Alex Murdaugh's bond hearing on latest charges rescheduled

COLUMBIA - A bond hearing for disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh has been rescheduled to include all of the state grand jury charges handed up against him, including accusations he stole over $6 million from clients in alleged financial schemes.

The hearing will be at 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 13 in the virtual courtroom of Judge Alison Lee of Columbia, according to S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson's office.

Alex Murdaugh slammed with 21 new charges, alleging computer crimes, money laundering

The hearing was rescheduled after a state grand jury on Dec. 9 slammed Murdaugh with seven new indictments containing 21 charges of fraud, computer crimes, money laundering and forgery. Those brought the total number of grand jury indictments against the suspended lawyer to an even dozen, with 48 separate charges.

The array of criminal charges and civil lawsuits allege that over the past half-decade, Murdaugh, 53, used a fraudulent bank account to steal money from clients and former law partners.

His legal team has insisted Murdaugh siphoned off money to support a decadeslong opioid habit, but some legal observers have grown skeptical as the amount of missing money has steadily grown.

Third bond hearing set for disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh as legal claims pour in

According to a lawsuit filed by his former law firm, Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick, it began looking into Murdaugh's financial dealings after discovering a suspicious check on his desk in early September. The firm's review found "numerous checks" that sent settlement money from his cases to a bank account named "Forge."

Murdaugh had opened the account in 2015 and disguised it to look as if it belonged to Forge Consulting, an Atlanta-based financial firm that lawyers often hire to handle settlements for their clients. Murdaugh had even written checks from PMPED accounts to the fraudulent bank account, the firm found.

Murdaugh admitted to stealing firm and client money when his law partners confronted him about the checks on Sept. 3, the firm said. The firm notified law enforcement on Sept. 4 and contacted Disciplinary Counsel on Sept. 6. The state Supreme Court suspended Murdaugh's license two days later while Disciplinary Counsel investigated.

Murdaugh's life began spiraling out of control after his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, were found shot to death outside the family's hunting lodge on June 7. No one has been arrested in the double homicide, though Murdaugh remains a "person of interest" in the state's ongoing investigation.

He was arrested in September on insurance fraud charges after confessing he enlisted Curtis Edward Smith, a hitman, to shoot him in the head so he could leave behind a $10 million life insurance payout for his remaining son, Buster. Murdaugh survived the incident and then checked himself into rehab after admitting to a 20-year opioid addiction.

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A month later he was again arrested on charges he secretly stole $3.4 million from a pair of wrongful death settlements that were owed to the sons of Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaugh family's longtime housekeeper and nanny who died after falling at work.

Smith was recently named a defendant in the ongoing lawsuit because he may have received some of the settlement money, attorneys Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter, who represent Satterfield's estate, said in a Dec. 9 news release.

Richter has previously said he and Bland believe Smith received more than 270 personal and cashier's checks, totaling roughly $2 million, from Murdaugh.

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Judge Lee will preside over Murdaugh's renewed shot at bail on Dec. 13.

Murdaugh has spent the past eight weeks inside a Richland County jail after a fellow circuit judge, Clifton Newman of Kingstree, twice denied him bail since his second arrest in mid-October. Newman said he considers Murdaugh a danger to himself and the public, given the suspended lawyer's admitted opioid addiction and previous assisted suicide attempt.