The convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh is facing federal charges for the first time after being indicted on 22 financial fraud counts over allegations he schemed to steal settlement money from clients.
The indictments unsealed on Wednesday do not appear to reveal any new allegations against the once-prominent South Carolina attorney now serving life without parole for killing his wife and younger son.
Murdaugh is also awaiting trial on about 100 state charges including insurance fraud, tax evasion and theft.
His lawyers, Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian, said: “Alex has been cooperating with the United States attorney’s 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.”
Murdaugh, 54, faces 14 counts of money laundering, five counts of wire fraud, one county of bank fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the federal indictments. Each charge carries a maximum of at least 20 years in prison. Some carry a maximum 30-year sentence.
Federal prosecutors also announced that Murdaugh’s friend Cory Fleming – a college roommate and godfather to one of his sons – would plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Murdaugh convinced the family of his longtime housekeeper, who died after a fall at his home, to use Fleming as their lawyer. Fleming sued Murdaugh for a wrongful death settlement they did not give to the housekeeper’s sons. Murdaugh kept most of the more than $3m settlement but Fleming got some of the cash and used it to pay his mortgage, credit card debt, tax payments and buy video games, according to state prosecutors who have already charged Fleming.
The family of the housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, did not see any money until relatives hired lawyers who tracked down the stolen settlements.
Fleming, 54, faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. A trial on the state charges is scheduled for September.
The other allegations prosecutors detail in Murdaugh’s federal indictments have been revealed in state papers. Murdaugh and a banker friend, Russell Laffitte, are alleged to have taken settlement money out of client accounts. Laffitte was convicted in November, on six wire and bank fraud charges.
Other federal indictments give detailed allegations of how Murdaugh created a bank account that had a similar name to a legitimate company that handled settlements, in order to steal money.
Murdaugh is in protective custody at an undisclosed state prison after being convicted in March of the shooting deaths of his 22-year-old son, Paul, and 52-year-old wife, Maggie, at their home.
Prosecutors said he decided to kill them because his theft was about to be discovered and he was hoping to buy sympathy and time to figure out a cover-up.
How long Griffin and Harpootlian can continue representing Murdaugh is also in question. A judge recently denied a request to release $160,000 from Murdaugh’s retirement account to pay for his appeal of his life sentence because the six-week murder trial exhausted $600,000 the lawyers were initially given.
Murdaugh’s legal woes extend to civil court. A judge ordered him to give a deposition in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a teenager who died when a boat driven by Paul Murdaugh crashed in 2019. Authorities said Paul Murdaugh was intoxicated and the teen’s parents have sued Alex Murdaugh, the store that sold the beer and others.
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