COLLETON COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) – When the trial of Alex Murdaugh begins next week in Colleton County, prosecutors are expected to argue that he murdered his wife and son to distract from the millions of dollars he stole from friends, family, clients and his former law firm.
Releases and documents from the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office detail the list of 19 indictments and 99 charges — from tax evasion, money laundering, and forgery, to fraud and beyond — all related to alleged financial crimes dating back years. Those crimes amount to more than $8.7 million swindled from his victims, prosecutors say.
“Alex’s financial crimes are nothing more than a Ponzi scheme, and all Ponzi schemes work in the same way—I have to continue to steal from new people to replace the money I’ve stolen from old people,” Ronnie Richter, an attorney representing victims of Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes, says. “All Ponzi schemes end the same way. Sooner or later it’s like musical chairs: the music stops and someone is without a chair. And that’s exactly what happened with Alex. The music stopped, he ran out of places to get money and all of his financial crimes were exposed.”
But before the crimes were exposed, Richter and his law partner Eric Bland say the list of Murdaugh’s financial victims was growing.
SPECIAL SECTION: The Murdaugh Cases
It included one of their clients: the family of Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaugh’s former housekeeper. She died after…
