Alex Murdaugh entered a South Carolina courthouse on Monday, perhaps for the final time, wearing a prison jumpsuit rather than his usual suit. He was given a 40-year term to federal prison.
Murdaugh was penalized for stealing from customers and his legal practice, this time in federal court.
Disbarred Lawyer Serving Life Sentence for Wife and Son’s Murder
For killing his wife and son, the 55-year-old disbarred lawyer is already incarcerated in a state penitentiary for life without the possibility of release.
A sentence ranging from 17.5 to slightly under 22 years was suggested by federal agents.
In a state court, Murdaugh entered a guilty plea to financial offenses and was sentenced to 27 years in jail. If his murder convictions are overturned on appeal, he will probably have to serve the whole 40 years of his sentence, which will run concurrently with his state prison sentence.
Because Murdaugh stole from the most needy, vulnerable people, such as a client who became quadriplegic following a crash, a state trooper who was hurt at work, and a trust fund meant for kids whose parents died in an accident, U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel said he sentenced Murdaugh to a harsher punishment than suggested.
According to Gergel, Murdaugh took advantage of those who placed all their problems and all their hopes in him.
The 22 federal counts are the last ones that remain against Murdaugh, who was a well-known attorney in small Hampton County three years prior, settling cases for millions of dollars.
His family had operated the top legal practice in the county for almost a century and was elected prosecutors.
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Murdaugh Ordered to Pay $9 Million in Reparations
In addition, Murdaugh will have to make reparations totaling about $9 million. Several of Murdaugh’s victims were represented by lawyer Justin Bamberg, who stated, “There is a staggering human toll to every cent.”
Because FBI investigators believe Murdaugh is lying about what happened to the $6 million he took and whether an unidentified lawyer assisted his illegal activities, prosecutors asked the judge to sentence him more severely.
The sons of Gloria Satterfield, Murdaugh’s longtime housekeeper, were implicated in the biggest scam. She fell at the family house and died. Murdaugh vowed to look after Satterfield’s family before collaborating with a buddy who was a lawyer and had entered a plea deal to steal $4 million from the family’s insurance as a wrongful death payment.
Murdaugh embezzled settlement funds from or exaggerated fees or costs for over twenty clients altogether. Prosecutors said that Murdaugh stole about $1.3 million from the victims, with the FBI discovering 11 more than the state inquiry had.
Murdaugh said the FBI he was taking the same number of pills as he did when his addiction began in 2008, yet the amount of money he stole increased significantly in the years prior to his arrest, according to prosecutor Emily Limehouse, who stated that Murdaugh’s allegations are nonsensical.
A year prior, Murdaugh was found guilty of using a shotgun to kill his younger son Paul and a rifle to kill his wife Maggie.
Despite having admitted responsibility to numerous financial offenses, he fiercely disputes that he killed them and provided testimony in support of himself. Years will pass while the murder cases go through appeals.
True crime enthusiasts have been enthralled by the case, which has led to thousands of social media posts and dozens of podcast episodes.
The prosecution claims they are still looking into who may have assisted Murdaugh in stealing the money and wants to keep many of the FBI testimony under wraps. They claim that disclosing the information would endanger a grand jury inquiry that is currently underway.
The defense requested a lesser sentence, contrasting it with the 25 years that cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried or Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes received for defrauding investors; they claimed that while Murdaugh’s offenses were millions, theirs were worth billions of dollars.
However, attorney Eric Bland, who acted on behalf of Murdaugh’s housekeeper’s family, stated that there was a significant distinction.
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