Alex Murdaugh faces 23 new counts of financial crimes, adding $2.3M to missing money
A state grand jury on Thursday indicted disgraced South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh on a new array of complex financial crimes involving millions in stolen client money.
The four new indictments accuse Murdaugh of schemes to defraud four new victims of $2,273,959. He faces 19 new counts of breach of trust with fraudulent intent, and four counts of computer crimes.
Murdaugh, a fourth-generation member of a Lowcountry legal dynasty, is now alleged to have stolen a total of $8.4 million from 17 victims, many of whom were due sizable insurance payouts after being involved in traffic accidents.
This is the third straight month of criminal charges brought against Murdaugh, as the public gets a clearer picture of what prosecutors allege is a years-long pattern of major financial deception by Murdaugh: thefts that went undetected by his law firm, clients, law enforcement, insurance companies and other lawyers.
Justin Bamberg, an attorney representing three victims named in the indictments, said the charges don’t take away his clients’ pain, but they’re “encouraged” by the news.
“They’re thankful that these indictments came, and this is just one step forward,” Bamberg said. “One step to them taking and getting their dignity back.”
The latest accusations of alleged embezzlements range from 2011 to 2017.
His schemes worked this way, indictments allege: The suspended Hampton lawyer would help injured people in the Lowcountry secure settlements from insurance companies and take off large chunks of it for himself without their knowledge.
Murdaugh would get insurance checks for payouts to his clients, then route that money to accounts in the Palmetto State Bank of Hampton and to Murdaugh’s former law firm — Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth Detrick.
Murdaugh would then steer the money to his own accounts, using some of the money to pay bills, pay off personal loans and give to family members, the indictments said.
One personal account used by Murdaugh to launder the money was called Richard A Murdaugh Sole Prop DBA Forge, the indictments said. But Murdaugh was just using the name “Forge” on a personal account, “Forge” being the name of a respected financial consulting firm used by many South Carolina lawyers to send settlement money, according to indictments.
Murdaugh targeted individuals who were trusting his family name and the law firm’s reputation to safeguard their funds, according to state grand jury prosecutor Creighton Waters.
Murdaugh’s attorneys, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, reached by phone Friday, declined to comment.
The Pinckney family
Hakeem Pinckney, a deaf Hampton man and aspiring football player, was in a car wreck in August 2009 after a blowout on one of his car’s tires, according to attorney Bamberg.
His mother, Pamela Pinckney, and his cousin, Natasha Thomas, were also in the car and were injured. Hakeem Pinckney sustained severe injuries, leaving him a quadriplegic.
As a preeminent lawyer with Hampton’s major law firm, Murdaugh helped the Pinckney family secure a substantial settlement from the tire company, a large sum which Bamberg declined to specify.
All three family members would later be defrauded by Murdaugh, the indictments allege.
The former CEO of Palmetto State Bank, Russell Laffitte was appointed as Pinckney’s conservator, or legal representative, to oversee Pinckney’s share of the settlement, according to documents. The role of conservator is usually one that falls to a responsible family member, but in many cases involving Murdaugh, the client would be represented by Laffitte.
Lafitte is no longer with the bank. He was fired earlier this month amid growing scrutiny about his ties to various Murdaugh cases. The bank declined to give a reason for his firing.
According to a probate court document obtained by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette, Murdaugh was also appointed Hakeem Pinckney’s guardian ad litem, whose job is to represent his best interests in court.
With control over his accounts and access to funds, Murdaugh routed money meant for the disabled man from Murdaugh’s law firm trust account to an account in Palmetto State Bank, the indictments say.
On Dec. 21, 2011, Murdaugh wrote a $309,581.46 check and used it “to purchase money orders payable to a family member and to other client conservatorship accounts from which [Murdaugh] previously borrowed money, in part to pay down a personal business loan,and in part to obtain cash for himself and a different family member,” the documents allege.
Hakeem Pinckney died two months before Murdaugh wrote that check.
In May 2016, Murdaugh accessed money from Pinckney’s estate again, the AG’s office says.
Previously, Murdaugh had persuaded Pamela Pinckney to hire a lawyer to represent her, Beaufort attorney Cory Fleming. Fleming is currently under investigation by the S.C. Supreme Court’s lawyer disciplinary agency for his role in separate Murdaugh alleged schemes involving insurance money.
Friday’s indictments say Murdaugh “caused that lawyer [Fleming] to make out a settlement disbursement check for $89,133.44, not to the client — but instead to Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth, and Detrick, P.A. (PMPED).”
The indictments go on to say Murdaugh moved that money from PMPED’s account to a fraudulently named Bank of America account controlled by Murdaugh. He converted the money for personal use, “including cash, bank fees, and checks to himself and associates.”
Friday’s other indictments allege that Murdaugh:
▪ Stole a total of $1.3 million during 2013 and 2014 from the estate of Donna Badger, who died in a car crash.
▪ Stole $350,000 from Natasha Thomas, who was injured in a car crash.
The fourth indictment, which replaces a previous indictment, includes new charges against Murdaugh, accusing him of stealing $500,000 from an injured man, Deon Martin.
Murdaugh stays in jail
The total is 16 indictments against Murdaugh, which allege that he stole $8,875,944.45. In all, he faces 74 criminal charges, with 71 coming from the state grand jury and three additional Hampton County charges stemming from his botched murder-for-hire suicide attempt in September to gain $10 million in insurance money for his elder son.
The new indictments arise from alleged schemes to defraud victims in two S.C. counties: Allendale and Hampton.
Murdaugh is being held in the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Columbia, unable to make the $7 million bond state Judge Alison Lee has imposed on him. His assets have been frozen and are being held by two receivers.
Since last June, when Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, were found slain at the family’s estate in Colleton County, Murdaugh has been the focus of growing national and even international media attention that includes network true-crime productions, docudramas and national newspaper and magazine stories.
His wife’s and son’s killings remain unsolved. Murdaugh has been described as “a person of interest” in the matter.
Eric Bland, the Columbia lawyer who, with his partner Ronnie Richter, filed a civil lawsuit in September against Murdaugh that for the first time publicly spelled out how Murdaugh was embezzling money that was supposed to go to clients, was not surprised by Friday’s indictments. Their lawsuit helped sparked law enforcement to begin investigating how Murduagh handled money for clients.
“Justice is now going at full speed regarding Alex Murdaugh and his conduct, and it’s not going to stop,” Bland said.
Bland, who keeps in touch with developments in Murdaugh’s case, estimated the total number of Murdaugh victims may be between 30 and 50, and the total amount stolen could be as high as $20 million.
Although prosecutors have said they know that Murdaugh used some of the money to pay off loans, and Murdaugh’s lawyers said he used it for an opioid addiction, what was done with much of that money remains a mystery.
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This story was originally published January 21, 2022 at 9:14 AM.
