BEAUMONT – A year after his suicide, the e-signature of John Steven Mostyn has appeared on a document recently filed with the Office of the Secretary of State of Texas.
The document in question, a statement of change of registered agent, is dated Nov. 12, 2018 and displays the e-signature of “John Steven Mostyn” next to the date.
Mostyn committed suicide on Nov. 15, 2017.
The Mostyn Law Firm is the named entity in the document with John Steven Mostyn as the registered agent.
The document names Andrew Browning as the new registered agent.
Browning, who refused to comment, operates out of Mostyn Law’s Houston office and is the registered agent and secretary for a number of entities associated with Steve and Amber Mostyn, the widow of Steve Mostyn.
The document was submitted by Tim Gilliam, a San Antonio CPA.
“That makes no sense,” Gilliam told the Record when asked how Mostyn’s e-signature appears on the document. “It could have been a mistake that needs to be fixed.”
Gilliam said 15 to 20 people work in his office and it could have been a secretary who mistakenly signed Mostyn’s name.
The Record contacted the office of the Secretary of State, seeking to ascertain if it is legal, or at the very least out of the ordinary, for a deceased person’s e-signature to appear on such a document.
Sam Taylor, communications director for the secretary, submitted the following response: “The Statement of Change of Registered Agent was not required to be signed by the former registered agent. As a corporate document, the Statement of Registered Agent should have been signed by a current, authorized officer of Mostyn Law Firm, P.C.
“The Texas Secretary of State’s role is ministerial, and we do not have statutory authority to conduct a criminal investigation. We review each document submitted for facial compliance and are not able to independently verify whether each person who has allegedly signed every single document has actually authorized the filing, or whether the person whose name appears as the authorized signer is, in fact, an authorized officer of the corporation.
“A person who submits a document is given notice that submission of the document is subject to the penalties imposed by law for the submission of a materially false or fraudulent instrument.”
The Texas Business Organizations Code, Sec. 4.008, states: “(a) A person commits an offense if the person signs or directs the filing of a filing instrument that the person knows is materially false with intent that the filing instrument be delivered on behalf of an entity to the secretary of state for filing.
“(b) An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor unless the actor's intent is to defraud or harm another, in which event the offense is a state jail felony.”
Mostyn reaped hundreds of millions of dollars suing insurers in the wakes of hurricanes and hailstorms.
The attorney used his wealth to fund Texas Democrats and presidential candidates, spending millions of dollars every election cycle prior to his suicide.