By Jonathan Stempel
Aug 18 (Reuters) - A prominent Texas lawyer was acquitted onThursday of charges he made up thousands of fake clients to sueBP Plc for damages that the oil company caused in the2010 Gulf of Mexico spill, court records show.
Mikal Watts was among five defendants found not guilty by aMississippi federal jury of charges related to an alleged schemeto defraud a program set up by BP to compensate people whosuffered economic losses from the spill. Two other defendantswere found guilty.
The U.S. Department of Justice had accused the defendants ofsubmitting claims on behalf of more than 40,000 people who hadnot agreed to be represented by Watts' firm, or else wereidentified with stolen or bogus Social Security numbers andother personal information.
According to the indictment, one alleged victim, named LucyLu, who supposedly was a deckhand on a commercial seafoodvessel, was actually a dog.
The convicted defendants were Gregory Warren and Thi Houng"Kristy" Le, who prosecutors said helped collect names andinformation.
Also acquitted were Watts' brother David Watts and WynterLee, who both worked for Mikal Watts' San Antonio law firm, andfield representatives Hector Eloy Guerra and Thi Hoang "Abbie"Nguyen, who was Le's sister-in-law.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond torequests for comment. Mikal Watts, who represented himself attrial, and lawyers for Warren and Le did not immediately respondto a request for comment.
BP last month estimated it would incur $61.6 billion ofoverall liabilities for the April 20, 2010 spill, including forcleanup costs, damages claims and regulatory penalties.
The case is U.S. v. Watts et al, U.S. District Court,Southern District of Mississippi, No. 15-cr-00065. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York)