Convicted killer Alex Murdaugh is hit with fresh charges
New indictment comes as Murdaugh is serving life in prison for the June 2021 murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul and is awaiting trial on another 99 financial crime charges and charges over a bizarre botched hitman plot
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Alex Murdaugh has been hit with even more charges – two months after he confessed to stealing millions of dollars from his law firm clients while testifying under oath at his double murder trial.
The convicted killer was indicted on two counts of willful attempt to evade or defeat a tax by a South Carolina State Grand Jury last week, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced on Tuesday.
He is accused of failing to report more than $2.1m of income earned through illegal acts in 2020 and 2021 – owing the state $132,572 for the two years.
In 2020 – the year before the dramatic toppling of the legal scion’s empire – he earned more than $1.1m in legitimate income from his law firm Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Elzroth and Detrick (PMPED) as well as $1.1m from his illegal fraud schemes, according to the indictment.
However, he failed to file a tax return at all that year, owing $67,624 to the state of South Carolina.
The following year – when he shot dead his wife and son in cold blood on their $4m hunting estate – Murdaugh earned $86,069 from PMPED and $1m through defrauding the company and its clients, the indictment says.
He then allegedly evaded paying $64,948 of income tax for the 2021 tax year.
Each count is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $10,000.
The new indictment marks only the latest legal trouble for the disgraced legal scion who is currently serving life in prison for the June 2021 murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul and is awaiting trial on a slew of financial crimes as well as a bizarre botched hitman plot.
For the financial fraud scheme, he was already facing a staggering 99 charges from 19 separate indictments alleging he embezzled millions from PMPED and its clients going back at least a decade.
In December, he was indicted on tax evasion charges for failing to report almost $7m of income earned through illegal means from 2011 to 2019. He owes the state $486,819 for these years, prosecutors say.
With the latest charges, Murdaugh is now facing a staggering 101 counts across 20 indictments related to his alleged financial crimes where he is accused of defrauding victims out of $8.8m and the state out of $619,000.
The family killer is expected to stand trial on the financial fraud charges over the coming months where he faces up to 700 years in prison on these charges.
However, he may have already incriminated himself on at least some of the charges after taking the stand at his murder trial.
During courtroom testimony, he confessed to stealing millions from his clients and his company – while continuing to insist he was innocent of his wife and son’s murders.
Even without the financial charges, Murdaugh will spend the remainder of his life in prison after he was found guilty on 2 March of murdering Maggie and Paul on the family’s Moselle property back on 7 June 2021.
Murdaugh, 54, was sentenced to life in prison the day after the verdict and is serving his time in the maximum security facility McCormick Correctional Institution in South Carolina.
Murdaugh’s conviction has now shone a spotlight on some other mystery deaths tied to the South Carolina legal dynasty.
Days on from the murders, an investigation was reopened into the 2015 death of Stephen Smith, who was found dead in the middle of the road in Hampton County.
The openly gay 19-year-old had suffered blunt force trauma to the head and his death was officially ruled a hit-and-run. But Smith’s family have long doubted this version of events, with the Murdaugh name cropping up in several police tips and community rumours.
South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) has confirmed Smith’s death is now being investigated as a homicide.
An investigation was also reopened into another mystery death connected to the Murdaugh family – that of their longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield.
She died in 2018 in a mystery trip and fall accident at the family home. Murdaugh then allegedly stole around $4m in a wrongful death settlement from her sons.
At the time of his murder, Paul was also awaiting trial for the boat crash death of Mallory Beach.