Alex Murdaugh, the embattled South Carolina lawyer facing a wild array of criminal charges, will have all his cash and assets frozen and controlled by court-appointed overseers amid allegations he has been hiding his money, a judge ruled Tuesday.
“After careful consideration, Plaintiff’s Motion for Temporary Injunction and Appointment of Co-Receivers and Co-Receivers’ Counsel is granted,” Chesterfield County Judge Dan Hall said in a two-sentence order.
The decision comes just days after Hall heard arguments from three attorneys who claimed Murdaugh, 53, was trying to conceal millions that could potentially be due to their clients, who have pending lawsuits against the once-untouchable scion.
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It’s the latest legal blow against Murdaugh, who is currently being held at Richland County Detention Center on charges stemming from an alleged scheme to steal millions from the family of his former housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. The 53-year-old is also facing charges over an alleged insurance plot centering on a scheme to orchestrate his own death and has been implicated in a series of lawsuits, including allegations he used a fake bank account to funnel millions from his former law firm and clients.
The same account was allegedly used to divert the funds from the Satterfield wrongful death settlement.
In a Monday filing, an attorney stressed that Murdaugh’s own lawyers have argued he is broke—and noted that the scion’s own brother and former business partner have filed complaints seeking money from him.
“If he doesn’t have the money, what would be the harm in preventing him from spending it?” Mark Tinsley, who is representing the family of Mallory Beach, a 19-year-old killed in a 2019 crash involving a boat allegedly piloted by Alex Murdaugh’s late son Paul, said during a hearing last week on the family assets.
The embattled patriarch discovered his wife, Maggie, and Paul fatally shot at the family estate in June, launching virtually non-step media scrutiny ever since.
Tinsley’s arguments reiterated statements made in three motions filed by separate attorneys earlier this month, who all maintained Murdaugh was hiding money by shifting it between several unknown accounts. The filings also argued that Murdaugh may have been selling off his property for capital—including a Grady White boat named "Bad Boys"—and had turned all his affairs over to his surviving son, Buster.
“The Beach family is pleased with the court’s ruling and is hopeful that the receivers can begin the process of unraveling the mess created by Murdaugh,” Tinsley said in a Tuesday statement about Hall’s decision.
In addition to Tinsley, Joe McCulloch—the lawyer for one of the teenagers aboard the boat during the crash who alleges Murdaugh tried to scapegoat him for the incident—and Eric Bland—who represents the Satterfield family—also filed motions to secure Murdaugh’s assets.
“Our justice system in South Carolina is working as intended. It is designed to protect victims from being further victimized by someone like Alex Murdaugh,” Bland said in a Tuesday statement.
“Alex now realizes so many eyes are on him and that he is pretty tightly boxed in. Good lawyering and good judges will do that to guys like Alex Murdaugh. He should be now on his way to getting comfortable being uncomfortable,” the lawyer added.
Randolph Murdaugh IV, in a complaint filed Thursday in Hampton County Court and first reported by The Daily Beast, alleges that two days before his younger brother tried to orchestrate his own murder, he allegedly borrowed $75,000 from him “to cover an overdrawn bank account.” At the time, however, Alex Murdaugh allegedly failed to disclose he was in “poor financial condition” more generally.
Days later, the complaint stated, Randolph transported his brother Alex to rehab for his decades-long opioid addiction—and paid his $15,000 tab.
In an Oct. 29 filing, Alex Murdaugh copped to owing his brother upwards of $90,000—stating that he is “justly and truly indebted” to Randolph Murdaugh IV.
