Oct 11, 2021
Austin / Birmingham
In an investigation that our news network have been working on this is what we have learned.
It is common knowledge that the Spanish land grant heirs of Texas have been frauded for years not only by their own hired attorneys but also by the state of Texas, oil and gas companies, Texas ranches with oil interests, by people taking their lands from them at gunpoint, theft, murder, and chicanery. We are aware of multiple news networks that are working on exposing more than what we have uncovered.
What isn’t common is for these heirs is to be frauded by their hired attorneys. Recently you may have read in the news their long-time state attorney and federal attorney abandoned them.
We started our investigation into these law firms. Both refused to comment.
Eileen McKenzie Fowler La Porte, Texas
For years she has claimed to fight for her clients which she claims is over 14,000 for their mineral rights. Although our investigation into those claims reveals, that some of her clients have a viable claim, how she went about it was deceiving and some are calling it a scam. She has failed these heirs time and time again. The only thing good she did do was get some heirs proof of their land gran ownership in the form of a declaratory judgement.
According to a story published by the San Antonio News Sept 13, 2013 Eileen Fowler has worked for more than a decade on their behalf with only modest results.
She acknowledged she has yet to recover any money for her clients or file a successful suit against any energy company.
While hundreds of millions (even billions) of dollars in unclaimed royalties have been paid to the state by energy companies, the funds have vanished into the state’s general fund. Fowler has attempted to do nothing about it except promise her heirs there are billions they will get. Some called it their pot of gold.
Fowler has been aware for years that the state’s unclaimed property law does not apply to claims arising from the centuries-old Spanish and Mexican land grants, it would have to be changed, and Fowler has not attempted to do anything about this.
According to HSLNN News, most of the land was lost to later generations, but some descendants believe they still are entitled to the royalties from mineral rights that never were sold or given away. Fowler has yet to prove this claim.
Fowler says “I’d guess that 200 of them have enough unclaimed mineral rights to be a claim,” she said. (of the 363 original grants may have unresolved mineral rights) That’s her guess, but where is the proof? There is evidence that something could exist, type 2 mineral rights, but she milked her clients for years, as long as she could hold out, until people started wising up, even her own employees.
Fowler claims the state comptroller is at fault for not paying out, but a spokeswoman for Comptroller Susan Combs, disputed this, saying accurate records have been maintained.
“Currently, there is approximately $461.1 million in mineral proceeds in unclaimed property. Of that, less than .1 percent or $407,866, may not be able to be claimed because it does not include any owner identifying information,” spokeswoman Lauren Wills said in an e-mail.
“The rest, more than $460 million, has sufficient identifying information such as names, Social Security numbers, last known addresses or descriptions about the mineral interest, and is waiting to be claimed by the rightful owners,” she said.
For whatever reason, the gap between the money and Fowler’s would-be claimants has thus far been unbridgeable. However, what a special commission revealed is the comptroller is unaware of several hundred other oil & gas sites she was made aware of in the commission, it is possible these could amount to billions.
While Fowler has collected millions in legal fees, she said most have gone to pay for research, labor, court costs, and other overhead. But there is no proof nor audit.
So far, her extensive research and the legal theories that buttress her claims that millions are due to her clients remain unproven, and some wonder if she has promised more than she can deliver.
According to HSLNN inn 2006, her motives and methods were questioned in a legal fight between Fowler and two people who’d worked for her Harris County. After Fowler sued Ann Bennett, a genealogist, and Cindy Boling, a paralegal, claiming they were trying to steal her business, they countersued and also filed a grievance with the State Bar of Texas that questioned her practices. In their countersuit, they said Fowler regularly exaggerated her accomplishments, including her claim that she had a “unique method for recovering royalty payments,” and that she “had in fact recovered substantial sums that had been paid to the heirs.” That was a lie, she has recovered nothing. Ultimately, both suits were dismissed by agreement. In the bar complaint, the two ex-employees went further, saying, among other things, that Fowler had exploited her “vulnerable Hispanic clients,” who “believe she is their only hope in recovering the net mineral estate that is rightly theirs.” As evidence, they pointed to a statement they said had appeared on one of Fowler’s websites in 2006. It asserted she’d “recovered property and/or minerals for hundreds of South Texas families.” In her rebuttal, Fowler denied taking advantage of clients or misleading them. “They filed a grievance and it was dismissed. None of it was true,” Fowler said recently. According to the bar’s website, she has no public disciplinary record. And while she acknowledged the claim about her making hundreds of recoveries was untrue, she denied knowing anything about it. “I didn’t put it there. If it was ever there, it wasn’t there very long,” she said of the website posting. “I haven’t misled people.” Later that post on her website was taken down.
Her reviews online only make 2 stars out of 5 . One client said “…was contracted by our family 6 years ago in a Land Grant dispute. She has been taken money from our family as payments without any results”
Fowler tried with a commission but the commission revealed some things one could say were flawed or true. Don Tomlinson, an attorney and former law professor who drafted the legislation, said this is the remedy for the descendants. “If this law were passed, we could start filing claims for you. Without this, we’re back to square one.” Fowler would not admit that to her clients, instead, she promised gold at the end of the rainbow.
Fowler was extravagant in making meet and greet public appearances and rallies much like a politician, claiming we they will win and boosting the support of her heirs who paid thousands to come to the rallies.
metro – La Porte Attorney Eileen McKenzie Fowler, right, who represents the families whose ancestors received land grants, reads aloud a song titled “Our Southern Texas Tide” written for Fowler by Antonia “Maggie” Margarita Gonzalez after Gonzalez’s cousin, John Orfila, left, handed her the framed lyrics as a gift after the informational meeting for the direct descendants at the Sheraton Gunter Hotel in San Antonio on Saturday, January 29, 2011. LISA KRANTZ/lkrantz@express-news.net
She also was bullheaded and anyone she thought was a threat, or challenged her was gone. Fowler called some of her clients ” trouble makers” and was illegally refusing to process their federal applications.
Her Employees
Her employees include Rita Tice, Patricia Accuna, Kimberly Osborne, Laura Beta (her daughter-in-law) , Cee Cee and others that had a rough history.
Her law firm hires mindless people, even ex-cons. Her lead accountant was an ex-con apparently reformed and very religious. Fowler kept her close by her side, was very controlling of her.
Joe Rodriquez – a co-counsel helped with getting declaratory judgments found guilty on two felony warrants, and was a fugitive, later found and was arrested. According to his father, he was not found guilty and quite the Fowler firm because of non-payment.
Cee Cee aka. Cecilia Valiejo her co-conspirator owns property with Eileen Mckenzie Fowler They purchased a 200k Home in December of 2020 for 285,000 in La Porte Tx 77571. In Cayman Islands she was seen depositing money she could also own the property there. Our team is doing an investigation. Cecilia was a caretaker for Fowler’s mother, then became a case manager, then when Fowler needed care from her stroke she became her live-in caretaker. She was reported “the Eyes and Ears of Ms. Fowler”
Rita Lopez, Rita Tice, Rita Carney what is her real name? She was the one who connect a federal law firm Morganroth with the heirs. Rita Lopez or Rita Tice Lopez as a young adult living in Michigan she worked for the Morganroth firm through high school and college, has her own practice as a paralegal in Laredo Texas, her sister Maria Reed or Maria Reed Lopez also worked for Morganroth and she is still currently there and is very close to both Morganroth and Fowler the Lopez’s are heirs.
Laura Bata (her daughter-in-law) was a case manager and in January assumed the position of office manager/case manager from January 2021 through its closure on August 18, 2021, she replaced Kimberly Osborn Office manager for at least the past eight years both are daughter-in-law to Fowler Kimberly Osborn had a falling out in the end with Fowler.
It is too early to tell exactly what her offices was like. All of it is disturbing. Especially that Tice organized a new lawyer when the hope was fading for Fowler.
Millions of funds & documents have gone missing
Fowler set up a fund illegally to help federal litigation that the Morganroth and Morganroth firm was co-counseling according to legal documents signed by each heir. She claimed she would sign it and that the Mayer Morganroth would sign it, but they never signed it making the document illegal. Over 7 years an estimated 6-8 million was illegally collected from the heirs. It was supposed to be in a trust fund according to the contract and never spent until the federal litigation was filed in court. Fowler spent it all she claims, although she has some nice properties around the world to retire to. It is estimated she only needed to use about $500,000 to pay the employees over the years and for the minimal casework. Fowler made much more from her big rallies and events, that could have paid for her staff of six. At the beginning of her efforts, some people had to pay $10,000-$30,000 dollars to get in until they had enough in their families to divide it so that it was only about $200-$300 apiece multiplied by 100-150 that’s a lot of money. She was known to rake in that money and many of the cases never saw results as many of the heirs claim. All the original documents her clients sent in are also still in her possession illegally.
Morganroth and Morganroth
Enter Morganroth – another lie – March 18 2021 Fowler announces that the plaintiffs’ list is now finalized and ready for the Morganroth & Morganroth law firm who had been preparing the case for almost 7 years.
Five months later August 18 2021 Cherie Morganroth terminates the Fowler – Morganroth contract and says nothing was ready. Now Cherie Morganroth from the law firm blames Fowler for everything, and Fowler blames the Morganroth firm.
In their letter they denied any responsibility for anything that they did nothing for the seven years under contract.
Fowler used this announcement to create a big event in Texas with huge giveaways for people who paid raffles, besides expensive tickets to the event. Trucks, TV’s, ATVs, and big items (that were donated for free) were on the raffle lists people paid in thousands to win. No one asked where did that money go to?
Morganroth and Morganroth Law Firm is located in Michigan and New York and is not so shiny as they claim.
Morganroth & Morganroth does represent some big clients but has also gotten into trouble with some of them.
John Z. DeLOREAN a long-time client of Morganroth stopped paying Morganroth claiming the firm was ineffective. DeLorean claimed Morganroth was taking too much time to settle cases and was ineffective, and when Morganroth could not get him results, he refused to pay for ineffective services. When DeLorean sold Logan and made over 5 million, Morganroth sued DeLorean for damages, although in the end, the jury sided with the client instead of demanding DeLorean pay Morganroth for 8 million. However recently Morganroth claims, DeLorean would not pay the Morganroth firm on fees. A story of he said she said.
This is one of many similar cases. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, then it is probably a duck. Norris, McLaughlin owned a law firm, and who also had dealings with DeLorean and Morganroth went after his firm. The Michigan jury found for the Morganroths and in February 1995 they obtained a judgment against DeLorean and Ecclesiastes, jointly and severally, in the sum of $6,228,235
Uniprop sued Morganroth & Morganroth law firm for over $330,000 that Morganroth did not secure. Uniprop lost when Mayer Morganroth threatened a countersuit.
Jeffery Morganroth did win a case for his client Quicken Loans, and a the firm won a few others cases.
At the end of the story, something big is really fishy here.
Morganroth & Morganroth law firm canceled contracts with Fowler, and Fowler canceled her contracts with her clients and closed her offices months before. They claim it was Fowler’s fault and that they did not even start the case or do anything except ask Fowler for proof, and other case filings that needed to be done.
The bigger fraud is that neither of the law firms legally cancelled the contracts, nor returned original documents, discovery or work done for each client. The contracts are still signed and valid as well as valid power of attorney contracts. Contracts that could give them 35-38% of any future winnings in another case, unless challenged in court.
Some heirs have said they plan for a million-dollar class-action lawsuit against both firms, to file criminal charges, and seek an IRS audit for her taxes and mismanagement of funds, possibly even call for an FBI investigation.
Conspiracies
Why would a so-called prestigious law firm as Morganroth & Morganroth law firm not come back to these heirs and tell them they will take the case back on without Fowler? They could say “we will take Fowler to court to recover your funds, and recover all the documents and take the case on.” Instead, they blamed Fowler for everything, trying to point the finger in the other direction so people do not realize what really is going on.
We have learned the senior partner in Morganroth firm is reported ill, at the same time we heard reports he was secretly in talks with the big oil and gas companies for a settlement. Could it be that the oil and gas companies offered to put him and Fowler on their payroll? Did they refuse and then poisoned? Or did they just claim they are ill to cover it up? It has happened before in many other states, law firms, government officials, politicians until someone leaked the information. If they are on the payroll, it is only a matter of time, until the FBI or someone else uncovers it. Whatever the case is, no one is telling the exact reason why, it makes no sense a respected law firm like Morganroth would take a case on for over 7 years then drop it claiming nothing was done.
The story does not end here, because one would think none of the heirs would have the will or courage to go on, but the heirs are reportedly taking this to the public and pursuing other avenues.