Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh has been hit with a slew of federal charges for allegedly stealing millions of dollars from his legal clients.
Murdaugh, 54, was indicted on 22 counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Carolina said Wednesday.
“Trust in our legal system begins with trust in its lawyers,” U.S. Attorney Adair F. Boroughs said in a statement. “South Carolinians turn to lawyers when they are at their most vulnerable, and in our state, those who abuse the public’s trust and enrich themselves by fraud, theft, and self-dealing will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
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The federal charges come just months after Murdaugh was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for murdering his wife, Maggie, and his son, Paul, at their family’s hunting estate. The disgraced attorney also faces upwards of 100 other state crimes, ranging from money laundering to drug trafficking, to staging his own suicide in order for his eldest son to obtain his $10 million life insurance policy.
The federal indictment unsealed on Wednesday mirrors financial charges Murdaugh was already facing at the state level—some of which he admitted to while on the witness stand in his murder trial. During the trial, Murdaugh admitted that he stole from his clients and law firm for years.
“I misled them. I did them wrong, and I stole their money,” he said.
A spokesperson for the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office told The Daily Beast that the federal charges will have no effect on their pre-existing financial case against Murdaugh. “We plan to move forward with the state charges to hold Alex Murdaugh accountable for the harm he’s done to the state and its residents,” the spokesperson said.
In a statement to The Daily Beast on Wednesday, Murdaugh’s lawyers Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin said their client “has been cooperating with the United States Attorneys’ Office and federal agencies in their investigation of a broad range of activities.”
“We anticipate that the charges brought today will be quickly resolved without a trial,” the statement said.
Federal prosecutors allege that, as a prominent South Carolina personal injury attorney, Murdaugh engaged in three schemes to steal from his clients.
In the first scheme, which allegedly ran from 2005 to September 2021, Murdaugh defrauded clients by, among other things, redirecting clients’ settlements to his personal accounts, claiming funds in his family law firm’s trust account were his attorney fees, collecting attorney fees on fake annuities, and even making up fake “expenses” and redeeming them from clients settlement funds, the indictment says.
In the second scheme, the indictment says, Murdaugh allegedly conspired with a Palmetto Bank teller, Russell Laffitte, to divert hundreds of thousands of dollars from his legal clients. Prosecutors allege that Laffitte served as Murdaugh’s “personal representative and conservator for various personal injury clients.” In doing so, Laffitte collected more than $350,000 in “fees” for Murdaugh’s clients, the indictment says.
From mid-2011 to October 2021, Murdaugh would direct his clients to make settlement checks payable to “Palmetto State Bank,” the indictment says. The checks were then sent to Laffitte, and ended up being used by Murdaugh to “pay off personal loans and for personal expenses and cash withdrawals,” the indictment says. Mudaugh stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from several clients through this scheme, prosecutors said.
Last November, Laffitte was convicted of six federal crimes, including conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, for his role in the scheme. He is awaiting sentencing. Murdaugh testified during his murder trial that Laffitte “never conspired with me to do anything.”
In the third scheme, prosecutors allege, Murdaugh created a bank account and gave it the same name as a legitimate insurance settlement corporation. Between May 2017 and July 2021, settlement money would be paid into the account, named “Forge,” but Murdaugh would simply use it for his own benefit.
The indictment also alleges that between February 2018 and October 2020, Murdaugh conspired with another attorney to defraud the family of his former housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, and their insurance carriers.
Satterfield died on the Murdaugh property in February 2018, prompting Murdaugh to recommend that her family hire his long-time friend, Corey Fleming, to file a claim against Murdaugh to collect a death settlement.
Eventually, Murdaugh’s insurance company settled the claim for $4.3 million. The Satterfield family, however, did not receive the money because Murdaugh conspired to “siphon” it for his own enrichment, the indictment says. He also allegedly directed over $3 million of that settlement to the fake “Forge” account.
Federal prosecutors charged Fleming in a separate indictment but clarified that Fleming “had no knowledge of the ‘fake Forge’ accounts” or Murdaugh’s scheme to steal his clients’ money. But, prosecutors allege, Fleming did take liberties to advance the scheme, including filing court documents with “fraudulent” accounting of his expenses. Fleming also allegedly made an inaccurate listing of his attorney fees.
On Monday, Fleming signed a plea agreement, agreeing to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to testify in court. In exchange, prosecutors agreed not to recommend jail time. He’s scheduled to formally plead guilty in federal court on Thursday afternoon. Fleming is also set to stand trial in September on nearly two dozen state charges.
Eric Bland and Ronald Richter, who represent multiple Murdaugh victims included in the indictment, said in a statement to The Daily Beast that Wednesday was a “great day for justice in South Carolina.”
“While it is said that Lady Justice is blind, she is not a sucker. Bottom Line—Can’t run or hide from justice,” they said.
