The legal world rocked yesterday upon the news that Texas superlawyer Mikal Watts was indicted in Gulfport by a federal grand jury for allegedly trying to defraud the BP Oil Spill settlement. Mr. Watts is one of the leading plaintiff's lawyers in America. He was indicted on 95 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, identity theft, and identity fraud. The indictment states the "attorney in Jackson" was used for wire transfers. However, the "attorney in Jackson" was not indicted. The indictment states he was involved in the case as Watts would wire large sums of money to his escrow account and then he would wire the money to co-defendant Gregory Warren. The indictment specifies that 29 transactions were made in 2010*:
1. $100,000 on May 3 from Watts
2. $98,973 to Gregory Warren at IP Development, LLC on May 4
3. $125,000 from Watts on May 7
4. $123,973 to Warren on May 7
5. $150,000 from Watts on May 19
6. $148,988 to Warren on May 20
7. $500,000 from Watts on May 24
8. $498,958 to Warren on May 25
9. $500,000 from Watts on June 1
10. $1,841,250 from Watts on June 2
11. $2,340,211 to Warren on June 2
12. $680,000 from Watts on June 10
13. $678,973 to Warren on June 11
14. $820,000 from Watts on June 22
15. $818,973 to Warren on June 24
16. $750,000 from Watts on June 25
17. $748,973 to Warren on June 30
18. $750,000 from Watts on July 13
19. $748,973 to Warren on July 14
20. $1,250,000 from Watts on July 20
21. $1,248,976 to Warren on July 21
22. $1,250,000 from Watts on August 4
23. $1,248,976 to Warren on August 5
24. $1,230,000 from Watts on August 13
25. $1227,979 to Warren on August 20
26. $500,000 from Watts on November 9
27. $498,988 to Warren on November 15
28. $250,000 from Watts on December 3
29. $748,973 to Warren on December 6
The indictment states (p.47)
It was part of the scheme and artifice to defraud that defendant Mikal C. Watts would pay defendants Gregory P. Warren... and Thi Houng Le... through an attorney in Jackson in excess of $10 million to obtain names and personal identifiers for persons to be used as clients in litigation against BP and others relating to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.
The indictment states on page 35:
On or about June 20, 2012, Attorney #1 sent an email with the subject line MW:BP (LA BAR)" to defendants Mikal C. Watts, David Watts, and Attorney #2 stating "Mikal, NOLA PI (RW) has met with both of them; BR has met w/NN; and, I have spoken (over the phone) w/HC. But as I understand it, neither P claims to recall engaging WGC; and neither P claims to have worked in the seafood industry at the time of the spill. 'Yes, I would deploy the Anders' team today. We need thoughtful, authenticate affidavits; this week. To mitigate the risk of a grass fire. Danger, danger."Anders Ferrington is the only lawyer in the Mississippi Bar directory who has that first name. Mr. Ferrington told JJ "No comment" when asked if he was the "Anders" mentioned in the indictment. Mr. Ferrington used to work at the Eaves Law firm:
Kingfish note: This begs the next question: Is there a connection between John Arthur Eaves, Jr.'s firm and the Mikal Watts indictment?
*I took the libery of color-coding transactions that took place almost immediately and involved nearly the same amounts of money.
14 comments:
More is just never enough for these types. Guess his fraud will hold up distribution to many who need it.
Likely cut a deal and will testify against Watts.
Couple of odd things here. It would shock me if Anders even had the brains to wire money. Someone must have told him how to do it. Also, Anders doesn't have a team. He is a nice guy, but this whole scheme is well above his skill set.
2:19; You've been wrong before. You will remember. Like the last time you posted here.
Just throwing this out there... There's a lawyer with the LAST name Anders in the MS Bar directory. According to the directory he works at the Secretary of State's office.
Needless to say, the whole thing sounds shady. Why would Watts need to send the money through a 3rd party unless he's hiding improper (whether illegal or unethical) conduct ? Otherwise, he could have just paid these people directly from his own firm account. Sounds like he was unethically soliciting cases via a 3rd party "case runner". Even if the "Jackson atty" didn't engage in the filing of fraudulent claims himself or herself, which arguably he/she may have participated in by wiring money as a part of the scheme, it looks like he/she knew or should have known he/she was assisting in improper solicitation, or why else was he/she needed for these wire transfers.
Also, even assuming the US Atty decided not to pursue criminal charges against this "Jackson atty", every atty in the state of MS, including the US Atty, has the ethical duty to report another atty's unethical conduct to the MS Bar Association.
The fact that Anders answers "no comment" indicates some suspicion. I can assure you if they approached me and I was innocent, I would have a lot of comments.
Does he pronounce his name like "Michael" or like "pickle"?
There were plenty of case runners all along the Gulf following the DW Horizon, many working for their typical employers here in Jackson along State Street and others working for Coast and NOLA firms. One notable runner (experienced from all his work around hometown area in SW MS) had 'subrunners' working out of his condo - the one his Jackson wife didn't know he had - and had thousands of cases all while he was trying to scam the state out of oil cleanup operations.
My bet - there are several lawyers that are now pronouncing their names like "pickle" because their A%%hole has tightened up as if they had inserted several sour ones.
"Trust Me. I know 2:19. said...
2:19; You've been wrong before. You will remember. Like the last time you posted here.
October 30, 2015 at 2:30 PM"
Now this is funny. Either you are commenting on something someone/anyone posted at 2:30 PM on sone day, or you have magic psychic abilities that let you discern the identity of posters named "Anonymous".
You need to remember - it's one blue pill and two red pills every day.
Ho hum. KF is really trying to push the conversation to this topic. What is this...four posts in the last 24 hours?
Must be running out of Bert Case updates and Bloom County strips.
How come Mike Hurst ain't in the middle of this prosecution? This would have been his ticket to winning although this might have been a little above his skill set- Better to stick with prosecuting greedy police chiefs-
Shane?
I'd bet Junior, from his office across from the Old Capitol.
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