Alex Murdaugh Slapped With 21 New Financial Fraud Charges
Written by SOURCE on December 10, 2021
Alex Murdaugh’s legal troubles continue to mount.
According to ABC News 4, a South Carolina grand jury hit the embattled lawyer with seven separate indictments consisting of 21 new financial fraud charges. Murdaugh is now facing a total of 48 charges stemming from his alleged scheme to defraud victims out of $6,218,923.33.
The new charges include multiple counts of breach of trust with fraudulent intent, computer crimes; money laundering, and one count of forgery. Investigators say he committed the crimes between 2016 and 2020, when he misled his clients into believing their settlements were being placed in the appropriate accounts. However, he allegedly transferred the payouts, which totaled around $1.4 million, to a bogus account he had created to cover his own expenses and debt.
“We are not surprised by these new charges relating to Alex’s handling of client funds and law firm fees,” Murdaugh’s spokesperson told the Daily Beast. “We have made it clear that Alex regrets that his actions have diverted attention from solving the murders of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul.”
Murdaugh had his law license suspended back in September, after his ex-law firm—Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick—accused him of misusing funds. The suspension came just several months after the attorney’s 52-year-old wife, Maggie, and 22-year-old son, Paul, were shot to death at his family’s estate. Authorities have yet to make any arrests in connection to the homicides.
About three months after he discovered his wife and son’s dead bodies, Murdaugh called police claiming he had been shot in the head while changing a tire. Tommy Crosby, a spokesperson for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, confirmed the lawyer was transported to a hospital treated for a “superficial gunshot wound to the head.” He later admitted to authorities he had hired former client and distant relative Curtis Smith to shoot him in the head. Murdaugh said he orchestrated the assisted suicide plot with the hopes that his surviving son, Buster, could collect a $10 million life insurance policy.
A bond hearing for Murdaugh was originally scheduled for Friday morning, but his attorney, Jim Griffin, tweeted the hearing was rescheduled to next week.
Sources tell the Island Packet the Attorney General expects to announce additional indictments in the near future.
