Murdaugh Murders Podcast - How Many People Will Go Down For This? (S01E29)

Episode Date: January 26, 2022

After Friday’s indictments, Alex Murdaugh now stands accused of stealing at least $8.4 million and faces 74 charges. If the latest indictments told us anything, it’s that Alex did not do this alone - but how many people will go down for this? And how bad will this get? In this episode, Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell walk you through every detail of Alex's newest indictments that appear to hint others are involved and may face indictments of their own soon. Attorney Justin Bamberg, who is representing at least 8 clients in this case, joins us in this episode. Justin explains how deep loyalty is in a place like Hampton, South Carolina — and how betrayed the people there feel as they reckon with the truth behind two of their most lofty businesses. ** In the last episode, it was said that Russell Laffitte was the former president of Palmetto State Bank. He is the former CEO. This episode was written by Liz Farrell. And a special thank you to our sponsors: Cerebral, Betera, Aura Frames, Hunt-A-Killer, Bannon Law Group, Nature's Highway CBD, and others. The Murdaugh Murders Podcast is created by Mandy Matney and produced by Luna Shark Productions. Our Executive Writer is Liz Farrell. Advertising is curated by the talented team at AdLarge Media. Find us on social media: https://www.facebook.com/MurdaughPod/ https://www.instagram.com/murdaughmurderspod/ 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 more times Ellick Murdock can get indicted in the next few months. But after this last round of charges, it seems like, as Eric Bland has said before on this podcast, there really is no bottom to Ellick or his co-conspirators. From his alleged scheme so far, we have learned that when you take a very powerful family of bankers and mix them with a very powerful family

of prosecutors and personal injury lawyers who rule over a Southern town unchecked for almost 100 years, the outcome is not just bad, it's dangerous. My name is Mandy Matney. I've been investigating the Murdock family for almost three years now. And this is the Murdock Murders podcast with David Moses and Liz Farrell.

On Friday morning, we learned that the state grand jury handed down another 23 charges against Ellick Murdock. As of Friday, Ellick now stands accused of stealing at least $8.4 million. And he faces a whopping 74 charges since he was first arrested in September. And that is a big deal. In the days and weeks leading up to Friday,

Fitznews heard from multiple sources that Ellick's alleged co-conspirators would be indicted alongside him. But on Thursday afternoon, we learned that the state grand jury had to cut its January session short because of two reasons. One was because of a winter storm in the F state,

which is in the Greenville, South Carolina region. And the other was because of COVID. According to our sources, COVID-19 exposure and weather problems made it impossible for state grand jurors to be able to get through their cases this month. For some background, the state grand jury is held in the state capital city

of Columbia, South Carolina. State grand jurors come from all over and typically hear cases in Columbia once a month. Also, state grand jurors are legally obligated to keep grand jury matters confidential. We believe that some of those cases that the state grand jury didn't get to hear this month likely involved Russell Lafitte,

who is the former CEO of Palmetto State Bank and Corey Fleming, Elix's best friend who represented the Satterfield family. He also represented Pamela Pinkney, the mother of Hakeem Pinkney, the deaf man who was paralyzed in a horrific accident in 2009 that we introduced you to in the last episode. Though neither Corey nor Russell's names appeared

in the four indictments handed down on Friday, when you read between the lines, their presence is obvious. One of the indictments references a close friend of Murdoch and his alleged role in the schemes, while three of the indictments detail Palmetto State Bank's alleged participation in Elix Murdoch's crimes. We'll talk more about that in a minute,

but first we wanna tell you about what these indictments collectively confirm. As you know, we have long been told by our sources that Elix alleged victims are likely going to number in the hundreds and that his alleged schemes have been going on from the very beginning. Prior to Friday, the oldest case

that had been indicted was from 2015, the year Elix set up his fake forge accounts at Bank of America. The new indictments confirm that Elix allegedly began stealing from clients earlier than that. The oldest cases that are now on the public record are from 2011. Elix began practicing law in South Carolina in 1994

and he used to work for the law firm where Corey eventually became a partner. Will investigators be able to go back that far and trace his financial transactions? One thing that's important for former clients of Elix to know right now is that the statute of limitations in South Carolina is three years,

but three years after a person could reasonably be expected to know that they were wronged. If you think you've been a victim of Elix Murdoch or you wanna find out whether you've been a victim, it's important that you speak to law enforcement and an attorney outside of the PMPED law firm. Another thing that the indictments confirm for us is that Palmetto State Bank played a much bigger role

in Elix alleged games than they wanted us to think. Here is attorney Justin Bamberg who is representing at least eight clients in this case. I want to make this extremely clear. Without Russell Lafitte and Palmetto State Bank, Elix Murdoch steals nobody's money at that point in time. Right?

These conservatives, first, it should have been a family member and if it wasn't a family member, it needed to be somebody who didn't have such a close personal relationship with Elix Murdoch to the point that you put Elix Murdoch above your fiduciary duty to the individual over which you had control of their money.

The problem isn't just the personal relationship between Russell Lafitte and Elix Murdoch or Palmetto State Bank and PMPED. That in and of itself isn't the problem, right? It's the problem of if you are so loyal to your friend or your business or the associate that you're willing to sacrifice the person you owe the fiduciary duty to,

you don't need to be involved. That's where the problems come in. And if Elix Murdoch is not able to convince the Peyton family that Russell Lafitte should be conservator over not just one, not just two, but three of the people in that multi-million dollar settlement, Rick, without that, we're not here today.

Russell Lafitte is still president of the bank, but they did what they did and Elix could not have done it without the bank, period. In October, lawyers for the bank filed their first response to the Satterfield family's lawsuit and it did not age well. As a reminder, in the Satterfield case,

Vice President Chad Westendorf is accused of being paid $30,000 to act as a personal representative for Gloria Satterfield's estate. The Satterfield's attorneys say that Chad didn't live up to his responsibilities as a personal representative and also shouldn't have taken that much money to begin with. In response to being named to defend it in the case,

Palmetto State Bank's initial strategy was to bulk the accusation and deny culpability. The 24-page filing is filled with disgruntled remarks that mock and criticize the original complaint filed by Eric Bland on behalf of the Satterfield family. The filing denied that Westendorf acted as a representative of the bank and further alleged that the bank itself

could actually be owed damages from Murdoch and Corey Fleming's firm, which was Moss Coon and Fleming and is now just Moss and Coon. An even bigger deal is that filing says things like we shouldn't be a defendant in this case because it's not like we did X, Y, and Z and I bet that they're going to regret

putting that in writing because not only did the bank end up quickly settling in the Satterfield case, the new indictments show that X, Y, and Z is exactly what the bank is accused of doing before Eric apparently moved his operations to Bank of America in 2015. So I wanna repeat this because it's unbelievable.

In defending itself in the Satterfield case, the bank decided the best course of action was not only to simply deny complaints made against them but explain in great detail as to why they're not liable. And those reasons why those actions that they say didn't happen in the Satterfield case are the very same actions that happened in three of the four cases

we're going to tell you about right now. They thought it was built on a solid foundation, you know, maybe, you know, again, it's a lot of people on that board, you know, when we've yet to find out everybody who knew what and when they knew or what they knew. But obviously, people had either not been checking behind Russell Lafitte or had been checking

and either took his word for whatever he was saying or just turned the other way, you know, and it seems to be a lot of turning the other way here. At some point, the question that has to be asked is, if you knew something and you turned the other way, when does that become criminal? Okay, so what Justin is saying here really is the big question.

How many people knew and did nothing? How many people will go down for that? And if people holding positions of power at the bank really had no idea, should they even be working at a bank at all? But we're talking about a bank, okay? And we're not talking about $5 or $10 or Benjamin Franklin.

We're talking about millions of dollars fraudulently taken from the hands of injured and deceased people with a bank card to it when their job is to deal in money. You know, if it was millions of dollars getting taken from a car wash, number one, you'd ask what kind of soap are they using? It's all cash business.

We're talking about a bank with investors who invest hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars. We're talking about shareholders. It's a bank and for over 10 years, all of this fraudulent activity was going on. And it's so difficult to wrap your mind around this concept that no one knew anything.

Like, Hallig knew and Russell Lafitte knew and nobody else knew. Well, then nobody was doing their job for 10 years and they need to take all their paychecks and pay the bank back so they have more money to pay these people whose money was stolen. And we'll be right back. Now, Liz and I are going to walk you through

all four of the indictments and what they mean. Indictment number one, Hakim Pinkney. The Pinkney family went to Alec Murdoch for help after a catastrophic car crash in 2009 left Hakim, a 19-year-old deaf man, a quadriplegic, and also badly injured his mother who was driving the car when a tire came untreaded. In December, 2011, Alec is accused of having a check

for $309,581 written out of Hakim's estate and made out to Palmetto State Bank. He allegedly used that money to purchase money orders for an unnamed family member and payable to other conservatorship accounts from which Alec had previously borrowed money. He also allegedly used the money to get cash for himself and a, quote, different family member.

The indictment indicates that Alec also used the money to pay down a personal business loan. Alec is also accused of convincing Hakim's mother, Ms. Pamela, to retain a lawyer who was a, quote, close friend of Murdoch. In May, 2017, when the Pinkney family thought the case had been completely resolved and all money dispersed, Alec allegedly

had his unnamed friend, the attorney, make out a settlement disbursement check for $89,133.44 from Hakim's estate to PMPED. He is then accused of having a check written from PMPED's client trust fund for that same amount, which he allegedly deposited into his fake forge account at Bank of America. He allegedly converted some of the money to cash

and used the rest to pay bank fees and write checks to himself and unnamed associates. The Pinkney case gives us some insight into how Alec was allegedly operating before opening his forge accounts in 2015. In talking with lawyers and law enforcement officers, a few have used variations of the saying, pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered

in describing Alec's metamorphosis as an alleged criminal. By the time he had opened the forge accounts, his alleged enterprise was in full swing and likely would have stayed that way had his son not crashed their boat into a bridge in 2019. Something else we're starting to see with these indictments is that it appears Alec was robbing Peter to pay Paul

and taking loans out for himself from clients' conservatorship accounts. Remember, according to the public index, Russell Lafitte, the CEO of Palmetto State Bank who got fired a few weeks ago, served as a personal representative to a number of Alec's clients. Also remember, a conservatorship account

is money that is meant to go toward supporting a person who cannot otherwise take care of themselves. You're probably familiar with the term because it's been so prevalent in the media as a result of the Britney Spears case. So basically, it looks like Alec was able to take loans out on money that belonged to his client, but that wasn't necessarily authorized by the client

because Russell Lafitte served as a conservator and then personal representative in the Hakeem Pinkney case. And because this was his family's bank, he had direct access to Hakeem's money. Indictment number two, Natasha Thomas. Around the same time that Alec began allegedly stealing from Hakeem's estate, he started allegedly stealing

from Hakeem's cousin's account too. Natasha Thomas is Hakeem's cousin. She was in the car at the time of the horrific crash that changed their lives forever in 2009. Along with Hakeem, Alec Murdoch also represented Natasha in the lawsuit against the tire company in 2010. In December 2011, just two months after Hakeem suffered an unexpected death apparently due to an unplugged ventilator,

Alec allegedly had a check written out to the firm's client trust account for $325,000 with the description, settlement proceeds for Natasha Thomas. Alec allegedly had that check made out to Palmetto State Bank and allegedly used it to buy a money order payable to a family member. Yes, apparently he bought a $325,000 money order and gave it to someone in his family.

We don't know who that person is, but we are going to try our best to find out. We'll talk about money orders in a bit because guess what? Alec was not done with Natasha's account. In August 2012, Alec allegedly did the same thing except for this time for $25,000. He had the check made out to Palmetto State Bank and used the money as cash for himself to buy money orders

that were also payable to Palmetto State Bank. These indictments are the first time we're seeing that Alec was allegedly depositing the settlement money and converting it to money orders. To learn more about why Alec might have been doing this and more importantly, how he was able to do it, we talked to Jennifer Wood, who is a former private investigator.

She is well versed in financial crimes and an extraordinary researcher who helps us out at Fitznews. She told us that the banks are required to have red flag systems that would alert them to unusual transactions such as a six figure money order or basically any money order in amounts over $10,000. She said these alert systems also pick up

on the number of transactions a customer is making and whether that customer is making several transactions just under the trigger point of $10,000. How could a customer bypass those red flag alerts? Being friends with the family that owns the bank obviously doesn't hurt. As to why Alec was doing this, one very simple benefit to stealing money

and laundering it through a friend's bank is tax evasion. And we keep wondering when we'll see the IRS weigh in on Alec's alleged transactions. So back to what I was telling y'all earlier about the October, 2021 filing in the Satterfield case. In the filing, the bank maintained that it was not liable for what happened because of the following reasons.

Palmetto State Bank did not receive any fee or compensation related to the administration of the estate nor was it paid any money from the settlements that were allegedly obtained because it was not involved and rendered no services. Palmetto State Bank did not open nor hold any account for the estate. Palmetto State Bank did not administer

or disperse any of the settlement funds discussed in the complaint, nor were the settlement checks deposited in any account with Palmetto State Bank. Palmetto State Bank neither cashed nor deposited any of the Moss, Coon and Fleming checks from the Moss, Coon and Fleming Trust. Palmetto State Bank did not owe a fiduciary duty

or any other duty to the Satterfields because Palmetto State Bank never acted as the personal representative, nor was Chad Westendorf acting for defendant in serving individually as the personal representative. Palmetto State Bank's conduct was not the actual cause of any losses, damages or injuries allegedly suffered by the plaintiffs.

Any damages to plaintiffs were caused by unforeseeable, independent, intervening and or superseding acts of third persons beyond the control and unrelated to any actions or conduct of Palmetto State Bank. So we're not lawyers, obviously, but we don't think they're going to be able to make those same claims with the latest cases

that have come to light, at least not with a straight face. You know, Palmetto State Bank has foreclosed on people's property before, you know. So obviously they know how to count money and determine how much money they're due. They don't know how to keep up with how much money other people are due or rustle the feet. Doesn't know how to keep up with how much money

the subject of his conservatorship are due. You know, something in the milk is not clean. You know, old country saying something in the milk ain't clean here. So I asked Justin what he thought of Friday's indictments as they pertained to his clients, the Pinkney family. For starters, when the indictments came out, we were pleased to the extent that Alec Murrott

was criminally charged for taking advantage of and stealing from the Pinkney family. That was very encouraging. And, you know, like I say, as someone who believes injustice and believes in the system, that is an indication that the system is working. You know, because it would have been very easy for the South Carolina Attorney General's office

who had already charged him with, you know, however many counts to just say, all right, if we give him a year on each one, he's gonna die in prison, so we're gonna stop. That would have been an easy call to make. And they're not doing that. And I do tip my hat to the attorney team and staff who are working on this thing.

You know, we were hoping, based on the information that we have, you know, that I think Russell LaFitte has something explaining to do. You know, it's one of those things where, man, you were in charge of this money, bro. Like, it wasn't a situation where Alec was just stealing out of the trust account like you saw with some of the forged deposits, right?

Where there's no middleman. And these, Mr. LaFitte was in charge of their money, okay? You got something explaining to do. And, you know, if you were innocent and you didn't know what was going on, I would hope that you would have already been a person who would have talked to law enforcement and told them everything you knew

and given up all your paperwork, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, right? But if that was the case, you should have done that back when he got him up on Satterfield. People never wanna talk until the hot iron starts getting close to the back of their ass. Then they'd be wanting to talk, okay?

You know, and that does not, that's not an indication of innocence in my opinion. That's an indication of, man, I'm about to get hit by that hot iron. So let me try to say something to see if they'll pull it away from me. You know what I mean? And I just think that based on everything,

we have substantial breaches of fiduciary duty. Obviously, Ms. Pintney, when Mr. LaFitte was suggested as conservator and Alec explained whatever he explained, she trusted Mr. LaFitte with her children. The kids trusted him with their money. You know, Malik Williams, they trusted Russell LaFitte with their money. And then he went and loaned it to Alec Murdoch,

who wasn't even working on the case. You see what I'm saying? So if we talk about breach of trust, I mean, that's a breach of trust to me. I trust you to be conservator over my money. And my lawyer says that you should do it. And then you go and loan all of my money to your buddy Alec's Murdoch.

And in return, I get $100 in interest? Yeah, sir. No, put my money in Apple stock. That's the stuff that you use to build your wealth and buy your home and drive your nice cars and take your family on the beautiful vacation. That's where you should be putting my money, not in Alec's Murdoch's pocket

so he can float 40 grand over the course of a month and do whatever he was doing. That is a breach of trust, in my opinion. But I ain't the prosecutor, I ain't the jury, I'm the lawyer, and we're gonna see what happens. The first thing you should know about the Arthur Badger indictment is that it is 17 pages long.

Arthur Badger's wife was killed by a UPS truck in 2011. And over the course of 16 months, Alec is accused of stealing from Arthur 14 times for a total of $1.325 million. The alleged thefts occurred between the two families of the deceased and the other family members of the family. The alleged thefts occurred between the two families

of the deceased and the other family members of the deceased. The alleged thefts occurred between February 2013 and June 2014 and started with a whopper of a check for $388,000 that was made out to Palmetto State Bank and taken from PMPED's client trust account. Alec apparently used that money to buy a money order payable to a business associate.

After that, he is accused of stealing $75,000 from Badger and having that check made out to Palmetto State Bank as well. He then allegedly used that money to buy a money order payable to a family member. He's then accused of stealing nearly $152,000 using the same method and again making the checkout to Palmetto State Bank. The money was deposited into a conservator's account

for a different person from which Alec had been allowed to borrow money before. Then this is where it gets a little weird. The rest of the alleged thefts are for repeated amounts. Four times he allegedly stole $50,684.75. Four times he allegedly stole $101,369.49. And another three times he allegedly stole $33,789.83. Some of that money was deposited

into a conservatorship account for another person. Some was converted into money orders payable to family members. Some was used to pay personal debts. Some was wired to a company. Some was converted to cash. Some was used to pay a Bank of America credit card. And some was used to pay an auto dealer.

I was talking to a source connected to the case about why he thought Alec allegedly stole the money in these repeated exact amounts. He told me that one reason might have been so that if he were caught stealing, he could claim it wasn't stealing, but rather an inadvertent duplication of checks. I should also mention Russell Lafitte,

he served as the personal representative of Badger's Wife's estate. Indictant number four, Dion J. Martin. The Dion Martin case might sound familiar to some of you. In November, Alec was indicted in the Martin case and was charged with two counts of breach of trust and two counts of computer crimes. On Friday, a new indictment was handed down

that replaces the November indictment and adds another breach of trust charge. As a refresher, Alec was accused of taking $338,000 from Dion in October, 2015. The money was supposed to be invested on Dion's behalf, but never was. A year later, Alec allegedly took another $45,000 from Dion's settlement money.

Both times, Alec deposited the money into his forge account at Bank of America and used the money for his personal expenses. However, this new indictment adds some new information about the Dion Martin case. Apparently, in August of 2015, Alec told Dion that he had gotten him $500,000 in settlement funds and they were being sent to forge consulting LLC,

a legitimate company that would establish an annuity account on Dion's behalf. Alec then allegedly kept a $200,000 fee for getting that $500,000. However, no such settlement was ever recovered. According to the indictment, quote, Murdoch knowingly and dishonestly asserted the recovery of phantom funds for the purpose of artificially

inflating the fee he could retain. So not only is Alec accused of stealing clients' settlement money, he was allegedly lying about the amount of the settlement so he could take more money from the clients. Multiple sources have told us that two of the next frontiers in the investigation are going to be cost inflation and predatory lending.

And we'll be right back. To summarize everything so far, Alec Murdoch is a person of interest in the murders of his wife and son. He has been accused of spearheading a scheme to defraud Gloria Satterfield's family of $4.3 million. He appears to have come up with some sort of work around in moving his assets by quickly confessing judgment to debts he allegedly owes his brother

and one of his law partners. He is charged with lying to police about being shot on the side of the road when he was instead, so he says, trying to fake his own murder to defraud an insurance company out of $10 million. He is charged with forging names on documents in order to allegedly steal client money. He is accused of taking loans

from clients' conservatorships accounts. He is accused of using Eddie Smith to liquidate more than $3 million and allegedly stolen money into cash. He is charged with 19 computer crimes and 11 counts of money laundering. He is accused of lying to clients about how much money he had gotten them

and where the money was going. He allegedly failed to invest money on behalf of clients who really needed it. He is accused of pretending to not charge a client his fee because he's being a nice guy, all the while stealing most of his client's settlement. This isn't even the worst of it. For years, Ellick Murdock readily accepted praise

and gratitude from the people he was supposed to be helping. These are the same people whose lives he was secretly destroying from the same community that now has to make sense of this mass betrayal. We have two more things we wanna talk to you about. One is the pattern that keeps emerging out of these indictments. And two is the devastating effect these revelations

are having on this close-knit community where loyalty means everything. In the newest indictments, all four alleged victims are African-American and all four were receiving money because they needed it. I don't believe in coincidence. I think that Ellick Murdock strategically picked victims. I think that one of the categories

of what maybe put you in the victim category would be maybe your education level. It would be your race. It would be your trust level. I think those are the things that maybe he looked at, paired with, of course, value, case value. Everybody that he stole money from had fairly large settlements.

Large settlements yielded large check amounts and it left enough money for him to steal without actually tipping his hand to the actual client because, like I've said before, for a lot of the victims, Ellick gave them enough money for them to drop to their knees and say thank you, Jesus, and then he took the rest. You had victims who I think happened to be minorities

who just had a personal relationship with him to the point that they would trust and believe anything he said, and he definitely took advantage of that. But I think, you know, when you look at Fatterfield, again, that was a close personal trust. It was a personal relationship. But a lot of these clients, the Peany family, for example,

they didn't know who Ellick's Murdock was. He was recommended to them and he picked his targets. And I think like all predators do, predators just don't run around in the wild and pick off whatever comes in front of them. They look for certain things. And when you look at the character traits, when you look at the racial makeup,

when you look at the socioeconomic status, when you look at the physical disability of victims, you cannot help but see a trend in the types of people that Ellick wanted to take advantage of. And again, we've yet to see anybody pop up as a victim. He wasn't taking advantage of lawyers. He wasn't taking advantage of doctors who got in car wrecks. He wasn't taking advantage of, you know,

like countants or tax professionals who got maimed in an accident. He was taking advantage of regular, hardworking people who he thought wouldn't be sophisticated enough. And Mandy, I think that's a very important point to clarify here, right? You're not stupid, you're not dumb, you're not easily fooled

because you became a victim of Ellick Murdoch, you know? In his mind, he knew or found out certain things about you that he felt that he could take advantage of. And it started with the trust that these people put in him. And then I think he did look at other aspects to them, where they live, what kind of home they have, what's their education level like, do they have a physical disability?

I think he did consider all of that because there are too many coincidences for just to have them happen to us. The predatory behavior we're seeing would be disgusting under normal circumstances. But when you factor in the generational power that both the Murdochs and the Lafites had in Hampton County, it becomes something else altogether.

How convenient is it that a lawyer with an apparent addiction to stealing money in complicated financial transactions just so happens to have a very deep-rooted relationship with the town's banking family? For starters, let's hit the nail on the head here. When you live in rural South Carolina, small towns, a lot of farmland and space, small schools, everything,

where you buy your groceries, where you do your gas fill-ups, where you get your hair cut, and what law firm you walk into, what bank you use is based on trust and relationships. If you live in a big city, if you're in Charleston, if you're in Columbia or Charlotte or wherever, nobody in Atlanta picks a bank

based on a special relationship with the people who run that bank. Nobody does this, too many options. Where we live, we don't have many options. So you go with what's familiar, you go with what's established, and you go with what's familiar. And when it comes to these banks,

we're talking about areas that have a higher-than-average level of poverty, right? They have a higher-than-average level of difficulty getting employed. People's credit might be lower because of the lack of opportunity. The education level maybe stops at high school if you're lucky, two-year degrees for most people.

So when it comes to banking, people rely on these banks, these smaller banks, these state charter banks, these federal credit unions, because the big banks will as far go, Bank of America, Bank of America, home to forks. They'll bank with Ali Murdoch, they won't bank with everybody. But the local banks will.

When you can't qualify for a mortgage, if you look, I believe at present, the Cometta State Bank has almost $200 million in outstanding mortgages. Not all of that are the uber-wealthy. A lot of that is, for example, the town of Sheldon. They needed a pumper truck, and they put out bids, but because they're so small

and because of what they can afford, Cometta State Bank can do it. Maybe one of the big national ones wouldn't. Maybe the town of Sheldon at 5,000 people or less doesn't have the things that would make a large national bank comfortable in terms of loaning out money. But Cometta State Bank will go and loan out the money.

So it is a lot different in these small areas with that trust from this great responsibility. And because people in Hampton value loyalty so much, the betrayal they're feeling from Russell Lafitte and Cometta State Bank just cuts deeper than it would if it were a corporate business and a big city. The loyalty runs so deep.

So if you got a bank, you could go to Bank of America and they got the dope apps on your cell phone where everything's all convenient. You can order checks online and the website is all fancy. Yeah, you could do that, but nah. You in Hampton, I'm a rock with my local bank. They employ local people. They help take care of us locally.

And hey, I remember when they sponsored, which is really crazy, Mandy, Cometta State Bank actually sponsored the Hampton football player of the week. And it was the son of one of my clients who had their money stolen. The circles in Hampton are small. And when those circles of trust are broken,

everything falls apart. You know, the Lafitte family without loyalty in Hampton, their bank never gets started in 1907. Never, it doesn't matter how powerful you are, how well-liked you are, if your local community doesn't rock with you, you're never gonna build an empire. You know, I think that's why it's so crushing

for so many people, whether it be you talk about Alec, you know, whether you talk about P and PED, not catching the fraud that was going on, whether you talk about Russell Lafitte and his role, or the bank and its failures. Like, people expect you to have their back because it's not just their support that helped build your empires, it's their suffering.

When their mama dies, that's whose case you settle. When their son becomes a quadriplegic, that's whose case you take and you put multiple millions of dollars annually into Pometta State Bank because you're making fee money off of local people's pain and suffering. So it's really deep if you think about it, you know?

And I think that's why so many people are upset and bothered and hurt by what happened, including people who didn't have their money taken. Like, they're just hurt because their community's hurt. And a lot of us understand that. As Justin said, at the end of the day, Russell Lafitte owes the people of Hampton County. I just can't for the life of me understand

how an individual like Russell Lafitte, I believe fifth or sixth generation in that bank could forget that he owes then folks in Hampton. Like, how could he forget when he looked at the life that he has? And when you stop and extract the tiny pieces of this story, like the fact that Russell took a $60,000 conservator fee

from the Pinkney family during a time when they needed it the most, it feels worse than betrayal and greed. It feels evil. And meanwhile, Russell Lafitte, who's already making well into six figures a year, who owns 9% of that bank, with the bank being valued at $700 million,

y'all could do the math, and he will go and allow Alex himself to finagle and unjustly take $60,000 from a dead person for what? Probably 25 minutes worth of actual work with most of that 25 minutes being how can we take this money? Most of the people,

majority of the people living in the county that is home to that bank have to work two years to make $60,000. What makes Russell Lafitte think that his name or whatever warrants him taking 60 grand from somebody, especially when you know that they got to pay for a funeral

and that they've got medical bills in the millions of dollars and stuff like that? What are they thinking? How did the bank not catch it? And we'll be right back. If the indictments told us one story, it would be that Alec did not act alone in this. I'm just sitting here thinking, though,

and it really, if you think about it, Alec Murdoch has been getting thrown under the bus since before Omicron strain was over here. The justice bus is already on him and is actually moving now. They need to quit trying to throw him under the bus and they better find somebody else to snitch on or tell on or come forth with some information

because this whole Alec, Alec, Alec, Alec thing got played out as soon as we found out this was going on for over a decade. The truth is, is that the heat is turning up on Alec's co-conspirators and no one who helped Alec with this despicable scheme is safe from the long arm of the law.

If I was them based on what I saw in the indictments and what I've seen in the paperwork, I would definitely look behind me before I sat down to make sure that I don't sit on the hot iron, but I think all the makings are there in my opinion and through all of this part of the thing though, Mandy, what everybody wants is everybody, you know, victims, the public, everybody wants to know what was going on.

And my question is at what point, how many indictments in do we have to give before the 100% truth comes out? You know, all we've seen today is everybody trying to blame Alec and make him fall down like he could do this by himself. He's Alec Murdoch. He's a Murdoch, but he ain't Superman.

You know what I'm saying? Like, so there were other things in play here. There were other doors that were left open for Alec to walk through. And how many indictments do we have to see before anybody who knows more information just comes forward and tells? I mean, it's not snitching, not in my opinion.

We talk about people who deserve to know these answers. Do the right thing. Like that should be the standard in life, not the exception. You know, doing the right thing shouldn't be contingent on the hot iron getting close to your area. You know, we're expecting to hold ourselves to a certain standard in life, whether you're at the top or whether you're at the bottom,

the societal quote unquote bottom. The same standards apply to all of us. It just seems like to stay face or to keep themselves out of any potential of getting in trouble. Everybody wants to just throw Alec Murdoch under the bus. He already under the bus. The bus been on top of Alec.

Sooner or later, the Justice Mobile is going to just mush Alec Murdoch and then somebody else is gonna be under it. The question is who? And the question is when? You know, but I feel like it's coming and everything that I've seen, like I say, it's not just disgusting.

It seems there's a lot of moral implications here and a lot of societal and systemic implications here. And we can only hope that at the end of the day, as long as Alec Murdoch is still alive, he still has the opportunity to do the right thing. As long as people are still tied to PNPED, there's an opportunity for PNPED to do the right thing. As long as Palmetto State Bank exists

and they have a board in charge of them, they still have an opportunity to do the right thing. And you can only hope in the goodness of the world that people will do the right thing. If people don't, there are folks like you and Eric and me and Mark Tinsley and the South Carolina Attorney General's office and the public. And most importantly, I think are the people

in Hampton County, they'll make you. On Tuesday afternoon, while we were finishing up the podcast, I received an email from Megan Pacquen, Vice President of Poston Communications. Poston is an Orlando based public relations firm that specializes in crisis communication. Turns out Palmetto State Bank hired them to manage their image.

In the past two days, we've heard from sources that Palmetto State Bank is in extreme cleanup mode and is desperately working not to lose their federal charter. The feeling that we're getting is that the bank wanted to pay people back and move on as fast as they can. Even though we had finished recording this episode, I told Megan that she could send us a statement. I asked her to tell us about the bank's position

on Russell DeFeet's alleged involvement in the theft of almost $2.3 million. I also asked her what the bank is doing to make this right for victims. Here is the statement Megan provided on behalf of G. Trenholm Walker, the bank's attorney. Palmetto State Bank did not benefit from and did not receive fees from the transactions

referenced in the most recent indictment of Alec Murdoch. It also did not benefit from or receive fees from the transactions that involved the Pinkney settlement funds. When information about the transactions Alec Murdoch orchestrated came to light, the bank's board of directors took immediate action to begin an investigation and simultaneously

severed the employment of former CEO, Russell DeFeet. The bank and its board of directors remain committed to determining what exactly occurred and while the bank has defenses to the claims that have been asserted, it intends to do the right thing and accomplish full restitution for those affected. When I asked Megan whether we could expect that the victims who trusted Russell DeFeet

to protect their money, money that was ultimately stolen would be fully compensated by Palmetto State Bank. She responded that Palmetto State Bank, quote, will make every effort to accomplish full restitution for those whose settlement money was diverted to others in transactions processed at the bank, end quote. So the bank wants you to know that they didn't benefit from Russell's alleged thefts

because they didn't make any money off of it and they want you to know that they have defenses to any notion that they're responsible. Also, how much money do you think that they're spending to get somebody to turn the words stealing money into settlement money that was diverted to others and how much of that money would be better off being spent on paying back every person

who had their money stolen? Here's where I have a problem. The bank seems to be trying to separate itself from Russell DeFeet as if he were some rogue individual and not the literal leader of their institution. And most members on the board are Russell's family members, by the way. And our real problem with this is the bank saying

it wants to make things right. But from what we understand, they're pushing back and trying to find ways to bend and twist reality in their favor. The bottom line is this never should have happened. The bank is in a position of trust and Russell DeFeet, if he did these things, was 100% synonymous with the bank and the bank was 100% synonymous with Russell DeFeet.

It is so infuriating to see the spin, but it's not going to keep us from bringing the truth to light so that the victims, most of whom have not been publicly identified yet, get what they should have gotten in the first place. Stay tuned. And before we end this podcast, I want to say thank you

to those who have supported our mission to expose the truth wherever it leads. Your positive comments on social media or encouraging emails are truly appreciated. 99% of the comments we received are from good-natured people who believe in what we are doing. We are holding agencies accountable and changing a system

that has applied unequal justice for far too long. Also, I'd like to take a moment and say thank you to the ABC News and 2020 crew. I turned down a lot of projects because they didn't feel right or at times they felt downright wrong. But the 2020 team made me feel like they would do the story in its many victims justice and they did.

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram or follow Mandy on Twitter. Mandy works tirelessly to expose the truth wherever it leads. I and countless others believe she's the best in the business and pursuing the saga for all the right reasons. Admittedly, I'm a little biased. But if you do believe in our mission,

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The Murdoch Murders podcast is created by me, Mandy Matney and my fiance, David Moses. Our executive editor is Liz Farrell. Produced by Luna Shark Productions. Woof, woof.