Disgraced lawyer Alex Murdaugh pleaded guilty to 22 counts of financial fraud and money laundering in federal courtroom on Thursday.
(*22*)”He’s been totally cooperative and apologized to the victims of his theft,” Murdaugh’s legal professional, Dick Harpootlian, informed newshounds after the listening to. “This is, we believe, the first step for him in putting this behind him. He did not argue with a single fact. He did not argue with me to push back on any allegation.”
(*22*)Murdaugh is already serving a existence sentence after he used to be discovered guilty in March of fatally taking pictures his spouse, Maggie, and their youngest son, Paul, close to the circle of relatives’s property in June 2021.
(*22*)In May, a federal grand jury returned a 22-count indictment towards the previous legal professional for financial institution fraud, cord fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to devote cord fraud and financial institution fraud.
(*22*)The indictment accused Murdaugh, 54, of attractive in 3 other schemes to download money and belongings from his private damage purchasers whilst he used to be running as a private damage lawyer at his Hampton, South Carolina, regulation company between 2005 and 2021.
Attorney Richard Harpootlian speaks in courtroom, Sept. 14, 2023, all the way through a listening to for convicted assassin Alex Murdaugh, who faces more than one state financial crime fees.
The Island Packet by way of Getty Images
(*22*)The schemes concerned routing purchasers’ agreement finances to his personal accounts in addition to to a faux account underneath the title “Forge,” in addition to conspiring with a banker to devote cord fraud and financial institution fraud. The banker, Russell Laffitte, used to be convicted on six federal fees in reference to the scheme in November 2022, prosecutors stated.
(*22*)The indictment additional alleged that Murdaugh conspired with some other private damage lawyer to defraud the property of his former housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who died after a fall at Murdaugh’s house in February 2018. Prosecutors alleged Murdaugh funneled just about $3.5 million into his pretend account “for his own personal enrichment.”
(*22*)Prosecutors have beneficial that his sentence within the federal case be served at the same time as along with his expected state sentence for a similar offenses, in accordance to his legal professional, Jim Griffin.
(*22*)Murdaugh’s legal professionals would now not inform newshounds whether or not he plans to plead guilty to the state fees. He is about to seem in courtroom for the ones fees on Nov. 27.
(*22*)Murdaugh is serving consecutive existence sentences for the homicide of his spouse and son, Judge Clifton Newman stated all the way through his sentencing in March. Murdaugh’s lawyers filed a movement for a brand new trial within the double homicide case in early September, alleging a courtroom clerk tampered with the jury.
“There’s two things Alex will tell you: One, he did steal the money. Two, he did not kill Maggie and Paul,” Harpootlian stated Thursday.
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