AmericasOffshore

Lawyer acquitted on charge of making fraudulent Deepwater Horizon damages claims

A lawyer accused of making fraudulent damages claims relating to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has been acquitted, according to Reuters.

The San Antonio, Texas attorney Mikal Watts, who represented himself in the case, was cleared by a Mississippi court of making up thousands of non-existent clients and claiming they suffered economic damages because of the explosion and subsequent massive oil spill at BP’s Macondo Prospect in April 2010.

Eleven people died in the blast and it was followed by the worst oil spill in US history as the well could not be capped for 87 days.

Four others on the same charge, including Watts’ brother, were also acquitted. Two more people were convicted as the jury in the US District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi held them more directly responsible for providing the bogus claimants’ names.

Donal Scully

With 28 years experience writing and editing for newspapers in the UK and Hong Kong, Donal is now based in California from where he covers the Americas for Splash as well as ensuring the site is loaded through the Western Hemisphere timezone.
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