Curtis Smith charged with helping Murdaugh in $2.4M money laundering scheme [The State]
Disgraced attorney
After a 25-minute hearing Tuesday at the
"These are serious crimes," Newman told Smith, who stood before the judge in leg irons, hand restraints and loose-fitting jail sweat pants and a short-sleeved jersey.
Murdaugh, 54, is already in jail, unable for months to make a
During the hearing, Smith's lawyer,
Asked by the judge if he had anything to say, Smith, a disabled logger, said, "Your honor, I don't have any money. All I have is the disability I live off of, and that's it."
Speaking in a gravelly voice, Smith continued, "I live in a small house on a modest piece of property. ... I don't have any assets."
"I'm looking forward to clearing my name," he concluded.
Tuesday's bond hearing is the latest event in an ever-expanding series of criminal acts allegedly committed by Murdaugh, a once-respected lawyer from one of the state's most eminent legal families, and several of his associates since 2010. Other Murdaugh associates named in indictments are lawyer
Murdaugh wrote Smith 437 checks from 2013 to 2021 worth a total of
Nearly all of those checks were written in amounts less than
"Murdaugh drew the checks on accounts under his control at multiple banks, and made the checks payable to various versions of Smith's name, as well as to close associates of Smith," the indictment said.
Although much of that
Other key points Waters made about the alleged financial theft:
The charges against Smith were brought after an extensive grand jury investigation "with evidence from multiple sources."
From
"What we see around
About that time, on
Smith's attorney Bouchette told the judge that Smith had been cooperating with the state grand jury's investigation of Murdaugh's alleged misdeeds.
Bouchette, in response to reporters' questions, said afterward that he did not know why, if there had been cooperation between Smith and law enforcement, prosecutors chose to bring serious charges against him now.
Waters and his colleague, Assistant Attorney General
Smith, of
Smith has had a long association with Murdaugh, who remains in the same jail to which Smith was brought Monday.
A former client of Murdaugh's named in a December lawsuit, Smith is alleged to have gotten some
The financial charges in Tuesday's indictment elaborated on charges first raised in that December civil lawsuit, filed by attorneys
In
In that incident, Murdaugh gave Smith a gun and told Smith to shoot him in the head so Buster could get the insurance money, warrants said. But the plot didn't work. Murdaugh claimed he had a head wound; Smith has claimed he backed out of the plot.
Days after the shooting, Murdaugh announced he was resigning from his family's law firm and entering treatment for an opioid drug addiction. At the same time, his former law firm,
Bouchette told the judge Tuesday that he expects that Smith will be able to easily refute those September charges.
No charges have been brought in the killings of Murdaugh's wife and son. SLED continues to investigate, and Murdaugh has been named as a person of interest in the case.
Murdaugh attorney
Reporter
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