A South Carolina lawyer accused of murdering a family has been indicted for tax fraud

Reuters

By Tyler Clifford

COLLETON COUNTY, SC – An attorney indicted in the June 2021 murders of his wife and youngest son was indicted on Friday on nine counts of tax evasion as part of a scheme to defraud his family’s century-old law firm.

An attorney from a South Carolina legal dynasty, Alex Murdaugh, 54, is accused of willfully evading state taxes between 2011 and 2019. He is currently in jail awaiting his murder trial next month.

In addition to the new charges, a Colleton County grand jury brought dozens of state charges, including embezzlement and murder. The charges against Murdaugh were filed in July, and he pleaded not guilty to them.


According to the indictment, Murdaugh is accused of making nearly $7 million in fraud, which was not reported on his state tax filings. More than $486,800 in payments owed to South Carolina are suspected to have been skipped by him.


According to the indictment, Murdaugh earned almost $14 million during the years in question, most of it from the Hampton, South Carolina, law firm of Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth and Detrick, founded by his great-grandfather.

According to local media, Parker Law Group changed its name almost a year ago.

Murdaugh’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Margaret Murdaugh and her son Paul Murdaugh were killed at the Murdaugh family’s Collene County property in June 2021. In connection with the murders, he faces two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon.

According to police, Murdaugh is also facing charges for an alleged scheme to have himself killed so that his surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, could collect a $10 million insurance payout. Even though he was shot, he survived the attack.

Murdaugh admitted to plotting his own death in an affidavit filed in September 2021 by a state police agency.

A state grand jury indicted him in November 2021 on 27 charges stemming from schemes to defraud law clients and associates, as well as launder more than $4.8 million.

Separately, he was accused of embezzling settlement funds related to his housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who died in 2018 after a “trip and fall” accident in the Murdaugh home, according to court records.

(Reporting by Tyler Clifford in New York; Editing by Josie Kao)

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