Alex Murdaugh, the disbarred South Carolina lawyer who was convicted in March of the June 2021 murder of his wife and son, has been charged on 22 counts of federal fraud and money launderingincluding allegations of defrauding his late housekeeper’s family following her death in February 2018.
The new allegations of fraud announced on Wednesday come on top of a staggering one 20 charges with 101 charges issued by the state of South Carolina against Murdaugh for allegedly defrauding people of nearly $9 million. State charges range from breach of trust to forgery, money laundering and tax evasion.
The allegations served as key evidence in Murdaugh’s much-watched murder trial; prosecutors argued that when people close to him discovered the extent of his alleged schemes, he killed them to gain sympathy for himself and buy time to cover up his misdeeds.
Murdaugh, a personal injury attorney, was first arrested in October 2021 for allegedly embezzling insurance funds intended for the family of housekeeper Gloria Satterfield following her fatal “trip and fall” accident at his home. (The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, or SLED, announced in September 2021 it would investigate Satterfield’s death, and said in June 2022 it would exhume her remainswhich hasn’t happened yet.)
In December 2021, Murdaugh agreed to one $4.3 million settlement with the Satterfields, apologizing “for his financial wrongdoings in connection with the wrongful settlement monies recovered in connection with Gloria Satterfield’s death and the pain it has caused.”
Murdaugh was in prison on fraud and other charges when he was charged in July 2022 with the June 2021 murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh. After a lengthy process, he was convicted of their murders in March and is serving a life sentence. He is currently appeal against the verdict.
The federal indictment alleges that in addition to siphoning money from the Satterfield settlement, Murdaugh plotted to obtain money and property from his personal injury clients by forwarding their settlement funds to himself, colluding with his banker to bank – and to commit bank fraud and a false bank account with which he has channeled the personal injury settlements.
In a May 1 declarationMurdaugh said he “made up” the story that his family’s dogs had caused 57-year-old Satterfield to fall on the stairs “to force his insurers to make a settlement payment.” If the insurer ‘just tried’ [pay the Satterfield estate because] it was the victim of fraud, ‘then everyone who received the money would have to return it, the petitioner argues.
Part of a prominent legal family that wielded unprecedented power and influence in their small South Carolina community, Murdaugh was once a prosecutor himself. “All the judges, all the judges in the state, knew him or knew him”, Judge Clifton Newman said so after the murder trial.
“Trust in our justice system begins with trust in its attorneys,” U.S. Attorney Adair F. Boroughs said in a statement Wednesday. “South Carolinians turn to lawyers when they are most vulnerable, and in our state those who abuse the public’s trust and enrich themselves through fraud, theft and self-trafficking will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Murdaugh’s attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin said he cooperated with authorities.
“Alex has been cooperating with the U.S. law firm and federal agencies in their investigations into a wide variety of activities,” their statement read. rack said. “We expect the charges filed today to be resolved quickly without trial.”