This case is being kept pretty quiet, no major details released to speak of (other than it does say there were two different guns used), but no info regarding who found them, who called 911, very little else.
Of interest, the grandfather died just a few days after these murders and it sounds as if he was ill from various articles so probably not unexpected. I think of the typical motives, did grandpa have a big estate? How big in the overall family of grandpa's on down? They sound like a pretty well known family and a powerful one in their state, more on that in the article.
If he does a deal then there will be no trial. We also have many trials that only have a trial because the defendant won't plead the very, very obvious guilty.
As far as I can recall, it was only Poot that said he expects a deal to be made and this to be wrapped up pretty quickly. No on the other side has confirmed any such thing have they?
I think the public may be outraged by "too" nice of a deal... IF one will even be offered.
There are a TON of charges, he certainly deserves no deal and if one is struck, not a very sweet one I'd hope. My guess is Alex and Poot want a sweet one but that that isn't going to fly.... Or so I'd hope.
About halfway through it now, it's good. Not all new but it sure does show who and what he is and the lies he weaves to get what he wants. Or wove? Or those that were woven? The man lies so much past, present and future...
yeah I'd recommend watching the above one. i entirely agree poot and griffin should be investigated, i've always thought so. this deep of sh*t and corruption didn't just get cleaned up in a day... gaming the system as she says...
As far as I can recall, it was only Poot that said he expects a deal to be made and this to be wrapped up pretty quickly. No on the other side has confirmed any such thing have they?
I think the public may be outraged by "too" nice of a deal... IF one will even be offered.
There are a TON of charges, he certainly deserves no deal and if one is struck, not a very sweet one I'd hope. My guess is Alex and Poot want a sweet one but that that isn't going to fly.... Or so I'd hope.
Well as Cory is only going to get 5 years for the $4m Sattersfield fraud, I would expect a similar sentence for Alex. They were both lawyers and knew what they were doing. Also, IF they ever get to sentence Russell, it could be another indicator to what Alex may get.
I am interested in the cases that make up the remaining $4m. We have heard nothing about them yet have we? It could be 5 years for each one perhaps? I really don't have much idea. The Sattersfield incident happened on Murdaugh's property whereas we don't know the details of the others yet, right?
This article helps to understand the federal charges. There are 22 counts for Alex. Fleming was only convicted of one count of wire fraud and Lafitte was convicted of six counts of wire fraud.
This is on top of the 100 count state charges.
The 22 counts are listed below.
"Murdaugh, 54, faces 14 counts of money laundering, five counts of wire fraud, one count of bank fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the federal indictments unsealed Wednesday.
Each charge carries at least a maximum of 20 years in prison. Some have a maximum 30-year sentence."
Murdaugh, a once prominent attorney serving a life sentence for killing his wife and younger son, is also awaiting trial on around 100 other state charges.
I didn't follow the Lafitte trial but just coming across this article as I was looking for his sentencing date. What he did is disgusting for a banker. He took money for himself and for Murdaugh. He enabled Murdaugh.
"The morning started off with sisters Alaina Spohn and Hannah Plyler taking the stand. Laffitte is accused of taking money out of Hannah Plyler’s conservator account which contained money from settlements resulting from a deadly crash that killed their mother and brother in 2005. Both girls shared emotional testimony about the accident and what events followed.
Murdaugh won a settlement for the Plyler girls shortly after the crash. Since both girls were under the age of 18 at the time, Laffitte was appointed to oversee the money. Spohn said they were told that the settlement money “was enough money where I would never have to work a day in my life.”
Both sisters testified that they were each given a weekly allowance of $100 and had to request money from Russell personally for gas, clothing and food, while they were tossed between homes and Alaina even had to live out of her car at one point.
“Russell was like a father figure to me, but more on the logistics side,” Spohn said. “If I needed money for school or lunch money, I would call him but it was never on an emotional base.”
On Spohn’s 18th birthday, she said she met with Laffitte where he had boxes of documents to hand over to her.
“I remember thinking if he had all that documentation, I would think that everything would be OK,” she said.
Spohn lost her home, and with it, the conservatorship documents, to a fire in 2016. She requested copies of the documents from Laffitte, but said it wasn’t until an agent with the State Law Enforcement Division contacted her after Alex Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie; and their youngest son, Paul, were shot to death at the Murdaugh family’s rural property in Colleton County in June of 2021 that Laffitte turned over the documents.
“It raised a red flag that it took three years to receive the documents from Russell but it took SLED requesting it, for me to finally get it all,” she said.
Spohn now works in law enforcement and said she does not need to work because of the settlement.
“But I chose to work because I believe healed people are the best people to help hurting people,” she said.
Hannah Plyler was next on the stand and shared testimony to that of her sister. When Plyler turned 18, she said Laffitte handed over all the documents without explaining what was in the binders or what to do with all the money coming her way.
She said that she was never aware of the loans Laffitte was taking out of her account, which the next witness, FBI Forensic Accountant Cyndra Swinson, attested to.
Swinson reviewed bank accounts and checks from both Murdaugh and Laffitte. She testified Laffittee loaned himself $250,000 and used the money for his home improvements. Laffitte had $70 in his personal account at the time.
Another $90,000 loan taken out of the Plyler account was deposited into Murdaugh’s account after he had overdrawn his account by $3,000, Swinson said. Laffitte made 14 transfers from Plyler’s settlement account to Murdaugh while his account was overdrawn, Swinson said.
Laffitte continued extending loans and money orders from other conservatorship accounts to pay back the initial Plyler loans. "
Week two of the trial for alleged Murdaugh conspirator and former CEO of Palmetto State Bank Russell Laffitte continued Monday as additional witnesses took the stand, including people who claim Laffitte stole from them.
www.live5news.com
What is also interesting is that this was a Lafitte family owned bank and Russell was fired by his cousin for these issues.
"An additional Laffitte family member, Becky Laffitte, Lucius’ sister and another PSB board member, was the last witness called on Monday. Once the board was informed about the loans, she was concerned and not happy about how the loans were handled.
She testified about her feelings when she decided to fire Russell from the bank.
“I had to set aside my family. We are very close family and we love each other dearly. It was probably one of the hardest things decisions I’ve ever had to make,” she said. “I owe it to my family, the bank and the loyal customers to make the decision that I had to make and I stand by it.” "
While now-disbarred attorney Alex Murdaugh, a friend of Laffitte’ s, is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, the lawsuit asserts that Murdaugh was the girls’ lawyer, and that in 2005 he steered the sisters, 12- year-old Alania Plyler and 8- year-old Hannah Plyler to Laffitte, who worked at...
Alania Spohn and Hannah Plyler, two sisters who were just children when they lost their mother and brother in a car crash in 2005, have settled a lawsuit with t
Well as Cory is only going to get 5 years for the $4m Sattersfield fraud, I would expect a similar sentence for Alex. They were both lawyers and knew what they were doing. Also, IF they ever get to sentence Russell, it could be another indicator to what Alex may get.
I am interested in the cases that make up the remaining $4m. We have heard nothing about them yet have we? It could be 5 years for each one perhaps? I really don't have much idea. The Sattersfield incident happened on Murdaugh's property whereas we don't know the details of the others yet, right?
I guess I'm talking collectively of all AM's charges relating to any kind of financial fraud/stealing from victims, etc. I would not expect to see five years on all of it and think people should be in an uproar if not given significant time on a plea.
At the bottom is an excerpt from the Wiki link posted above. It names a lot of the victims, in addition to the Sattersfields and Plylers, but may not be all of them. I have summarised them in the list below.
$4.8m 88 charges
T. L. Moore
Deon J. Martin
Manuel Santis-Cristiani
Gloria Sattersfield
$2.6m
Natarsha Thomas (Lafitte)*
Arthur Badger (Lafitte)
Deon Martin (Forge)
the family of Hakeem Pinckney*
$1.8m
The Plyler sisters ( Lafitte)*
$295k
Brother and law firm
*tyre issue
(The above is my summary of the victims and amounts from the Wiki article, but may not be all victims. I will look them up individually and post the details down thread. )
On November 19, 2021, the State Grand Jury issued five indictments against Alex Murdaugh on 27 charges of embezzlement and other crimes, including breach of trust, fraudulent intent, money laundering, computer crimes, and forgery. The victims were Thomas L. Moore (patrol officer), Deon J. Martin, Gloria Satterfield (Murdaugh housekeeper), and Manuel Santis-Cristiani. Altogether the fraud amount was close to $4.8 million resulting in 88 criminal charges.[60][61] On December 9, an additional 21 criminal charges were filed connected to an alleged scheme that sought to defraud victims of more than $6 million.[62][63]
On January 21, 2022, the State Grand Jury issued a further 23 criminal charges, which included 19 breaches of trust with fraudulent intent, and four counts of computer crimes. The indictments allege that he stole more than $2.6 million from clients Natarsha Thomas, Arthur Badger, Deon Martin, and the family of Hakeem Pinckney.[64][65][66] On March 16, 2022, the State Grand Jury issued a superseding indictment against Murdaugh and Cory Howerton Fleming that includes four new charges against Murdaugh related to an alleged scheme to defraud multiple insurance companies in the course of surreptitiously delivering to Murdaugh a share of the proceeds.[67]
A further round of superseding indictments against Murdaugh were issued in April 2022 involving four charges of conspiring with former banker Russell Lucius Laffitte, and former attorney Cory Howerton Fleming.[68] On August 19, 2022, the State Grand Jury issued a new round of indictments against Murdaugh, Spencer Anwan Roberts, and Jerry K. Rivers. Murdaugh was indicted on nine charges related to the theft of $295,000 from his brother and his old law firm.[69][70]
The indictments indicate he may have stolen nearly $8.8 million from more than a dozen people.[69] The indictments allege crimes back to at least 2011. Murdaugh would secretly negotiate a settlement for his clients, then pay them only enough so they would be content and thankful; he would then steal the rest. His clients were usually minorities who were not well off. They included an injured state trooper, a deaf paraplegic, a widower, an immigrant, and minors. Murdaugh allegedly used money orders given to an unnamed family member to help launder the cash.[71] Although some of the amounts to Fleming and Laffitte overlap as to the alleged amounts for Murdaugh, the State Grand Jury indicted Fleming on 23 charges for schemes to defraud victims of over $3.7 million. Laffitte had 21 charges against him for schemes to defraud victims of over $1.8 million.[68]
Alex Murdaugh, 54, last week failed to apologize to clients who he stole millions from - stating only that he was 'embarrassed' by the thefts - as the prosecutor grilled him over the most egregious cases.
This article includes the victims Deon Martin and Patrolman Thomas L. Moore.
The fraudulent Forge account was first used in 2015 for the case of Deon Martin.
Alex Murdaugh is accused of murderering his wife and son along with stealing over $8 million in settlement funds from dozens of clients like Arthur Badger.
Jeanne Seckinger told jurors in his double-murder trial Tuesday she confronted Murdaugh, 54, over $792,000 in stolen fees on the day Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, were killed.
