Murdaugh Murders Podcast - Alex Murdaugh Charged With 27 New Felonies And Why That Is A Big Deal (S01E19)

Episode Date: November 21, 2021

On Friday, November 19th, we learned that prosecutors issued 27 additional felony charges against Alex Murdaugh bringing the total possible jail time to over a hundreds years and our sources believe that could be just the beginning. In this special edition we'll review the 27 new counts and expand on the implications as we introduce our new partner in true crime, Liz Farrell. Liz was there when Mandy first discovered inconsistencies in the only document recorded in the Satterfield settlement which blew the lid off a saga like no other. In this episode you'll hear a moment between Mandy and Eric Bland in which he explains all the dominos that had to fall in order for Murdaugh's litany of crimes to come to light. And a special thank you to: The Bannon Law Group - From sitting by the fires to setting them, the Bannon Law Group has got you covered. Lauren Taylor Law - Few events are more traumatic and stressful than a divorce - let Lauren Taylor make a plan tailor made for you. Visit Lauren Taylor dot com to learn more. Nature's Highway CBD - Nature’s Highway is dedicated to introducing consumers to the life changing potential of CBD and its family of other relevant cannaboiniods. We pride ourselves on providing the purest, highest quality hemp products at the most competitive prices. Midwood Smokehouse - Your neighborhood smokehouse using nothing but NC hickory hard wood and hard work to make the best barbecue around. Ross & Pines - Uncovering the truth and fighting police coverups is what Noah Pines and his team of lawyers at Ross & Pines do when defending you from being falsely accused, or wrongly convicted, of committing a crime.  For current and accurate updates: Twitter.com/mandymatney Support Our Podcast at: https://murdaughmurderspodcast.com/support-the-show Please consider sharing your support by leaving a review on Apple at the following link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murdaugh-murders-podcast/id1573560247 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I don't know how many crimes Ellick Murdock will be charged in, but this week, the disgraced South Carolina attorney was hit with 27 felony charges. And that is a very big deal. My name is Mandy Matney. I'm the news director at fitsnews.com and I've been investigating the Murdock family

for the last two and a half years. This is the Murdock Murders podcast. So this is the week of Thanksgiving. And I have a lot of people to thank this year, starting out with our supporters, both of fitsnews.com and of the Murdock Murders podcast. You all have helped lead us to this incredibly exciting moment,

but it's honestly a dream come true for me. Today, live from the beginning, I'm going to be talking about the Murdock Murders podcast. I'm going to be talking about the Murdock Murders podcast and the Murdock Murders podcast. Today, live from the kitchen table studio,

I want to introduce you to our new Murdock Murders podcast co-host, Liz Farrell. Liz is my best friend, role model, former work wife, and forever partner in true crime. Liz taught me everything I know about investigative journalism. She was there with me at the beginning of the story on day one, which was February 24th, 2019,

the day that Mallory Beach died. Together, we started pulling at strings as we investigated the tangled web of the Murdock family in Hampton County. Liz was sitting across from me on the day that we now know was so important, the day that I found the one public document connected with the Satterfield Settlement.

We had heard a lot about the Murdock family and their influence. We were told by our law enforcement sources, yes, there are good cops in the low country, that it was already looking like the fix was in on the boat crash investigation. When Mandy first found that filing, the words wrongful death obviously rang alarm bells.

And it was exciting from a journalist's perspective that our team had discovered a new angle. But more than that, it was another example of why Mandy is such a good journalist and stands apart from most. She will go the distance and look under every rock to make sure she is getting to the truth of a situation. Mandy's immediate instinct was that something

wasn't right with the filing. As we learned more about ELEC, there was a clear conflict of interest in who was representing the Satterfield family, ELEC's friend Corey Fleming. But we had no idea at that time just how much this one document would end up changing the entire course

of ELEC Murdock's story. Without that moment of Mandy discovering that filing and writing about it, this past Friday never would have happened. Friday was a pivotal moment in the Murdock murder saga and a day that many of us weren't sure would ever come. We ended the last episode that came out just a few days ago on a cliffhanger

about how the South Carolina grand jury was convening in Columbia, South Carolina to discuss matters related to the Murdock murders. And that was a story that was exclusively reported by my boss at Fitznews, Will Folkes. And then Friday came, and ELEC Murdock was indicted on more than two dozen counts. He stands accused of stealing a total

of nearly $5 million from the family of Gloria Satterfield and three clients, including a South Carolina highway patrolman who was injured in the line of duty, according to indictments released on Friday. So when I first heard the news on Friday, of course, one of the first people I spoke to was Eric Bland, the attorney

who has represented Satterfield's family since September and uncovered a paper trail that blew the story wide open. Lady Justice has been busy the past month for him. Since 2015, he's been practicing stealing, not practicing law, and he has. Because you got to work to do that. That takes some thought, that takes some work. And you can't be a lawyer in their thief like that

and do it both well. So he chose to do thievery well. ELEC Murdock faces 27 new charges and five indictments that were handed down by the South Carolina grand jury this week. Those new indictments include seven counts of money laundering, seven counts of obtaining a signature or property by false pretenses, eight counts of computer crimes,

one count of forgery, and four counts of breach of trust with fraudulent intent. The 27 counts are a result of a multi-agency state level investigation involving the South Carolina state grand jury, the South Carolina law enforcement division, the FBI, and the South Carolina Attorney General's office. But these are all state charges,

which is interesting because the financial crimes are usually investigated by the Feds and prosecuted by the Feds. I asked Eric Bland about this. He gave such a black eye to this state. I think it's a combination of his, you know, prosecutorial background. It's a little bit of a payback, you know,

probably against, you know, in a way his law firm and how they have, you know, created this, what's called the judicial hellhole there. There's, you know, whether there's payback or I think it's just the state saying, we don't want a lawyer stealing like this and certainly not a prosecutor who comes from a long line of prosecutors.

We're going to establish law and order the way it should be. And it's happening. I mean, it is, you know, like we said in our statements this morning, you know, when the dam of justice breaks, it starts to come like a mighty river. In a lot of ways, the charges were shocking and they made me and Eric Bland really sit back

and realize that this is much deeper than anyone could have ever imagined and that this is just the beginning. I can tell you that the charges are not the end. There are so many more victims, victims that I've seen, I've seen the chess. So there are more victims there. There are more charges coming.

And, you know, it's a strong statement that should really cause Parpullian and Griffin to really stop because the state is not expending all of these resources and all of this time just to turn it over to the feds at the end of all of this. The state of South Carolina is making a statement here. So we'll go over the five indictments

and Liz will explain the meaning behind them. One of the alleged games took place in Bamberg County, South Carolina, between March and July 2021. We will go over why those dates are significant. In this scheme, Murdock is accused of convincing an attorney from another law firm who was working on a case with him

to write three checks totaling nearly $800,000 for his share of legal fees in the lawsuit. Murdock told the attorney that he was going to structure the fees because of his civil liability in the Mallory Beach boat crash lawsuit according to the indictment. He lied to the attorney according to the indictment

and said that PMPED was aware of this and ultimately Murdock never structured the fees. He just took the money himself. This indictment gives us a little more insight into Elex unraveling between March and July of 2021 and around the time of the murders of Maggie and Paul in June. Attorney's sources have told us that law firms like PMPED have tight controls over their accounting

and that it would have been very difficult for Elex to have stolen from the firm for a long time without getting caught. It appears PMPED had reason to know of Elex's unorthodox financial practices in July at the very least. This indictment, however, only gives us a small view of what was happening

while Elex's life was collapsing around him. We don't know the full scope of what the law firm knew and what they did with that information when they knew it. And we don't know yet how many more cases there are like this. This brings us to indictment number two. Between January and May of this year, Murdock is accused of convincing South Carolina

Highway Patrol Trooper Thomas E. Moore, who was injured in the line of duty to sign over his settlement proceeds to the Murdock law firm PMPED. He's also accused of falsely telling Moore that the money would not be available until the lawsuit was complete. Murdock is then accused of depositing $125,000

in settlement proceeds into the forge account that he allegedly created to steal money from clients and others. Of all the indictments, perhaps this one speaks the most to Elex's character or lack thereof in the months leading up to the double homicide of Maggie and Paul this year. Listen, like I said, I said to you a couple of weeks ago,

there's no bottom to him. He's, you know, morally decrepit and proves it again today, he stole money from a policeman. He's a solicitor, stealing money from a client that that's not bad enough. Let's just go a little deeper and steal it from a policeman.

Who doesn't make a lot of money to begin with? He's gonna go, you know, everybody talks about Larry Jean Bell and all these other people, Pete Wiegaskins and their killers. There's no question about it. And there is a difference right now. But he's as morally bankrupt as they are. That Elex got away with this for so long,

shows us just how impenetrable the Murdoch's position and the criminal justice system has been here. The South Carolina Highway Patrol is the same agency that was bizarrely tasked with investigating the homicide of Stephen Smith just a few years prior to this alleged theft from one of their own. This should send an important message to the rumored Murdoch enablers in law enforcement,

the ones who have allegedly received cash payments in exchange for their off-book services, the ones who are said to have assisted them in clouding up crime scenes and criminal investigations, the ones who gave them prosecutorial credentials to flash around the 14th Circuit, the ones behind the gavel who broke the rules for them or looked the other way,

the ones who have allegedly bullied people from speaking their truth. This is what he thinks of you. Now we are at the third indictment. Between August and September, 2016, in Colletin County, South Carolina, Murdoch allegedly used his prestige and reputation as a lawyer to defraud one of his clients

who was being compensated $70,000 for his injuries. According to the indictment, Murdoch convinced this man to make a $70,000 check out for, again, his structured settlement to the infamous Forge account. And we all know what happened then. Alec allegedly deposited the money into his own bank account. The fourth indictment is from

the Gloria Satterfield Settlement, which we all know about. Nine of the new charges are related to the Bodge Gloria Satterfield Settlement. That brings us to the fifth indictment, which is in Allendale County. Between October, 2015 and October, 2016, Murdoch is accused of defrauding his client,

a man named Dion J. Martin, out of almost $400,000, through, again, the Forge scheme that was uncovered during the Satterfield Settlement. There are a few big takeaways in these indictments. One is that the public is getting an even better view of the heads or tails reputation of the Murdoch dynasty, where on the head side, the Murdochs are known for treating people with humanity and generosity.

But on the tail side, they're known for seeing people as nothing more than disposable servants to their needs, people who are not worth another thought after they've served their purpose to this family. Another is that four of the five indictments handed down November 18th, involved money that was allegedly stolen from clients. Three of those clients had amounts taken from them

that were far less than the million-dollar settlements Murdoch's law firm was famous for. The smaller amounts are actually much more typical of regular day-to-day insurance settlements, the kind of meaningful money you might get after a setback. Money that makes a difference in your life provides some relief in the face of injury or loss, fills a need in the family budget

and helps you get back on your feet so you can get back to work. That electric is accused of picking pennies from the pockets of ordinary people, most of whom didn't have the opportunities or privileges or automatic access to power that were afforded to him, shows us just what kind of selfish, dismissive and destructive person he is.

So this is obviously a lot of new information and it's really jaw-dropping, even from those of us who have thought of ELIC as a bottomless pit for a very long time. Now, just an hour before details of the indictment were announced by the South Carolina Attorney General's office on Friday, ELIC Murdoch's attorney, Jim Griffin,

told the island packet, quote, this doesn't appear to add anything new to the case other than additional charges. I'm sorry, what? The depth of the new charges filed against ELIC Murdoch clearly contradict Griffin's assessment and this is yet another confusing move on behalf of ELIC Murdoch's defense team,

quote, unquote, the Bulldogs, Jim Griffin and Dick Harputlian. On November 17th, Dick Harputlian and Jim Griffin filed a shocking motion asking the court to dismiss the Gloria Satterfield lawsuit. Harputlian and Griffin, who are now representing the disgraced attorney in multiple criminal cases and lawsuits, argued in a motion to dismiss the lawsuits saying that Gloria Satterfield's sons

have been fully compensated for their alleged losses. Therefore, ELIC Murdoch, who was allegedly the ringleader in the scheme, should not have to pay any money back. Now, for a reminder, Satterfield's sons have settled with five parties connected to the botched wrongful death settlement since their attorneys filed a lawsuit in September.

ELIC Murdoch is the only remaining party in that case who has not paid them a dime. And their attorneys, since they filed the lawsuit, have recovered more than $6.5 million from five other parties allegedly connected to the scheme. And this week, Harputlian and Griffin had the, as Eric Bland puts it, bulls to file this motion claiming basically

that ELIC Murdoch deserves to escape civil accountability in this case because he is entitled to a credit for more than the $6 million paid by all the other alleged settling tort feasors." End quote. So it probably feels like we're revining here, but this was such a big moment on Wednesday.

People were furious after everything that's come out in the Gloria Satterfield settlement in the last few months and then ELIC still wants to skate fault and not admit that he's wrong and not be held accountable. And of course, one of those people who was extremely furious on Wednesday was Eric Bland. As you can tell, I'm a little bit upset here. Pissed.

Not surprising, not surprising. I told you he was gonna do it, but I didn't expect the first argument that I get to keep the money because I'm declaring that the Satterfields have been fully paid. I didn't think anybody had the set of balls to actually put that in a plea.

Yes, if I took the money, I get to keep it because somebody else repaid it for me. Bland was blown away by this motion and confused as to why Dick and Jim, two previously highly respected lawyers in South Carolina, would stick their necks out for someone like ELIC Murdoch. It's just another action that you're scratching, you're left scratching your head and saying,

is there a master strategy here or are they just winging it? The bail, you know, the habeas corpus before the Supreme Court or gone in the magistrate court and the deal was already cut to the bail. All this stuff, you're wondering, you know, is he that much smarter than everybody else? He sees this battlefield differently or is it really, they're just winging it?

I can see him laugh and saying, hey, this is great. I'm gonna make a motion that says, plaintiff doesn't have any damages because they've been fully paid. What he didn't really think about is, what I'm really saying is, my thief gets the cake for money. We were all puzzled at Fitznews coming up with theories

as to why Dick and Jim would make such a brazen, ballsy move as the eyes of the world were on this case. Here's Liz. Okay, so there are a couple of theories here. The first would be the most obvious and perhaps most despicable, and that is ELIC actually believes he doesn't owe Gloria's sons any money.

Another theory would be that the charges are piling up now and this is another sign they may be exploring ways to pin the missing Satterfield money on someone else, like ELIC's best friend, Corey Fleming, and they wanna create some space for ELIC's innocence in the future. Yet another theory is one that is very puzzling to us.

A researcher and several lawyers who spoke with Fitznews believe the filing could be a Trojan horse in that state Senator Harpoolian and Mr. Griffin know that their arguments to dismiss ELIC have no legal standing and their real objective here is to delay the case. The reason this seems so bizarre to the both of us

is that it's akin to letting your face on fire to get out of gym class, when you could save everyone the drama and just say you have cramps. Is there a plan here? Because every move Dick and Jim have made in the last month has appeared to be self-inflicted. They asked Eric Bland this question.

Mike Tyson said, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. They got punched in the face last month when that bail got denied. They got punched in the face when Judge Hall granted the motion for a receivership. They got punched in the face when Judge Newman denied Bond for the second time.

They're getting punched in the face at every turn. It's not their fault. They didn't make up the facts. Now, they chose to dive into this deep end. They didn't have to. They could have just as easily have said, hey, we're representing Alex Murdock on a limited basis on this criminal charge,

dealing with the Labor Day shooting or even the Gloria Satterfield stuff. But they chose to dive into these civil cases. And now that they're in, it's gonna be difficult for them to get out. I don't think there's a plan, by the way. I don't think there's this grand strategy that Dick sees this field at 30,000 feet

and everybody else is down here at the 5,000 foot level. There's certainly cases that he does. And there's certainly cases that I've seen that he has pulled monkeys out of a hat and really gotten an amazing result. It just isn't gonna happen here. It isn't gonna happen because he can't do what he does best, which is leverage relationships

and good deeds that he's done over the years and good work. You're not getting credit for that here. There's too much sunlight. You're not, Mandi Matney is not gonna let that happen. No judge is gonna be the judge that signs off on stuff that happens in the darkness of a judge's chamber.

It's not gonna happen. He's not gonna be able to plead to just one count of obtaining money by false pretenses and one count of money laundering and he's gonna get three years. It's not gonna happen, Mandi. The outrage, forget the rank and file people. The bar is not gonna let it happen.

We as lawyers are on trial right now and I can't tell you how many lawyers, defense lawyers that used to hate me and still do because I sue lawyers, Mandi. I get phone calls and emails, keep up the good work, keep up the fight. They want to clean it up. They're not happy with what happens in Hampton County

when their corporations and defense clients get sued. They're not happy with Alex Murdoch stealing money. I'm not, no lawyer is. It's a pollution of our profession. The thing that doesn't get talked about enough in this case is the magnitude of state Senator Dick Harputlian's influence. Not only legally and legislatively, not only locally and federally,

but in the mainstream media too. They love them some Harpo. When you are paying for Senator Harputlian to represent you as your attorney, you are paying for that power. He has influence over who becomes a judge, how much money sled gets in its budget, and most of all, he has access to information

about ongoing investigations involving his clients that other attorneys and public defenders especially simply do not have. On the surface, it appears that Senator Harputlian and Mr. Griffin were blindsided by these indictments. That now famous quote in a low country newspaper just an hour or so before the details of the indictments were announced to the public,

sure seems like they didn't know what was going on. Their audacious and desperate seeming tactics of late also seem to point to an increasing inability to execute the same old tricks that have brought them this far in their careers. If that is the case, if Alex attorneys were truly not aware of what was happening, this is encouraging.

It could be another sign that the good old boy system might fall to its knees for good this time. So Eric and I had a moment on Friday, as we looked back on all the dominoes that had to fall in order to get to this moment, where Elick is facing a lifetime of charges. Now the story of the Murdoch murder saga is going to be told over and over by Netflix people

and documentary douchebags. I will talk about them later. And helicopter journalists from the Wall Street Journal, et cetera, et cetera. But no, it's not. Wall Street Journal, et cetera, et cetera. But none of them are going to include in their stories what Eric said to me today,

no matter how many times he tells them. And I don't wanna toot my own horn here, but I do one other small town journalist to know that all of this started out with a couple local reporters at a dying newspaper who just shared a common instinct that something was wrong. But you did it, you.

You uncovered the petition. You wrote the article. You were the spark that lit the fire. Eric Carrion saw your article and went to his sister, Ginger, and started asking questions. And then the family asked questions, and then they went to Mark Tinsley,

and then Mark Tinsley sent him to me. But Mandy Matney, you lit the spark. Mark, you took down Alex Murdoch. I couldn't have done it without him. I helped, I helped. You definitely helped. A whole lot. But yeah, it is crazy.

But also, I mean, I do give the credit a lot of credit. No, it's a heavy thought. It is. And in your lifetime, you did something that will be transformative, it will be generational. It was the right thing to do. You changed the world

because you're taking a guy off the street. It was not just harming one person. He was harming a lot of different people. This is a serial criminal. A serial thief. A serial pen slinger. I call him a pen slinger. You could call him a gun slinger.

I call him a serial pen slinger. You do not know that don't get money in. They don't get treatment for their injuries and in personal injury cases that they're not physically or... Really? But now, you know, I was with them yesterday. And I will tell you this.

Money has way, obviously, of making a founty wound. But they're smiling because they do realize that their sister, this quote housekeeper that everybody likes to just call a housekeeper, didn't die in vain. Mallory Beach didn't die in vain. They were responsible for their death for bringing down Alex Murdock.

How many more people would he have continued to victimize? Yeah, absolutely. And again, I'm not sharing this because I want praise. I'm sharing this because oftentimes the good old boys make people like me feel like bringing down an entire system is so impossible and way too complicated. But at the heart of it, it isn't. And I say this because I know a lot of journalists

are out there listening and I want them to know that they too can change the world. Every day, journalists have choices. They can take the easy route, the story spoon fed by a defense attorney because you know you will need him for quotes in other spoon fed stories later on. Or you can take on the story that makes you proud

when you go to bed every night, the story that you can't shake until the truth is out, the story that can change an entire justice system and make people's lives better, the story that can change the world if you don't give up. I hope you take the hard story. I hope that you too change the world through the goodness of your heart

and the power of your voice. There are so many questions that we have to answer in this never ending Murdoch murder saga. Who killed Maggie and Paul? Who killed Stephen? What happened to Gloria? How many victims are out there? He's loaded up to, you know, over a hundred years of time.

This is even before you get to the end of the white collar crimes. There's other victims, Mandy. I have seen the checks that have come from the Murdoch law firm to forge. There's individual bank accounts that have not been publicly discussed. So we haven't gotten to the end of the white collar stuff.

You haven't gotten to Cousin Eddie. You haven't gotten to the point of, okay, why is he receiving all these payments? What are they for? Are those crimes? Yeah. Are there laundering crimes going on there? Yeah.

You haven't gotten to the Maggie and Paul killings. Not that he had anything to do with it, but somebody's gonna have to determine and make a final statement on how they occurred. It's just not gonna sit out there that they got shot and killed and there's, you know, their crimes are gonna go unsolved. Yeah. This is really serious stuff.

And I believe, after talking with Craven Waters, that it's a lot of information this grand jury was processing and they're being given it to them in increment meals instead of just throwing it all at them at once. You know, it's a lot to process when you process, you know, obtaining the money by false pretenses, a computer crime and a money laundering for this,

you know, for each separate victim. It can all really be daunting when I stop and think that we're just scratching the surface here, but because you all believed in us and because you invested in accountability journalism, we now have another true seeker, which is Liz Farrell,

working for us around the clock to find answers to these questions. And I'm more confident than ever that we will get answers in this, no matter how long it takes. Happy Thanksgiving to all of the Murdoch Murders podcast fans out there. And again, subscribe to fitsnews.com

and check out murdochmurderspodcast.com so you too can support our mission. There's so much to unpack in this case and Mandy works tirelessly to expose the truth, but the truth is she works hard and she does get tired. If you believe like I do that Mandy is the best in the business and I'm a little biased,

visit murdochmurderspodcast.com and click the support the show link to learn how you can help. Leave a five-star review to offset the haters, refer an advertiser and get a finder's fee, or advertise your company, product or service. We can geotarget across the globe and find the right audience to suit your needs.

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and talk about my vocal fry. The Murdoch Murders podcast is created by me, Mandy Matney and my fiance, David Moses. Produced by Luna Shaw Productions.