Indictments returned Friday by a South Carolina Grand Jury spell out how state prosecutors believe Alex Murdaugh stole almost $5 million over a seven year period.
The five indictments, totaling 27 criminal charges, accuse Murdaugh of manipulating and abusing the trust of his clients, colleagues and peers to the tune of $4,853,488.09 in fraudulently obtained funds.
Here's how state prosecutors with the South Carolina Attorney General's Office say Murdaugh did it, and what role a looming civil case related to a deadly 2019 boat crash might've played in Murdaugh's actions:
Forge bank account
The alleged scheme hinged on the creation of a fake bank account prosecutors say Murdaugh opened to mimic a legitimate business, Forge Consulting.
Forge Consulting is a financial firm that primarily handles structured settlements for attorneys and their clients.
When victims win large sums of money in court, attorneys can enlist firms such as Forge Consulting to set up the payments and distribution of the money.
- Read more on the Murdaugh case: ABCNews4.com/Murdaugh
Those currently seeking justice against Murdaugh in court say Forge Consulting would've been well known to the currently jailed lawyer, as it is to many in the legal profession.
In that respect, prosecutors say Murdaugh knew exactly what he was doing in 2015 when he opened a personal bank account with the name "Forge" — specifically, "Richard A Murdaugh, Sole Proprietor, Doing Business As 'Forge.'"
Confusion over the closeness in names to the legitimate Forge Consulting business is exactly what attorneys for Murdaugh's alleged victims say he was going for.
The indictments show Murdaugh used this "Forge" bank account to divert money intended for his clients and his firm into personal coffers, hoping the name value of Forge Consulting would allay suspicions of any impropriety.
Deon Martin
The first time Murdaugh ran the fraud scheme using his bogus Forge account was in 2015, according to Friday's indictments.
Murdaugh was representing Deon Martin, an Allendale man seeking a personal injury settlement. Documents outlining the circumstances of that case aren't published on Allendale County's publicly accessible court case index.
The case filing history appears to show a settlement was reached and attorneys moved to dismiss the case in October 2015.
Over the next 13 months, state prosecutors say Murdaugh convinced Martin to write two checks from settlement proceeds, totaling $383,056.14.
Murdaugh had Martin make out both checks to "Forge," with the note that the funds would be going into a trust for Martin.
Prosecutors say Murdaugh would go on to deposit the checks, then use the money to pay personal credit card bills, withdraw cash, and write personal checks benefitting himself and his associates.
Friday's indictment related to this case charges Murdaugh with breach of trust with fraudulent intent and computer crime.
Manuel Santis-Cristiani
Murdaugh would go on to employ the "Forge" trick again in 2016, according to grand jury affidavits. His next alleged victim was a Colleton County man named Manuel Santis-Cristiani.
Details of this case are scant. No records at all are found on Colleton County's public court case index.
According to grand jury charges, Murdaugh had Santis-Cristiani's settlement check for $70,000 diverted to his "Forge" account, and used the money to pay off credit card bills, withdraw cash, and write checks to himself and associates.
Murdaugh was indicted Friday for breach of trust with fraudulent intent and computer crime related to this case.
Gloria Satterfield
Already well publicized are Alex Murdaugh's reported financial misdeeds against the family of his longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield.
This iteration of the "Forge" scheme also involved Chad Westendorf, vice president of Palmetto State Bank in a Hampton, and Beaufort attorney Cory Fleming, Alex's close friend, law school roommate, and godfather to his murdered son, Paul.
Gloria Satterfield died in February 2018 after a fall at the Murdaugh's home in Colleton County. She suffered a traumatic brain injury and died in a Charleston County hospital weeks later.
Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter, attorneys for Satterfield's estate, say Murdaugh roped his former housekeeper's sons into an alleged fraud scheme soon after their mother's funeral.
Murdaugh reportedly convinced the boys they should sue him to get a wrongful death settlement on their Mom's behalf so they'd be taken care of financially.
Murdaugh said he'd readily accept liability to make sure the insurance companies paid up, then conveniently pointed Gloria's sons — one of whom is considered a vulnerable adult — into the waiting arms of Cory Fleming.
Fleming then convinced the boys there were financial matters in the case they might not be well suited to handle, and persuaded them to make Westendorf their personal representative. That meant Westendorf was legally able make decisions for the family on all matters in court.
The very next day, the first settlement for the Satterfield family — $505,000 — was approved. Bland and Richter claim in a pending lawsuit the Satterfields never knew about that money, nor any of the additional settlements awarded over the next two years.
In total, Fleming and Westendorf amassed $4.3 million in settlements from insurance companies. They took home around $900,000 in attorney fees from that money, while court records show they were supposedly entitled to $1.6 million. The Satterfields were supposed to get $2.7 million.
So what happened to the rest of the money? According to Friday's new indictments, Alex Murdaugh told Fleming exactly where to send it, and Fleming obliged, making out three checks totaling $3.4 million to Murdaugh's "Forge" account between January 2019-November 2020.
State prosecutors say Alex Murdaugh used the money to make utility payments, pay off loans and a six figure credit card debt, pay overdraft fees, withdraw cash, and write checks to himself, his family and associates — including six-figure checks to his father and a law partner.
The nine-count indictment related to the Satterfield case returned Friday charges Murdaugh with obtaining signature or property by false pretenses, money laundering, and computer crime.
Meantime, Cory Fleming, Chad Westendorf, their former employers and insurance companies involved in the Satterfields' civil case all have agreed to settle with Bland and Richter for over $6 million as compensation for Murdaugh's wrongdoing.
Murdaugh's attorneys, however, asked a judge this week to dismiss the civil case, and even claimed Murdaugh doesn't owe the Satterfields any money because they've already been justly compensated by others involved in the lawsuit.
Murdaugh has been in jail, held without bond, for the last month after originally being hit with criminal charges in the Satterfield case in October.
Patrolman Thomas E. Moore
Court records show S.C. Highway Patrolman Thomas E. Moore hired Alex Murdaugh to represent him in a personal injury case after getting rear-ended by an inattentive driver in Orangeburg County in 2018.
Between January and May 2021, after a settlement was reached, state prosecutors claim Alex Murdaugh took control of $125,000 intended for Moore, then forged Moore's signature on a check and diverted the money into the aptly named "Forge" account.
As with other instances of stealing money from his clients, the Attorney General's office says Murdaugh used Moore's money on personal expenses including overdraft fees, cash withdrawals, and checks written to his associates.
For this case, the Grand Jury indicted Murdaugh on charges of breach of trust with fraudulent intent, money laundering, computer crime, and forgery.
The Mallory Beach connection
Indictments show the most recent instance of alleged fraud perpetrated by Murdaugh occurred between March and July 2021.
If the allegations are true, that means Murdaugh was still actively involved in criminal activity more than a month after the still unsolved murders or his wife and son, Maggie and Paul.
And the scapegoat for his crooked behavior, according to the indictments, was the threat of a large settlement hanging over his head related to the death of Mallory Beach.
Beach, 19 at the time, died in a February 2019 boat crash in Beaufort County.
Alex Murdaugh owned the boat in that crash. His son, Paul, is widely believed to have been driving the boat while grossly intoxicated, and ultimately crashed into a bridge piling at 29 mph.
Paul Murdaugh was eventually arrested and charged with boating under the influence. Alex Murdaugh was sued by Mallory Beach's family.
Flash forward to spring of this year. Indictments suggest the possibility of having to pay a hefty sum in connection to Beach's death are looming over Murdaugh, and motivate yet another "Forge" scheme.
Prosecutors say Alex had won another settlement for a client in March, and asked the opposing attorney in that case to write out the settlement checks to the "Forge" account, not to Murdaugh's law firm as would normally be done.
The affidavits show Alex Murdaugh asked this other attorney to do so because of the potential civil liability he faced related to the 2019 boat crash. According to prosecutors, Murdaugh told the other attorney he wanted the money to go to "Forge" in order to structure a potential settlement.
Murdaugh reportedly assured this other attorney (a longtime friend of Alex's, sources tell ABC News 4) that the arrangement was on the up-and-up, and the law firm knew about it.
By July, the Grand Jury alleges Alex Murdaugh had deposited three checks valued at $792,000, all three made out to "Forge."
At this time, the indictments say Alex's law partners began to question Alex and the other, still formally unnamed attorney about the whereabouts of the settlement money in this particular case.
Indictments say Alex told the other attorney he needed to return the $792,000 and have that attorney then send it back to him — this time with a check made out properly to Murdaugh's law firm, PMPED.
Alex claimed he'd improperly set up the structured settlement account, and that's why there were questions about the location of the money.
In reality, prosecutors claim Alex Murdaugh had already spent that money in much the same way he had with other settlements he's accused of stealing: cash transfers and withdrawals, credit card payments, family expenses, and checks written to his family and associates.
When it came time to return the money, indictments show Murdaugh only wired $600,000 back, not the full $792,000. Murdaugh reportedly told the other attorney he couldn't get back that nearly 200-grand due to the same mess-up he blamed earlier.
That left the other attorney on the hook for the rest of the $192,000, which would need to come out of his own funds.
Two months later, Alex Murdaugh would be forced to resign from the family law firm after partners reportedly discovered the "Forge" schemes and lots of missing money. He's being sued in Colleton County court as a result.
Other legal fallout
Prior to Friday's charges, Murdaugh also recently was indicted on criminal charges related to a failed so-called suicide-for-hire plot, including insurance fraud and filing a false police report.
In that case, Murdaugh is accused of recruiting friend and alleged drug dealer Eddie Smith to shoot and kill him along a rural stretch of Hampton County road. Smith denies he ever shot Murdaugh, but Murdaugh wound up hospitalized with a reported gunshot wound to the head.
That Labor Day weekend shooting came a day after Murdaugh resigned from his law firm in disgrace over stolen funds allegations.
Attorneys Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian say Murdaugh was distraught both over the murders of his wife and son and the shame of the avalanche of criminal charges he saw coming. Suicide, according to Murdaugh's attorneys, was the only way out Alex saw.
But there was an ulterior motive in even that. According to state police, the scheme was hatched to benefit Alex Murdaugh's only surviving son, Buster, with a $10 million life insurance settlement.
Next came allegations Alex and Buster were actively selling off property and getting rid of cash on hand in an effort to fudge their financial standing, essentially depriving the Murdaughs' many alleged victims of just rewards in case of a settlement.
In response, a judge in October froze the Murdaugh's assets and appointed receivers to oversee their finances.
Murdaugh had his law license suspended by the South Carolina Supreme Court, along with Cory Fleming. Fleming has yet to face criminal charges related to the Satterfield case.
The deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh remain unsolved. No suspects have been charged in the case. Alex Murdaugh, however, has been identified as a person of interest.