Texas attorney Mikal Watts of San Antonio is being accused by British Petroleum of creating countless fake social security numbers belonging to “phantom” clients in his case against the BP oil spill Seafood Fund. BP alleges that only 42% of the social security numbers Watts provided could be confirmed, with 13% being dummy social security numbers and 5% being numbers that belonged to a dead person other than the claimant.
BP labeled Watts’s actions as “brazen fraud”, stating that if it had known the lists from Watts were phony, it would have allocated much less money for the claimants. Shortly after an investigation began into the alleged fraud, Watts stepped down from the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee. To read the full story, click here.
