SC lawyer Murdaugh indicted on 27 counts of new financial crimes: $4.8 million stolen [The State (Columbia, S.C.)]

Nov. 19—COLUMBIA, S.C. — A state grand jury has indicted suspended lawyer Alex Murdaugh on 27 counts of new financial crimes, alleging he stole a total of $4.8 million across five counties.

The new indictments allege a sweeping series of crimes that involve Murdaugh's alleged use of a personal bank account to launder millions in ill-gotten gains as far back as 2015 and as recently as May.

Murdaugh stole money from clients, as well as money that should have gone to his Hampton law firm PMPED, the indictments allege.

Murdaugh then deposited the stolen money — nearly $5 million — into a personal bank account he had created and falsely labeled "Forge," according to a press release by S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson that included copies of the indictments.

Murdaugh used the Forge account for years "to convert the money to personal use, including withdrawing cash, making online transfers, and writing checks to family and associates," one indictment said. Murdaugh also used the Forge account to make credit card payments and to pay off car and other loans, the indictments allege.

The indictments also allege Murdaugh used his "prestige and reputation as a lawyer" to trick lawyers at other law firms into allowing checks that should have gone to Murdaugh's law firm to be deposited into his personal Forge account.

Murdaugh also allegedly forged the signature of a S.C. Highway Patrol trooper on a $125,000 insurance check for injuries the trooper suffered in the line of duty and converted the money to his personal use, one indictment said.

Murdaugh's lawyers Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin declined to comment on the new charges.

The new indictments said Murdaugh faces:

— Four counts of breach of trust with fraudulent intent

— Seven counts of obtaining signature or property by false pretenses

— Seven counts of money laundering

— Eight counts of computer crimes

— One count of forgery

The indictments arise from alleged schemes to defraud victims and launder money in five S.C. counties: $3,483,431 in Beaufort County, $792,000 in Bamberg County, $383,056 in Allendale County, $125,000 in Orangeburg County, and $70,000 in Colleton County.

The nine counts from Beaufort County for $3.4 million are related to a previously reported alleged scheme Murdaugh carried out to embezzle money from the estate of the Murdaugh's deceased housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who died in 2018 after a fatal fall at Murdaugh's house. Murdaugh already faces criminal charges in that case, but the new charges lay out more details.

Indictments across five SC counties

Most new indictments against Murdaugh have to do with cases not previously reported publicly.

In Orangeburg County in January, Murdaugh stole $125,000 from a client, S.C. Highway Patrol trooper Thomas L. Moore, who was injured in the line of duty, according to the indictment.

On Jan. 29, Murdaugh persuaded Moore to sign over to his law firm, PMPED, an insurance company check for settlement proceeds Moore earned. He said Moore's $125,000 could not be disbursed until his litigation was finished, an indictment said.

Alex Murdaugh then "deposited the $125,000 'Settlement Proceeds' check — which was supposed to be compensation to Patrolman Moore for his injuries in the line of duty — into his Forge bank account, which was called 'Richard A Murdaugh Sole Prop DBA Forge,'" the indictment said.

Murdaugh "caused to be forged" Moore's name on a PMPED disbursement document while carrying out the scheme, an indictment said.

The "Forge" account, named after a legitimate, Atlanta-based company that handles settlement disbursements, was a bank account Murdaugh set up to deposit stolen money into and convert to his personal use, the indictments said.

The legitimate company is called Forge Consulting LLC and is often used by South Carolina lawyers to handle settlement distributions to clients. The legitimate Forge has issued a statement disavowing any connection at all to Murdaugh.

Murdaugh "created this account for the purpose of misappropriating funds belonging to others with the illusion that the money was being paid to the legitimate settlement planning company Forge Consulting, LLC," an indictment said.

In Allendale County in 2015 and 2016, Murdaugh steered $383,056 from the PMPED law firm into his Forge account, an indictment said. The money was supposed to go to Deon Martin, who had received that amount as compensation for injuries.

In Bamberg County in March 2021, an indictment says, Murdaugh persuaded an unnamed attorney from another firm to write Murdaugh a check for $192,000 for legal fees in a case they both worked on. Murdaugh asked that the check be written to him personally, rather than have it go through his law firm.

Murdaugh told the attorney he was going to structure his fees because of "possible civil liability in a case involving a boat crash in which a young woman died." This seems to refer to the ongoing civil case against Murdaugh involving the death of Mallory Beach in February 2019. Beach, 19, was killed in a boat crash in which Murdaugh's son Paul was allegedly driving.

Murdaugh told the attorney that "he had made PMPED aware of this and he would put the fees 'on the books.' In reality, Murdaugh had not informed PMPED and was bypassing paying the fees into the firm as was required," the indictment said.

He deposited the check for personal use, the indictment said, and spent the money on "credit card payments, family expenses, and checks written to family, associates, and a law partner."

In the same Bamberg case, Murdaugh also persuaded the attorney to hand over two other checks, one for $375,000 and one for $225,000, which Murdaugh then deposited in his Forge account and spent on himself.

In Colleton County in 2016, Murdaugh illegally took $70,000 in settlement proceeds from Manuel Santis-Cristiani and deposited the money in his Forge account, according to an indictment.

Murdaugh "breached Santis-Cristiani's trust and converted the money to his own personal use, for expenses including but not limited to credit card bills, cash, and checks written to himself and associates," an indictment says.

Another indictment, from Beaufort County, made public Friday is related to an existing criminal case against Murdaugh that involves the $3-plus million estate of his deceased housekeeper.

Satterfield, Murdaugh's longtime housekeeper and nanny for his two sons, died of fatal injuries after a 2018 fall at Murdaugh's homestead, according to warrants and legal documents in the case.

Murdaugh then developed an elaborate scheme to siphon some $3.4 million from Satterfield's estate for his own use, according to new and previous charges in that case and a civil lawsuit filed against Murdaugh by Satterfield's heirs.

The alleged scheme involved Murdaugh orchestrating a death settlement for Satterfield's sons from insurance and having a lawyer friend represent them. The friend, Cory Fleming, would later write checks from the millions in settlement money to a sham Bank of America account Murdaugh controlled. The sons did not receive any money nor know about any settlement reached, their lawyer has said.

Eric Bland, a lawyer who with Ronnie Richter represents the Satterfield family, issued this statement Friday: "The additional indictments brought today in connection with the crimes committed against Gloria and her sons as well as apparently others are welcome, long overdue and were appropriately brought. While justice can appear at times to move slowly, when the dam breaks, justice flows like a mighty river — and in this case a mighty river is needed to cleanse all that has occurred."

Bland and Richter first made public the existence of the Forge account in a civil lawsuit filed by Satterfield's heirs in mid-September against Murdaugh.

"Once we filed this case, it took on an ever-expanding velocity," Bland said. "If Alex had just given the Satterfield kids some money when they asked him before we filed the lawsuit, this might never have come to light."

Fall from grace

The indictments are the latest in a series of stunning events involving Murdaugh since early June, when his wife, Maggie, and son Paul were found shot to death on the grounds of their rural estate in Colleton County.

At that time, Murdaugh, 53, was a respected lawyer, a fourth-generation member of a Lowcountry legal dynasty and a member of a prominent law firm.

Since then, Murdaugh has been indicted on unrelated charges involving insurance fraud and embezzlement. The S.C. Supreme Court suspended his law license. He has been pushed out and sued by the law firm his great-grandfather founded in the early 1900s. He's currently in Richland County jail on criminal charges, and a S.C. Judge in a civil case appointed receivers to take control of all his finances.

Murdaugh is currently in the Richland County jail being held without bond after state Judge Clifton Newman ruled he posed a danger to the community.

The press release said that the state grand jury investigation was led by the S.C. Law Enforcement Division and the Attorney General's Office. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney's Office were also involved, the release said.

This story was originally published November 19, 2021 9:41 AM.

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