Former legal scion Alex Murdaugh has been charged for money laundering, computer crimes, breach of trust and forgery.
AP Photo/Lewis M. Levine, Pool
Disgraced South Carolina legal scion Alex Murdaugh was hit with 21 new charges in connection to his massive alleged scam to defraud victims out of $6.2 million.
A state grand jury slapped the 53-year-old with seven new indictments
Thursday that contained a slew of charges including money laundering,
computer crimes, breach of trust and forgery connected to more than $1
million dollars of theft, according to court documents obtained by The
Post.
Murdaugh — who is also facing charges for trying to stage his own shooting death
to leave his son a $10 million life insurance payout — was already
facing 28 counts in connection to an alleged $5 million theft.
The latest wave of charges allege that Murdaugh created a bank
account under the name ” Richard A Murdaugh Sole Prop DBA Forge,” where
he deposited money that he stole from clients.
“He created this account for the purpose of misappropriating funds belonging to others with the illusion that the money was being paid to the legitimate settlement planning company Forge Consulting, LLC,” the indictments read.
Murdaugh resigned from the prestigious and influential Hampton County law firm that his grandfather founded over 100 years ago in September and checked into rehab for a decades-long opioid addiction.
Alex Murdaugh (right) is accused of staging his death in
order to secure a $10 million life insurance payout for his son, Buster
(left).Facebook
Satterfield, 57, died after Murdaugh said she tripped over his dogs,
but no autopsy was ever conducted and the South Carolina Law Enforcement
Division opened a criminal investigation into her death this summer
after investigators said it was suspicious.
Murdaugh had promised her grown children that he would pay them
$500,000 after suing himself to collect on personal liability insurance,
but instead he collected $4 million and did not give Satterfield’s
family a dime, lawyers alleged.
A big chunk of that money went to Murdaugh’s distant cousin and alleged drug dealer Curtis Edward Smith, lawyers alleged Thursday.
“From approximately 2015 through 2021 Cousin Eddie received either
personal checks from Alex Murdaugh’s individual account and cashier’s
checks from the fake BOA two ‘Forge’ accounts totaling approximately
$2,000,000.00,” lawyers Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter wrote in a
statement to The Post.
Smith, 61, was charged in September after confessing to the botched Labor Day weekend shooting of Murdaugh,
in which the lawyer allegedly hired Smith to kill him so he could leave
his son Buster with $10 million in insurance cash. Smith’s bullet only
grazed him in the head.
Lawyers claim Alec Murdaugh never compensated Gloria Satterfield’s family after her suspicious death.Orange County Department of Corrections/Handout via REUTERS
The disgraced attorney’s legal troubles started after Murdaugh’s wife Maggie, 52 and son Paul, 22, were found murdered on their property in June. No suspects or motive have been publicly identified in the case.
Paul had been waiting to stand trial on charges that he drunkenly
crashed the family’s boat into a bridge, killing 19-year-old Mallory
Beach in 2019.
Alec Murdaugh listens to prosecutors during a bond hearing
in the Richland Judicial Center in Columbia, South Carolina on Oct. 19,
2021.AP Photo/Lewis M. Levine, Pool
“Greed, power, betrayal. All the bad things. It’s like a Grisham novel,” Bland told The Post in September. “He doesn’t have to write fiction, he can just come to South Carolina and write the truth.”
Alex Murdaugh, the embattled South Carolina attorney at the center of multiple investigations
following the deaths of his wife and son in June, was ordered held
without bond pending a psychiatric evaluation as he faces charges
related to mishandling funds in a former housekeeper's wrongful death
lawsuit.
"There is no amount of bond that the
court can set that can safely provide protection to Mr. Murdaugh, to the
community," Judge Clifton Newman said during Tuesday a hearing.
Murdaugh
faces two felony counts of obtaining property by false pretenses tied
to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the sons of his former housekeeper,
Gloria Satterfield. The lawyer was arrested last week in Orlando after his release from a drug rehabilitation center.
Prosecutors
argued Murdaugh duped Satterfield's family when he arranged settlement
payments from the wrongful death lawsuit to be paid to a bank account he
controlled under the guise of a legitimate company. They also argued
the lawyer presented a danger to himself and others following his
alleged scheme to arrange his murder last month in order for an
insurance payout to be made to his son.
The two new charges Murdaugh faces represent "the
tip of the iceberg," said Creighton Waters, a prosecutor for the state
attorney general office. More will be revealed as the investigations
around Murdaugh continue, Waters said.
Newman
said he was not considering a personal recognizance bond for Murdaugh
after prosecutors and attorneys for Satterfield's family made their case
the lawyer had violated the family's trust.
Murdaugh had for years been a staple in the South
Carolina legal community and had recently completed a drug
rehabilitation program for an opioid addiction that fueled his
misconduct, Murdaugh's defense attorneys said.
Murdaugh
arranged for at least two payments – one for nearly $3 million and the
other for more than $400,0000 – to be made to an account he set up to
look like a legitimate settlement planning company after an attorney he
recommended to the Satterfield family reached a settlement in their
mother's wrongful death lawsuit without their knowledge, according to
affidavits from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
Waters mentioned at least one other check worth $118,000 Murdaugh misappropriated and suggested other crimes may have occurred.
"We
have never seen such a breach of trust: a man who stole money from the
very family of the housekeeper that helped raise his kids," added
Satterfield family attorney Eric Bland.
Satterfield
died after falling at Murdaugh's home in February 2018, which state
police have said they are also investigating. Satterfield's death was
ruled due to "natural" causes at the time, but the Hampton County
coroner recently wrote a letter to the South Carolina Law Enforcement
Division urging it to open an investigation because her death was not
reported at the time and an autopsy was not performed.
Murdaugh
told the Satterfield family to hire attorney Cory Fleming to represent
them, arrest affidavits say. Murdaugh was a defendant in the family's
lawsuit, but directed the family to hire Fleming, a close friend to
Murdaugh, prosecutors allege.
Satterfield's
sons, Michael "Tony" Satterfield and Brian Harriott, are also suing
Murdaugh over the wrongful death settlement funds. The brothers said
they were never paid "a dime," according to court documents filed earlier this month.
Each
charge of obtaining property by false pretenses could bring up to a 10
year prison sentence for Murdaugh. His attorney, Dick Harpootlian, said
last week Murdaugh has accepted he will likely spend some time in prison
from the various charges he faces.
