CHARLESTON, S.C. — Alex Murdaugh used to be arraigned Wednesday on federal money laundering and wire fraud charges for indictments announcing he stole money from his purchasers, and even though he pleaded not guilty for now, his attorney stated that may exchange quickly.
Murdaugh is already serving a existence sentence in a South Carolina state jail for killing his spouse and son, and the main points of the 22 monetary charges don’t seem to be new. State prosecutors have indicted Murdaugh on identical charges, announcing he diverted money intended for purchasers and a wrongful demise agreement for his circle of relatives’s longtime housekeeper who fell at Murdaugh’s house to his personal financial institution accounts.
Murdaugh’s legal professionals stated in a remark closing week the previous legal professional has been cooperating with federal investigators, and they expected the newest charges could be “quickly resolved without a trial.”
A federal guilty plea to the charges that each one lift no less than twenty years in jail would ensure a very long time in jail for Murdaugh although his pending attraction of his double homicide conviction used to be a success.
Murdaugh took the stand at his homicide trial previous this 12 months to again and again deny capturing his 22-year-old son, Paul, and 52-year-old spouse, Maggie, at their house. Prosecutors stated he determined to kill them as a result of his thousands and thousands of bucks of robbery used to be about to be found out, and he used to be hoping their deaths would purchase him sympathy and time to work out a cover-up.
Murdaugh, who became 55 in a state jail cellular in protecting custody Saturday, additionally faces round 100 different state charges, together with stealing from purchasers and his circle of relatives’s regulation company, insurance coverage fraud and tax evasion.
Prosecutors, Murdaugh’s lawyers and state Judge Clifton Newman, who presided over the homicide trial, are attempting to to find courtroom time to take a look at no less than a few of the ones charges earlier than Newman has to retire as a result of his age on the finish of 2023.
In federal courtroom, Murdaugh faces 14 counts of money laundering, 5 counts of wire fraud, one depend of financial institution fraud, one depend of conspiracy to dedicate wire fraud and financial institution fraud, and one depend of conspiracy to dedicate wire fraud.
His longtime buddy Cory Fleming — an previous faculty roommate and godfather to one among his sons — pleaded guilty closing week to conspiracy to dedicate wire fraud for his section in serving to Murdaugh thieve greater than $4 million in wrongful-death settlements with insurers intended for the circle of relatives of his longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield.
The different allegations prosecutors element in Murdaugh’s federal indictments have already got been printed in state prison papers.
It stated Murdaugh and a banker buddy, Russell Laffitte, labored in combination to take agreement money out of consumer’s accounts, prosecutors stated. Laffitte used to be convicted in November of six wire and financial institution fraud charges.
Other federal indictments give detailed allegations of ways Murdaugh created a checking account that had a identical title to a valid corporate that treated settlements to thieve money from purchasers.
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