Mikal Watts

In September 2016, Watts was indicted on federal criminal fraud charges. The indictment alleged that he committed fraud when he signed up more than 40,000 clients along the coast after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He was charged with "fabricating thousands of clients, including the representation of a dog by the name of Lucy Lu."

Watts' criminal trial began in July 2016. His brother was also a co-defendant. At the start of the trial, Watts fired his attorney and chose to represent himself in the case.

On March 3, 2016, a $100 million lawsuit was filed for identify theft against two Texas attorneys (John Cracken of Dallas and Bob Hilliard of Corpus Christi) and one non-attorney (Max Duncan of Kerrville) in Harris County, Texas District Court. The attorneys were accused of using "case runners to steal the identities of Vietnamese-Americans damaged by spill." Duncan helped finance this effort. After the case was filed, Watts' name was added as a co-defendant. However, on September 13, Watts was non-suited, meaning he was removed from the lawsuit.

Mikal Watts (born July 17, 1967 in Corpus Christi) is an American attorney from San Antonio, Texas and a prolific donor to the Texas and national Democratic Party, and candidates running for office as Democrats. He formed an exploratory committee to run for Senator of Texas against incumbent John Cornyn in the 2008 U.S. Senate elections, but announced on October 23, 2007 his decision not to run.