(Image via nyimes.com)
Staff Writer: Sakara De Gil-Balija
Email: sdegilbalija@umassd.edu
On September 21st, Alex Murdaugh, 55, a famed lawyer in South Carolina and convicted murderer, pleaded guilty to additional money laundering charges in connection to his case.
Murdaugh has been charged with over twenty counts of financial fraud and has yet to be sentenced by the state.
The millionaire has gained the nation’s attention due to his family name and the Netflix docu-series about the case.
Murdaugh has a headlining past. One involving the murder of his wife and son, a fatal boat accident, a housekeeper’s death, and millions of missing dollars. While he was found guilty in March of the murder of his wife and son, he now finds himself back in the courtroom to plead guilty to more charges.
This wild court case can be tracked down to a single night in June.
On the 7th of June, 2021, Alex Murdaugh called the police to report finding his wife, Margaret, and their son, Paul, dead on one of their many estates. He claims to have not been home when they were attacked, as he was visiting his elderly mother and father miles away. He recounts arriving at the scene to find his two family members sprawled in front of the dog kennels on their hunting lodge property.
Later, inconsistencies in his story arose, such as a video recording of his voice that could be heard only minutes before Margaret and Paul Murdaugh’s deaths.
On September 6th, 2021, his law firm released a public statement saying Murdaugh had “misappropriated company funds.” His law license was then revoked, indefinitely suspending him from practicing law.
NBC News reports that in September of 2021, Murdaugh was charged with “insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and filing a false police report.”
Less than a month later, Murdaugh was arrested for obtaining property by false pretenses as investigators dug deeper into the death of Murdaugh’s housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield.
Satterfield allegedly tripped on one of the family’s dogs and died while climbing the front steps of their estate. To help the Satterfield family, Murdaugh sued his own property insurance, but surprisingly, Satterfield’s three surviving children received nothing.
NBC News writer Erik Ortiz confirmed, “According to her heirs, they received none of the proceeds from a $4.3 million settlement they said was orchestrated in secret by Murdaugh.”
“The state’s investigation into Murdaugh’s business dealings leads to new indictments announced against him totaling 27 counts, including breach of trust with fraudulent intent, obtaining signature or property by false pretenses, money laundering, computer crimes and forgery. ‘Altogether, Murdaugh is charged with respect to alleged schemes to defraud victims and thereafter launder’ nearly $4.9 million, the state attorney general’s office said.” NBC reports.
The most recent update to the trial is that the sentencing of Murdaugh will be decided later based on the twenty-two charges of financial fraud.
The Judge, Clifton Newman, has set a court date of November 27th, 2023.
Until then, Murdaugh resides in a maximum-security prison in South Carolina.