Murdaugh jailed in SC after SLED releases warrants in dead housekeeper’s case. What to know
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Alex Murdaugh Coverage
The Murdaugh family saga has dominated the news after another shooting, a resignation and criminal accusations — with Alex Murdaugh at the center of it all. Here are the latest updates on Alex Murdaugh.
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Suspended attorney Alex Murdaugh returned to South Carolina on Saturday facing two felony charges that he instigated a wrongful death lawsuit being filed against himself and then collected the money awarded to the heirs, according to two arrest warrants released over the weekend.
The warrants from S.C. Law Enforcement Division charge Murdaugh with two counts of obtaining property by false pretenses stemming from a lawsuit involving his former housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, who died after an alleged trip and fall in his home.
Murdaugh is expected to appear before a judge at 10 a.m. Tuesday for a bond hearing in Richland County.
Satterfield, the warrants say, fell and hit her head at the Murdaughs’ house on Moselle Road in Colleton County, where Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were found shot to death in June. Previously, the fall was reported to have happened in the Murdaughs’ Hampton home. This discrepancy could explain why the Hampton County coroner was never notified of the death. The coroner recently notified SLED of that and asked that Satterfield’s death investigation be reopened.
Satterfield fell inside the home on Feb. 2, 2018, “later had a stroke, went into cardiac arrest, and died” on Feb. 26, 2018, according to the documents.
After her death, Murdaugh “coordinated” with Satterfield’s two sons to hire a lawyer to sue himself, the warrants say, in an effort to get an insurance settlement to help them pay for her funeral expenses and other monetary compensation.
Murdaugh recommended the sons hire Cory Fleming of the Moss, Kuhn, and Fleming law firm. A lawsuit filed in September by the sons in this case — and settled earlier this month — say the sons were unaware Fleming was Murdaugh’s college roommate and close friend. Fleming’s law license was suspended in light of these allegations, and the law firm has also scrubbed mention of Fleming, changing its name to Moss & Kuhn.
The warrants say Fleming brokered insurance settlements of about $4.3 million, with the stipulation that $2,765,000 go to Satterfield’s sons. However, the men were neither told about the settlements nor did they ever receive any money from them. The settlement agreement was not properly filed in court, either.
Fleming wrote two checks from his law firm, one for $403,500 in January 2019 and another for $2,961,911.95 in May 2019, to “Forge,” which was a bank account Murdaugh created using the name of a financial consulting firm. Murdaugh “directed Fleming to write the check to it to deprive the Satterfield family of insurance settlements.”
SLED notes that there is a “legitimate” company called Forge Consulting LLC that handles insurance settlements, but was not affiliated with this settlement or the account owned by Murdaugh. Forge Consulting has denied any involvement in the Satterfield suit.
“Murdaugh titled the account ‘Forge’ as a misrepresentation in order to facilitate and conceal his misappropriation on the funds in question,” the warrants say.
Murdaugh remained incarcerated as of Monday morning awaiting a bond hearing expected Tuesday.
The warrants were signed by a Beaufort County judge, and the alleged crimes took place in the City of Beaufort in 2019, the warrants say. Soon after, Murdaugh was taken into police custody and held at Orange County Corrections in Orlando, where his lawyers say he was in a rehabilitation facility for his opioid use. They said in statement that his bond hearing would likely be this week in Beaufort County.
It’s possible Murdaugh waived his extradition later than expected, pushing his return to the Palmetto state back, but unclear why he’s jailed in Richland County rather than in Beaufort.
This story was originally published October 18, 2021 at 9:50 AM with the headline "Murdaugh jailed in SC after SLED releases warrants in dead housekeeper’s case. What to know."
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