of $150,000 from an advance on a book deal being paid to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Prosecutors allege that Avenatti forged Clifford's name on a letter to her literary agent and instructed the payments to be sent to a bank account under his own control. According to a May 22 indictment, Clifford did not know about the other bank account, and half of the diverted sum had never been repaid.

The California case accuses Avenatti of 36 counts of tax fraud, bankruptcy fraud and other charges in connection with the alleged theft from former clients. In particular, he faces 10 counts of wire fraud for pocketing millions of dollars from more than $12 million he received during the past five years as part of four settlements, including one on behalf of a paraplegic client.

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