Palmetto State Bank Routinely Allowed Murdaugh To Overdraw Account — Sometimes By Six Figures
While Murdaugh’s accounts were in the negative, the bank was still giving him generous loans … that he made late payments on.
Alex Murdaugh, was either
Palmetto State Bank‘s best customer or its absolute worst.
According to the court filings, the bank allowed Murdaugh to carry unseemly negative balances on his accounts for years — sometimes in the six-figure range — yet continued to give him large loans, which he, in turn, did not pay back on time.
Additionally, the filing points out that Murdaugh’s banking behavior was unusual enough that it would have shown up regularly in anti-fraud reports.
“Given the significant and ongoing negative checking account balances in Murdaugh’s PSB accounts, Murdaugh’s name should have regularly appeared on such a report.”
his alleged financial schemes could not have happened without his apparently cozy and forgiving relationship with the bank — specifically, his relationship with
Russell Laffitte, who was fired as CEO this past January and now faces 21 charges for allegedly conspiring with Murdaugh to steal nearly
$2 million.
Laffitte denies that he knowingly helped Murdaugh steal the money and maintains that he was duped.
“Inexplicably, in July 2021, the bank provided Murdaugh with a
$750,000 line of credit at a time when Murdaugh had a checking account balance of negative
$162,014.03,”
— In February 2015, Murdaugh sought a line of credit for
$500,000 secured by real estate. By May 2015, that line of credit was completely withdrawn and Murdaugh had a negative balance of $51,937. At the time, the bank approved raising Murdaugh’s line of credit to
$1,000,000.
— In November 2017, just before receiving a line of credit in December 2017 with his father as co-borrower, “Murdaugh had a negative checking account balance every day for the entire month, except for seven days.” During that month, his account plummeted to negative
$34,060.30. “In fact, Murdaugh’s balance was only made positive after receiving approximately
$60,000 each from two separate family members and later advances from the line of credit the bank provided to Murdaugh in December 2017.”
— In February and March 2018, Murdaugh carried a negative balance for weeks at a time, hitting a low of negative
$33,841.17.
— During the summer of 2020, Murdaugh wrote
$152,155.87 in checks to
Curtis “Eddie” Smith — the man whom Murdaugh’s attorneys called Murdaugh’s “drug dealer” — who allegedly conspired with Murdaugh in the bizarre roadside shooting over Labor Day weekend last year. Murdaugh’s account routinely held a negative balance, dipping to negative
$53,302.22, “despite depositing significant draws from the
$1,000,000 line of credit.”
“As could be imagined, Murdaugh’s loans routinely were past due with late charges assessed.”
