A Harris County court found fraud in February 2024. The federal indictment came in September 2026.

A Harris County civil court entered a $283,855.84 default judgment against Houston immigration attorney Alla Nowowiejski in February 2024, finding fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and forged federal immigration notices. Federal prosecutors indicted her on September 9, 2026, on two counts.

Why it matters

The findings sat in a Harris County court file, under her name, for more than two years. The Harris County Precinct 1 Constable’s Office now says its investigators have identified more than 100 people who may have been affected.

She is charged, not convicted, and the federal case has not been tried. The question the county record raises is not guilt. It is how long a public finding can sit in a public file before anyone acts on it.

By the numbers

2 federal counts: one count of mail fraud, one count of making a false statement, per the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, September 9, 2026
20 years maximum prison term and a $250,000 maximum fine if convicted
2 clients named in the federal indictment
More than 100 potential victims identified in the Precinct 1 investigation
December 2023: Audubon Engineering Operations and five of its employees sue in Harris County
February 2024: default judgment entered after she did not respond or appear
$283,855.84 awarded, excluding interest and court costs
$109,855.84 in legal fees returned to Audubon, plus $24,000 in attorneys’ fees
$20,000 actual and $10,000 exemplary damages to each of the five employees

The itemization reconciles. The company’s $133,855.84 plus $150,000 across five employees equals the $283,855.84 total exactly.

What the coverage buried

KPRC 2 is the outlet that found the civil judgment, four days after the indictment. Credit where it belongs. The gap is in the first wave.

ABC13 reported on September 10 that Audubon sued her in 2023 and that a judge ruled against her when she did not respond. It did not report what the judge found or what the judgment was worth. FOX 26’s September 10 account and the Justice Department’s own release do not mention the Harris County case at all.

A county court record naming the same pattern of conduct, entered 31 months earlier, is not follow-up material. It is the second paragraph.

Two other things are missing everywhere. No account says when the Precinct 1 constable’s office opened its investigation, so a reader cannot tell whether the county moved quickly or slowly. And KPRC describes her as a suspended attorney without saying when she was suspended or by whom. For anyone asking whether the system caught this, that date is the entire answer.

The other side

A default judgment is not a verdict. Nowowiejski never answered the suit, so the court’s findings were entered because nobody contested them, not because evidence was weighed and tested. Treating that as corroboration of a federal indictment gets the standard backwards, and she is presumed innocent of both counts.

It is also true that a civil default in a business dispute is not a criminal referral. Prosecutors need evidence that a company’s uncontested judgment does not supply, and building a case across a hundred clients takes time that a docket entry does not.

Both points are fair. Neither changes the record. The county file was public, searchable by name, and specific about forged USCIS receipt and approval notices. Nothing in the public account of this case says anyone looked at it for two years.

What to watch

Arraignment and a trial setting in the Southern District of Texas
Whether prosecutors supersede the two-count indictment with counts covering the clients Precinct 1 describes
Whether the State Bar of Texas publishes a disciplinary date
Precinct 1 is asking people who believe they were affected to call 713-755-5200

Bottom line

The federal charges are two counts about two clients. The Harris County file is a judge’s uncontested finding of fraud, with a number attached, from February 2024. Whatever the jury decides, the county’s own records got there first, and that is worth knowing about the county’s own records.

Sources

Editorial