Murdaugh Murders Podcast - MMP #22 - Alex Murdaugh Charged With 21 New Felonies
Episode Date: December 11, 2021The disgraced South Carolina attorney, Alex Murdaugh, was hit with 21 new felonies from the state Grand Jury. His bond hearing — which was surrounded by skeptism — was postponed and that is a v...ery big deal. In this episode, we discuss each one of the seven new indictments involving Alex’s alleged scheme and his new bond hearing which was mysteriously postponed. Sources have told us they expect to see hundreds of charges against Alex when all is said and done. Some sources have told us that this case is going to be the biggest case of fraud the state — and maybe even the country — has ever seen. Stay Tuned, Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight...☀️ Please consider donating to the Justice For Stephen Go Fund Me. Premium Members also get access to ad-free listening, searchable case files, written articles with documents, case photos, episode videos and exclusive live experiences with our hosts on lunasharkmedia.com all in one place. CLICK HERE to learn more: https://bit.ly/3BdUtOE. Check out our LUNASHARK Merch 👕 What We're Buying... https://amzn.to/4cJ0eVn Advertising is curated by the talented team at AdLarge Media. *** ALERT: If you ever notice audio errors in the pod, email info@lunasharkmedia.com and we'll send fun merch to the first listener that finds something that needs to be adjusted! *** For current & accurate updates: bsky.app/profile/mandy-matney.com | bsky.app/profile/elizfarrell.com TrueSunlight.com instagram.com/mandy_matney facebook.com/TrueSunlightPodcast/ Instagram.com/TrueSunlightPod instagram.com/elizfarrell youtube.com/@LunaSharkMedia tiktok.com/@lunasharkmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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This is Alec Murdoch.
I need police and an ambulance immediately.
Murdoch, Death in the Family Official Podcast is here.
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I don't know how many crimes Ehrlich Murdoch will be charged with, but this week, the disgraced
South Carolina attorney was hit with 21 new felony charges, and his bond hearing, which was
surrounded by skepticism, was postponed. And that is a very big deal. My name is Mandy Matney,
and I've been investigating the Murdoch family for almost three years now. This is a special
breaking episode of the Murdoch Murdoch Murders podcast with Liz Farrell and David Moble.
on the night before Elyke Murdoch scheduled bond hearing for the 27 charges he faced in
November the 53-year-old was hit with 21 more charges bringing his grand total to 53 charges
Elyke Murdoch has been behind bars on charges related to the glorious Satterfield case
since October 14th soon after the South Carolina Attorney General's office announced
the seven indictments against Elyke Murdoch, we heard from several sources that the bond
hearing scheduled for Friday morning was delayed. There were some shenanigans happening behind the
scenes that we believe led to the postponement of Ehrlich Murdoch's bond hearing. And we're going to
talk about those shenanigans later in this episode. But first, let's go over those seven indictments
against Ehrlich. As of December 9th, Eleg Murdoch is accused of stealing more than $6.2 million in
alleged games that date back to 2016.
First, a little refresher.
In 2015 and 2018,
ELEC opened two extremely fake business accounts at Bank of America using the name Forge,
which closely resembles the name of a reputable settlement management agency out of Atlanta,
called Forge Consulting LLC,
where, as a quick aside, there seemed to be an awful lot of men with the Roman numeral 4 after their names.
Also fun to note, ELEC was apparently good friends with one of the agency's principles.
So here's why this is important.
Lawyers have a fiduciary responsibility to their clients, which basically means they're obligated
to advise their clients on financial decisions that would be in the client's best interest.
Oftentimes, this means helping clients minimize their tax burdens and helping maximize their total
takeaway through structured settlement plans that provide annuities.
The real Forge Consulting Company is a brokerage firm widely used by attorneys to set up settlement plans for their clients.
This is not what ELEC did.
Every one of those seven indictments involves ELEC's alleged scheme using his fake forge accounts.
And we will go over those seven indictments.
Indictment number one.
The Johnny Bush case.
In June 2016, Ehrlich allegedly pretended that 100,000,
$100,000 of Johnny's settlement money was used to pay someone to do quote-unquote accident reconstruction for Johnny's case.
Elic apparently took $95,000 of that money by having a check cut from PMPED's client trust fund and then deposited it in his forge account.
He then withdrew some of the money as cash, used some of it to pay his credit card bills, and wrote checks to his associates, according to the indictment.
Number 2, the Jamie and Risher case. In August 2016, Ehrlich is accused of having a $90,000
check written from PMPED's Client Trust Fund with the description regarding Jamie and Risher,
who had received an unknown amount of money because of unspecified injuries.
Elic deposited the money in his forge account and again used the money, the money that was
supposed to go to Jamie in, to pay his credit card bills, withdraws cash, and write checks to himself
and his associates. Then, unbelievably, three years later, between August and November of 2019,
ELEC won on a trip to New York and allegedly spent more than $5,000 of Jamian's settlement money
on his blight and his meals. That is hardcore. Indictment number three, the Randy Droughty case.
In November 2017, Ehrlich is accused of having Randy sign a settlement disbursement form that showed
that the firm was withholding almost $9,000 for medical bills and $750 for private investigator services.
Instead of using that money for those purposes, Ehrlich allegedly deposited it into his forge account
and used it for personal expenses. We have to point out that $10,000 is pennies to a lot of lawyers.
Elyke Murdoch included. So why would he bother?
Indeatement number four, the Jordan Jenks case. In August 2,000,
In 2018, Murdoch allegedly convinced his longtime family friend, Jordan Jenks, who had come to him for help, that PMPED had to keep $85,000 of Jordan's settlement money to pay for a medical insurance lien.
What did ELEC do with this money?
You guessed it.
He paid his credit card bills, got some cash, and wrote checks to his associates.
I'm not done.
Then, two months later, Ehrlich allegedly.
did it again, but this time he told Jordan the medical insurance lien was for $65,000.
Let's be clear here. If someone believes they have the medical insurance lien for $150,000,
that means they were significantly injured. I'm not done. Elick is also accused of forging
Jordan's signature on a disbursement sheet, which is a document on which a client acknowledges
and improves the money he is receiving from his settlement. I'll say it again.
ELEC supposedly did this to a longtime family friend.
Indictment number five.
The Blondell Gary Estate case.
In April 2019, the same month his son was charged with three felony boating under the influence charges in Beaufort County.
Alec is accused of gaining the trust of the personal representative of the Blondell Gary estate
and taking $112,500 of the estate's money from the client trust fund.
He allegedly deposited this money into his forge account and used it to pay family members,
pay his credit card bills, withdraw as cash, and write checks to his associates.
Indictment number six, the Christopher Anderson case.
Between February and July 2020, a full year after Ehrlich and his family have been in the press,
Christopher came to Ehrlich for help.
Christopher had been heard on the job and was supposed to receive a 750,000,000.
$1,000 check for his injuries.
Elic allegedly stole the entire $750,000 from Christopher and told him that the money was being
held in an annuity account for structured settlements.
Reminder, this means that the $750,000 was supposed to go to the real forge where it would
have been used to purchase an insurance policy that would have earned Christopher interest
over time.
According to the indictment, Elyke apparently used Christopher's money to make loan payments,
spend his cash and write checks to his associates.
Indictment number seven, the Sandra Taylor case.
Between November and December 2020,
when the Murdoch family was already in the local media limelight,
Ehrlich allegedly convinced the person representing Sandra's estate
that Sandra's wrongful death case wasn't worth more than $30,000.
Eleg allegedly told this person that because it was so low,
he wasn't going to even take his usual fee.
So nice of him.
But really, Elyke got more than $180,000 for Sandra's estate and allegedly took more than $150,000 for himself and spent it on credit card payments, payments to family members, and checks written to his associates.
We don't know who those associates are, but we will find out.
And we'll be right back.
Reading each of the 12 indictments against Elyke Marnock is really difficult.
Even though they're not all that detailed, it's easy to see how much pain Elyx greed has allegedly caused people.
And not just people.
These were his friends and his neighbors.
Over and over, they used the phrase,
came to Elyke Murdoch for help, which is heartbreaking when you really think about it.
These were people who trusted him.
The Murdoch name, the Murdoch legacy, met something to them.
These were people who needed him.
They had been wronged.
hurt physically, hurt emotionally. They were in dire straits with expenses. They had large medical
bills to pay. Some were likely out of work. And he lied to them, allegedly, and took their money,
allegedly, and then lied to them some more, allegedly. These indictments show how low Ehrlich was
allegedly willing to go. But why? And where did the money go? Liz and I have spent a lot of time pouring
over these indictments and we want to share with you what we've learned.
Takeaway number one. A lot of people are missing a lot of money. If it wasn't clear to us
already, it sure is now. This case is an absolute monster. It is complicated and unruly and
Ellick apparently had a type. The victims listed in the indictments so far have had a lot in common.
They trusted the Murdoch name.
They trusted Ehrlich in particular.
They went to him for help in getting settlements for their accidents, their injuries, and in their
wrongful death claims.
And they don't appear to have alerted law enforcement when they didn't get their money.
Why is that?
One reason could simply be that Ehrlich lied to them, which he apparently did a lot according
to these indictments.
Maybe they asked him about the money and maybe he put them off.
And maybe they believed him.
Another reason might be that many of these people,
probably didn't know they had been stolen from yet.
Maybe they weren't due to receive any part of their annuity
prior to these investigations.
Yet another reason, though, could be that they were afraid
of questioning a member of the Murdoch family.
Hampton County residents especially have told us
that questioning a Murdoch or double-crossing them
by telling on them never works out well.
Not only was ELEC a well-known lawyer from a prestigious law firm
and a member of a prominent family,
Ellick was a law enforcement officer.
He was a badge carrying member of the Solicitor's Office,
which is South Carolina's version of the District Attorney's Office.
Again, these people trusted what Ellick told them.
They trusted that he was looking out for them.
According to these indictments,
he was not looking out for them.
From what we're hearing, more indictments are coming,
and they could be coming for quite some time.
Prosecutors with the State Attorney General's office
appear to be presenting their cases in batches,
so as not to overwhelm the state grand jury.
Some sources have told us they expect to see hundreds of charges against Elek when all is said and done.
Some sources have told us that this case is going to be the biggest case of fraud,
the state, and maybe even the country, has ever seen.
Takeaway number two, ELEC clearly does have an addiction.
His attorney's Dick and Jim want us to believe that he's an addict with a $10 million drug habit.
There has been a lot of debate about the extent of ELEC's apparent drug addiction.
According to our sources, he really did have a substance abuse problem, but we have yet to hear
anything that points to an addiction like the ones ELEC's attorneys have been describing.
At this point, we have to ask, was ELEC maybe addicted to stealing?
The man described in the 12 indictments so far seemed to be someone who was open to stealing
any amount of money from just about anyone using any cover. In fact, it's starting to look like
Ehrlich did more stealing than litigating. And no one was safe from a scheme. He allegedly tricked
his best friend Beaufort attorney Corey Fleming into helping him steal from the heirs of the woman
who helped raise his children. He allegedly tricked a longtime friend and college roommate who is
Bamberg County attorney Chris Wilson into bypassing PMPED's internal financial process and paying
ELEC directly for his half of attorney fees. The current indictments say that he stole from another
longtime family friend and forged his name. Is it possible that ELEC liked the feeling of
taking money from other people? Is it possible that he was addicted to the feeling of getting
away with something? Takeaway number three. Something else
has to be going on here. So far, Elyke is accused of stealing $6.2 million. And as we've said,
sources have indicated that we are nowhere near the end of this. We're starting to learn how
Ehrlich was able to allegedly steal the money. But we haven't seen any logical explanation as to
why he was allegedly stealing it. The question has to be asked, is there a bigger picture crime
here? There has been a lot of speculation online about Ehrlich's friendship with an alleged
low country drug smuggler who died a few years ago.
Officials have not revealed any definitive or direct evidence that ELEC has been involved in any kind of drug trafficking.
But let's maybe take a look at one interesting aspect of smuggling.
The Low Country has a lot of history with drug trafficking.
According to the book Jackpot, High Times, High Seas, and the Sting that launched the War on Drugs by Jason Ryan,
which is a really interesting read about a massive drug bust here, involving a group called the
gentleman smugglers. Drug trafficking requires a significant investment on the part of
kingpins. They have to have money to buy the drugs and infrastructure like boats and planes to
smuggle the drugs and they have to pay people to transport the drugs. Apparently, back in the day of
the gentleman smugglers, they used investors to fund their drug runs. Again, just to be clear,
we're not saying ELEC is a drug smuggler. But it does become more and more concerning as to why he was
allegedly stealing and what he was doing with the money. If only credit card bills and quote
unquote checks to associates were available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act.
Alex's reputation, among some attorneys in the low country, was that he was lazy and not looking
to work too hard on his cases. Is it possible that he wasn't making the money needed to support his
and his family's lifestyles? Despite the national media portraying the Murdox as this fur coat and
tuxedo-wearing family with a high-priced lifestyle, the Murdox really weren't all that extravagant,
according to those who know them.
Sure, they flew private, but were told they used one of the law partners jets and basically paid for the gas and the pilot and whatever other expenses come with the flight.
All told their flights weren't that much more expensive than commercial tickets apparently.
And yes, they set courtside at basketball games, but those were college games.
It's not like they were hanging out with Jack Nicholson and watching the Lakers.
According to people who know them, the Murdox liked to throw parties and were the kind of friends that paid for everything when you were around them.
them. They really were known as generous people, by the way. But this isn't a family where you're
going to hear about champagne fountains and buckets of caviar. I'm not an economics professor,
but I'm pretty sure that barn parties don't cost $6.2 million, no matter how much Miller
light your friends like to drink. There has been some, I'll call it, informed speculation,
among sources who know ELEC, that he was perhaps being blackmailed and using the money to pay
people for their silence. Right now, we just don't know. A few weeks ago, Elyke Murdox
attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition in the South Carolina Supreme Court to challenge Judge
Newman's ruling that was keeping ELEC behind bars. To several of my sources, this move was a clear
indication that ELEC was desperate to get out of jail. And now we know why. Elick knows how many
clients he allegedly wronged, or he should know. He likely knew that as soon as investigators
opened the Pandora's box of the forge accounts, he'd be toast no matter how much he was paying
his bulldog attorneys. Who knows where Elyke Murdoch would be if Newman granted his bond in October?
Ehrlich is a textbook example of a flight risk. He's likely got a lot of cash somewhere, and he's got
the connections and the funds to hop on a plane and disappear. Newman ruled Ehrlich as a danger to
himself and society. And the more that we find out about Ehrlich Murdoch, we get why
Newman made that call.
Takeaway number five.
How many people knew that this was happening and did nothing?
As we learn more and more about ELEC's forged scheme and all of the clients who were allegedly
wronged, it's clear that Ehrlich was in the middle of a criminal operation of some sort.
It's highly unlikely that he came up with the scheme and pursued it all by himself.
Ehrlich has been described to us by dozens of sources who knew him.
And maybe this is mean, but none of them have ever accused him.
of being a genius. Quite the opposite, in fact. We've heard he was a schmoozer, we've heard he was
charismatic, we've heard he was fun at parties, but we've also heard that he was sloppy. So,
we don't think he could have done this alone, not for long, not with this many people involved. So,
were there others? His associates, perhaps? Did family patriarch and former solicitor Randolph Murdoch
know about this? Randolph worked with Alec both at the solicitor's office and PMPED. He was widely respected
among law enforcement agencies and attorneys across the state.
And they aren't going to be happy with us for asking this question, but it has to be asked.
If Randolph was as great of an attorney as everyone says he was, wouldn't he have known his own
son was allegedly stealing from clients and using the prestige of their family's law firm
to do so?
And what about PMPD?
What did they know about Ellick's financial irregularities?
And when did they know it?
And if they didn't know, how in the heck did they miss it?
Our sources have told us there are potential charges coming for cases that are much old.
older than the ones we've seen so far.
So this didn't raise any red flags for anyone?
At this point, there are three options in our opinion.
Either they were actively complicit,
lending him help from the inside,
or they were willfully ignorant
and never bothered asking too many questions,
or they were straight up irresponsible.
No matter how you look at it,
PMPD had a duty to protect their clients.
And, well, here we are.
Which leads us to perhaps the most important question of all.
What did Maggie know before she died?
What did Paul know?
And what does Buster know?
Takeaway number six.
Elic Murdoch allegedly kept stealing when he knew people were watching.
Three of the seven recent indictments were based on crimes that took place after the fatal boat crash in 2019 that killed Mallory Beach.
In 2019, Ehrlich Murdoch was well aware that local reporters were watching the Murdoch family closely.
Ehrlich knew that the public suspected corruption in that case because of the Murdoch's involvement and influence.
And make no mistake, the beach case was a big local story at the time in 2019.
Most of the low country was watching that case very closely.
And looking back, I first wrote about the sketchy Gloria Satterfield settlement in late 2019
when we didn't know the half of it, and it appears that this did nothing.
to change Elyke's behavior.
This tells us a lot about Elex's character
and confidence in the system that surrounded him.
He really believed that he would never get caught.
He underestimated local media.
He underestimated local law enforcement.
And he underestimated the victims
who he allegedly stole so much from.
Takeaway number seven.
The Bulldog attorneys might be good old boys,
but neither are very good boys.
In fact, they're in the dog house.
After news of the indictments broken,
on Thursday evening, ELEC's less fancy attorney, Jim Griffin, spoke to the Island Packet newspaper
and appeared completely blindsided by the recent charges against his client. Here is what Griffin said.
The fact of the matter is, we just learned of the charges. We have not had the chance to review
the charges, and we are trying to get a bond hearing scheduled on these charges along with the
original state grand jury charges. Oh, have times changed? If you'll remember, the first time
Ehrlich was charged in that alleged suicide for hire scheme, it appeared like his attorneys called
all the shots. In September, Dick conveniently announced in a TV interview that Ehrlich would be
turning himself into Hampton County jail the next day, and his bond hearing, held in his home court
of Hampton County, appeared to go completely according to the Bulldogs' plan. Now, it appears like
Ehrlich Murdoch is being treated like every other accused criminal. And that is a treat. A treat for
South Carolina. No treats for the Bulldogs. Which leads us to our next point. What was up with
Ehrlich's bond hearing this week? Something seemed off about this from the beginning. On December 6th,
a day before it was announced publicly, multiple sources close to the investigation, told us that
Elek Murdoch's bond hearing was scheduled for Friday and that a different judge, not the judge
who had been assigned to all of the Murdoch cases, would preside. This immediately set off
alarm bells to those of us on the lookout for signs of
or other corruptions in this case.
So what we were told is that Judge Allison Lee, who presides over the state grand jury,
would now be setting his bond on the 27 counts he was charged with in November.
The Supreme Court Chief Justice issued an order assigning Judge Lee to the case,
and it felt like a switcheroo.
The order basically said,
So actually, we know back in September that we said Judge Clifton Newman would be presiding
over all criminal matters related to Alec Murdoch.
But we just realized that the state law says that bail for state grand jury defendants
must be set by the current judge over the state grand jury,
who happens to be a judge known for releasing violent criminals.
But this is normal.
So yeah, we're going to do that now.
So lots of red flags here.
We understand that the law.
backs this up. But why? When they already handpicked Judge Newman to preside over all criminal
matters related to Elyke Mardock, did they not stop and think, hum, the state grand jury is
likely going to be involved in this? Shouldn't we address that in this order? And the court just so
happened to issue this new order at a time when Dick and Jim appear to be very desperate to get Elyke
Murdoch out of jail. They didn't get their way with Newman during the October bond hearing.
And after submitting a wit of habeas corpus to the Supreme Court to basically overrule Newman when
Newman wouldn't budge. They're not stupid. They know there are going to be waves and waves of new
charges coming from the state grand jury. They know that their hope of getting Ellic Murdoch
out of jail is getting a new judge on the case immediately. And then suddenly, an order is filed
a week before Alex Bond hearing that gives ambiguous power to a judge who is known for releasing
violent criminals. And again, we're told this is totally normal. Come on. And then there was a problem
with how much power Lee actually would have at the bond hearing. We were told that it was possible
that the South Carolina Supreme Court would issue another order this week,
giving Lee total power over the bond hearing and the ability to overrule Newman's decision to keep
Ehrlich Mardock in jail.
But this presented a lose-lose situation for the justice system.
If Newman was chosen as the best of the best, the judge they trusted to be fair in this case
that has flipped the South Carolina justice system upside.
down, was overruled by this other judge who suspiciously entered the picture recently.
The whole system would have looked bad.
And then there was the secrecy with Ellick Murdoch's hearing.
We called and called and emailed Judge Lee's office this week to ensure press access to the
bond hearing, and they wouldn't respond.
We were told that they didn't respond to any press request this week.
We actually had to send a letter to the South Carolina
Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon asking them to issue a formal order allowing press access.
And that is how broken our system is.
It forces us to question everything.
We suspected that Alex Bond hearing was postponed on Thursday evening for reasons besides
Alex's charges.
But who knows?
On Monday at Alex rescheduled bond hearing, we will be watching for more shenanigans.
So stay tuned.
This week marks the 24th anniversary of my brother Michael's death.
Michael was my only sibling, my first friend, my partner in childhood, and his death rocked my
entire world.
He died on December 11, 1997.
I was seven, he was nine.
And as his only sibling, I feel duty-bound to keep his memory alive and ensure the world
that he has not forgotten.
Michael was witty, fearless, talented, brilliant.
and gracious. I always felt like Michael was a better sibling. He was smarter than me, more athletic than me, and far more charismatic.
I was an incredibly shy kid and my mom would always say that Michael spoke for me when I was too scared.
Michael was a light of so many lives. 24 years later, I still miss him every day. But I consider that to be a good thing. After all of these years of grieving him, I'm still finding purpose for all of the pain. While they're
There is nothing I wouldn't give to give my brother back.
His death may be a better human being, that's for sure.
It left me with a constant need to live a fulfilling and fearless life, which is a blessing
and a curse at the same time.
It gave me the courage to pursue stories like this one, knowing that I've already survived
the unimaginable.
I know that so many of y'all are grieving loved ones, especially around the holiday season,
And I want you to know that you are not alone and that it's okay to not be okay.
And it's okay to feel an immense amount of sadness after losing someone you love, even decades later.
And if you're not grieving a loved one this holiday season, I encourage you to lift others up who are.
Ask them how they're really doing.
Talk to them and really listen to what they're saying.
Tonight, hold your loved ones tight.
Tell your brother that you love him.
Call your mom.
Forgive your sister.
If I've learned anything from my brother's death and this story, it's that life is really, really short and everything can change in an instant.
That's the message that I think Michael would want me to share this holiday season.
Thank you for supporting us.
Thank you for listening.
Stay strong and stay tuned.
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.
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