South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh, who remains jailed on financial fraud charges, is reportedly facing at least eight additional civil lawsuits from people who he allegedly scammed.
According to Fox News, Murdaugh, 53, is accused of stealing money from a deaf man who was left paralyzed following a 2011 car accident and an ex-highway patrolman who was injured while on duty. Murdaugh reportedly represented both men in court.
Attorney Justin Bamberg confirmed to Fox that he is representing at least eight people who were defrauded anywhere from $90,000 to $750,000.
“You’re talking about someone who even before the wreck was dealing with some very difficult stuff in life and managed to figure out how to make it,” Bamberg said. “What they did is basically [Gloria] Satterfield, but eight years earlier, because this is in 2011.”
Speaking with Fox, Bamberg alleged that Murdaugh introduced the deaf quadriplegic’s mother to his friend and fellow attorney Corey Fleming — who appointed Sterling Laffitte, president of Palmetto State Bank, as the conservator of her disabled son’s estate.
After the man died at a care facility, Laffitte became the personal representative of his estate, Fox reported.
Bamberg said the man’s family was expected to receive $309,000, but in 2012 Murdaugh wrote out a check to Palmetto State Bank. The man’s relatives were never paid, according to the lawyer.
Bamberg said another woman and the man’s mother were also injured in the 2011 car crash and were entitled to $375,000 and $89,000, respectively. The other woman was reportedly defrauded as well. In the mother’s case, Fleming allegedly wrote a check to Murdaugh’s law firm, but the money was never paid out to her.
Bamberg told Fox that he is in the process of filing the civil lawsuits against Murdaugh in Hampton County.
Murdaugh is accused of running a similar scam on Satterfield’s family. Satterfield, who was Murdaugh’s housekeeper, suffered a fatal fall on his property in February 2018. Murdaugh was arrested on October 14 at a rehabilitation center in Florida for obtaining property by false pretenses for allegedly stealing $4.3 million from her estate, which included a payout for a wrongful death lawsuit.
At the time of his arrest in Florida, Murdaugh was on bond for an alleged suicide-for-hire plot that left him shot in the head. On September 3, Murdaugh allegedly had ex-client Curtis Smith, 61, try to fatally shoot him so his surviving son would receive a $10 million life insurance payout. Alex Murdaugh reportedly suffered head injuries and called 911 for help.
A day before the shooting, Murdaugh was forced out of his family law firm amid allegations he misappropriated funds. He announced he was entering rehabilitation for drugs two days after the shooting.
Months before the alleged botched plot, on June 7, Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie and Paul, 52 and 22, were found fatally shot on their 1,770-acre lodge in Colleton County. No arrests have been made in connection with their slayings.
In November, a circuit judge denied Murdaugh’s bond in the fraud case involving his late housekeeper. The judge expressed concerns with the results of Murdaugh’s psychiatric examination, which was not released to the public.
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[Featured image: Alex Murdaugh/Hampton County jail]
