Photo: Hampton County Detention Center
Beleaguered attorney Alex Murdaugh is facing new legal troubles now that he’s been accused of defrauding victims out of an additional $1.36 million, bringing the total amount of what he allegedly pilfered from former clients and others to more than $6 million, the South Carolina Attorney General said.
On Thursday, a day before Murdaugh, 53, was due to appear in virtual court for a bond hearing on27 financial charges from November, Attorney General Alan Wilson announced that a grand jury had issuedseven indictments consisting of 21 new financial chargesagainst the once-prominent attorney.
The now-jailed attorney entered the national spotlight when he came home on June 7 to find his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and his youngest son, Paul Murdaugh, 22, gunned down on their sprawling Islandton property.
No suspects have been arrested in connection with the murders. Murdaugh, a scion of a legal dynasty in the South Carolina Lowcountry, has been named as a person of interest, his attorney has said.
Maggie, Paul and Alex Murdaugh.
After the murders, Murdaugh made news again when he allegedly tried to stage his own death so that his other son, Buster Murdaugh, 26, could benefit from a $10 million life insurance settlement. He was criminally charged in connection with the botched suicide-for-hire plot and is awaiting trial in that case.
The latest indictments against Murdaugh charge him with nine counts of breach of trust with fraudulent intent; seven counts of computer crimes; four counts of money laundering and one count of forgery.
“Today’s action brings the total number of State Grand Jury indictments to 12, containing 48 separate charges,” the Attorney General said in the release.
“Altogether, Murdaugh is charged in the new December State Grand Jury Indictments with respect to alleged schemes to defraud victims of $1,365,440.24,” he said in the release. “When combined with the State Grand Jury Indictments from November, the alleged total is $6,218,923.33.”
The bond hearing Murdaugh was going to attend virtually on Friday has been delayed because of the new indictments.
Alex Murdaugh.Mic Smith/AP/Shutterstock
A judge was going to determine whether to set bond on the five indictments totaling 27 counts against the suspended attorney that the grand jury issued on Nov. 18.
The indictments from Nov. 18 allege that Murdaugh stole money from his clients, other lawyers and the family of his late housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield.
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A New Lawsuit
On Wednesday, Murdaugh was hit with yet another lawsuit in connection with the 2019 boat crash in Beaufort County that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach.
Her boyfriend, Anthony Cook — who was one of the six passengers on the boat that crashed while Murdaugh’s late son, Paul, was allegedly at the wheel — filed the suit.
The lawsuit alleges that Murdaugh “knowingly and purposefully entrusted to his son, Paul Murdaugh, under circumstances that he knew or should have known were unsafe and improper given Paul Murdaugh’s intoxication on the date of the events in question, and also due to Paul Murdaugh’s proclivity for underage drinking, and also due to Paul Murdaugh’s reckless and dangerous boating habits.”
Mallory Beach.National Center For Missing and Endangered
He is the third person involved in the crash who has filed suit against Murdaugh.
Still Behind Bars
Murdaugh remains in jail. He has been held behind bars for the past two months in connection with the alleged misappropriation of settlement funds that were supposed to go to the sons of his late housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield.
On Oct. 19, Murdaugh’s attorneys asked a Richland County judge to grant their client bond after he complained about spending just five nights in jail.
But the judge denied him bond, ordering him to undergo a psychiatric evaluation before reconsidering it the following month.
In November, the judge denied him bond again, saying, “After considering the arguments of counsel, the evaluation submitted, then pending charges and other investigations, and the apparent character and mental condition of the defendant, the Court finds that the Defendant is a danger both to himself and his community,” according to the Associated Press.
But Murdaugh does have a $20,000 personal recognizance bond on charges that he allegedly tried to stage his own death in a botched suicide-for-hire plot in September.
His attorneys did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
source: people.com
