Alex Murdaugh may be in trouble with court after giving up wife’s estate. Here’s why
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Alex Murdaugh Coverage
The Murdaugh family saga has dominated the news after another shooting, a resignation and criminal accusations — with Alex Murdaugh at the center of it all. Here are the latest updates on Alex Murdaugh.
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Court-appointed receivers tasked with managing Alex Murdaugh’s assets want to penalize the suspended and jailed Hampton lawyer days after he gave up his claim to his murdered wife’s estate.
In a filing Wednesday, co-receivers Peter McCoy and John Lay asked the court to sanction Murdaugh after he filed a “Disclaimer of Interest” in the estate of Maggie Murdaugh this week. They allege he is in violation of an order forbidding him from moving money around.
For months, the Murdaughs have been trying to hold onto their assets as a dizzying amount of lawsuits and criminal charges rain down on them, mainly on Alex Murdaugh.
Creditors, like the family of a 19-year-old woman killed in a 2019 boat crash involving Murdaugh’s son and the family of a former housekeeper who Murdaugh is accused of stealing millions from, have sought the courts to keep Murdaugh’s assets from being misspent.
Murdaugh, who is in jail facing dozens of charges for stealing upwards of $8 million from former clients, has receivers to manage his assets and is forbidden from moving money without their say-so.
So on Monday, when Alex Murdaugh withdrew his interest from his wife’s estate, receivers McCoy and Lay deemed it a move in violation of the previous court order.
Murdaugh’s wife left her properties to Alex Murdaugh in her will. Her estate includes millions in assets, namely the Colleton County home, nicknamed “Moselle” and listed for sale at $3.9 million, where Maggie Murdaugh and their son, Paul, were found killed last year. Additionally, it includes Maggie Murdaugh’s interest in a beach house in Edisto, according to the court filing.
By removing his interest to receive her assets, Alex Murdaugh would have set up the Moselle property and Edisto interest to fall to the next in line: their surviving son, Richard Alexander “Buster” Murdaugh Jr.
“The Receivers suspect that the Disclaimer was made with the belief that Buster Murdaugh’s debts would be less than those of Alex Murdaugh and thus the assets from Maggie Murdaugh’s Estate would be shielded from Alex Murdaugh’s creditors,” the receivers wrote in the Wednesday filing.
Mark Tinsley, an Allendale-based attorney representing the family of the young woman killed in the boat crash, Mallory Beach, said that the court order is clear in forbidding Murdaugh from transferring assets.
“It was an attempt to manipulate an interest,” Tinsley said, when reached by phone Wednesday.
Murdaugh lawyer Jim Griffin, of Columbia, did not immediately have a comment on the receiver’s filing, when reached by phone.
Judge Daniel Hall will decide whether to sanction Murdaugh and to void the disclaimer of interest.
This story was originally published March 9, 2022 at 4:35 PM.
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