COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCIV) — In 2015, Alex Murdaugh reportedly cooked up an imaginary half-million-dollar injury settlement for a client hurt in a car wreck, just so the Hampton lawyer could take an extra 200-grand in fraudulent attorney fees for himself out of the Allendale man's actual settlement money.
Before that, between 2011 and 2014, Murdaugh is said to have repeatedly taken clients' money from his former law firm in the form of checks written to Palmetto State Bank. It's alleged Murdaugh would take money orders in exchange from the bank, then cash those money orders to pay debts, pay other clients, and enrich himself, his associates and family members.
Those are just a few of the alarming new accusations against Murdaugh by state prosecutors revealed this week in four new criminal indictments handed down by South Carolina's statewide grand jury.
The new indictments consist of 26 charges accusing Murdaugh of breach of trust and computer crimes in an alleged multi-million-dollar money laundering scheme authorities have been investigating since the summer of 2021.
To date, Alex Murdaugh faces 15 combined indictments from the statewide grand jury related to fraud and money laundering. They encompass 71 total criminal charges, most of which are felonies. If convicted on all those charges, Murdaugh would face hundreds of years in prison.
The financial crimes Murdaugh is accused of span at least 11 years and have impacted more than a dozen reported victims from whom state investigators believe Murdaugh has purportedly stolen millions of dollars.
The running tally on Murdaugh's alleged thievery as of Friday is $8.4 million, according to the South Carolina Attorney General's office. The new indictments added $2.2 million to that total.
Friday's newly released indictments paint a portrait of how Murdaugh's alleged thefts from clients evolved over a span of several years.
Criminal filings show it apparently started with the checks-for-money orders method at Palmetto State Bank, before eventually shifting to the now well-publicized "Forge" scheme, in which Murdaugh set up a fraudulent bank account to squirrel away money from clients.
One of the victims of the money order method revealed by the most recent indictments is Natarsha Thomas. Prosecutors say Murdaugh flipped a $325,000 settlement meant for Thomas using a money order made out to a family member, although the charges don't specify which member of the Murdaugh family that was.
Perhaps the most shocking case involving converted money orders was that of Donna Badger's estate. Badger, a 35-year-old Allendale woman, died in 2011, leaving behind her husband, Arthur, and six children.
Friday's indictments allege Murdaugh wrote 12 settlement checks meant for Badger's husband, totaling north of $1.1 million. All 12 were converted to money orders for Alex's family and associates, deposited directly into Alex's accounts, or wired to other parties — none of whom were members of the Badger family, prosecutors say.
Later, Murdaugh is accused of writing two more checks with Badger's funds totaling over $152,053, but the checks were made out to the Bank of America. Both of those checks were used to pay off Murdaugh’s credit card debts, according to prosecutors.
Then there was the estate of Hakeem Pinckney, whose story WCIV has previously covered. According to prosecutors, Murdaugh stole a $309,581 settlement from Pinckney's family after his death by passing the funds through Palmetto State Bank.
Years later in 2017, the AG's office alleges Murdaugh stole from Pinckney's family again, this time after Murdaugh had referred Hakeem’s mother to a new "lawyer who was a close friend." Murdaugh reportedly instructed that "close friend" to cut a check from Pinckney's remaining settlement funds for $89,133, which prosecutors say Murdaugh deposited right into his newly opened "Forge" account.
Justin Bamberg, now the attorney for Pinckney's family in light of Murdaugh's accused cons against them, told WCIV in an interview in early January that "close friend" was none other than Cory Fleming.
Numerous court and law enforcement records show Murdaugh has repeatedly funneled business to Fleming — his longtime friend, college roommate, and Godfather to Murdaugh's now deceased son Paul.
Each time the public knows about so far, there have been nefarious circumstances when Murdaugh has channeled clients to Fleming. As for Fleming, he has been fired by his former law firm and suspended from practicing law in South Carolina and Georgia, but so far hasn't been met with any criminal charges.
Both Fleming and Chad Westendorf, a vice president at Palmetto State Bank, have been implicated as co-conspirators for Murdaugh in the case of Gloria Satterfield, the former housekeeper for the Murdaugh family who died after a fall at their Colleton County home in 2018. Murdaugh reportedly stole millions of dollars in wrongful death settlement money from Satterfield's sons.
A public relations manager hired by Palmetto State Bank, Megan Paquin, provided WCIV Friday night with the following statement attributed to attorneys G. Trenholm Walker and Thomas P. Gressette, Jr.:
"Palmetto State Bank did not benefit from and received no fee for the transactions referenced in the indictment of Alex Murdaugh. The bank and its Board of Directors have taken swift action to get to the bottom of these allegations. They remain committed to acting responsibly and doing what they can to make things right."
Paquin added that Chad Westendorf remains employed by the bank, but confirmed former bank CEO Russell Laffitte was fired on January 7. TheIsland Packet previously reported Laffitte had been fired after being subpoenaed in relation to ongoing Murdaugh investigations.
Meantime, attorney Justin Bamberg was asked Friday if it's possible investigators may find Alex Murdaugh employed schemes similar to those he's now charged with prior to 2011. Bamberg said finding the answer may be tough.
"A lot of files are not electronically accessible as far as law firms go," Bamberg said. We're not required to store files for eternity. There's a set limit thereafter, which you can actually destroy the entire file."
"With the banking records, banks do not have to store files indefinitely either," Bamberg added. "There's a set time there as well. So I think you're gonna be limited in terms of how far back you can go."
Murdaugh remains jailed at the Richland County jail, with his bond set at $7 million from the 11 previous state grand jury indictments. He was already being held without bail following a judge's ruling on a local grand jury indictment in Beaufort County related to the Gloria Satterfield case.
State and federal law enforcement probes into Murdaugh's alleged financial misdealing are ongoing, but money crimes aren't his only legal troubles.
Aside from supposedly stealing from clients, Murdaugh remains a suspect or person of interest in several other active criminal investigations by South Carolina's state police, the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED).
Chief among those open investigations is the still unsolved murders of Alex Murdaugh's wife and son, Maggie and Paul, at the family's Colleton County home in June 2021. No charges or arrests have been made in that case.
Another ongoing criminal inquiry tied to Murdaugh is his infamous Labor Day weekend life insurance fraud via failed assisted suicide attempt with alleged co-conspirator Curtis "Eddie" Smith, which landed Murdaugh in jail in the first place.
Others include stolen funds from his former law firm, potential involvement in the 2015 unsolved death of Stephen Smith, and a claims of obstruction of justice in the aftermath of a fatal 2019 boat crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach.