Murdaugh Murders Podcast - MMP #25 - Taking On "The Firm" - Part One

Starting point is 00:00:00 This is Alec Murdoch. I need police and an ambulance immediately. Murdoch, Death in the Family Official Podcast, is here. I'm joining Patricia Arquette, Jason Clark, and the cast to uncover all things Murdoch. Family first. To unravel the story piece by piece was really surprising because you don't want to believe it. Murdoch, Death in the Family Official Podcast, Wednesdays. And stream Murdoch, Death in the Family on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers.

Starting point is 00:00:30 Terms apply. I don't know exactly what role Ehrlich Murdoch's law firm played in his alleged crimes. But we're hearing some disturbing accounts about how PMPED is allegedly handling the victims. And it's important that we peel back the layers of accountability as this case keeps expanding. My name is Mandy Matney. I'm a local journalist who has been investigating the Murdoch family for almost three years now. This is the Murdoch murders podcast with David Moses and Liz Farrell. As you know, we are a mission-driven podcast.

Starting point is 00:01:19 We expose the truth wherever it leads. While accomplishing this mission, we always take care to respect victims, and we are sensitive to the traumatic nature of this story. We are also sensitive to our fans, many of whom have requested MMP merchandise, and we believe that we found a great way to accomplish. accomplish both of these goals. We are so excited to announce today that pre-sales for Murdoch Murdoch Murdoch is now live at Murdochmerderspodcast.com slash M-E-R-C-H. All net proceeds from merchandise are donated to victim-focused charities like Hopeful Horizons and others on a regular

Starting point is 00:02:06 rotation. Hopeful Horizons is a children's advocacy, domestic violence, and rape crisis center. I believe in this charity. Together, we can create safer communities by changing the culture of violence and offering a path to healing for victims. Check out Murdochmurterspodcast.com slash merch and shop the first flight of products. Or let us know what products and organizations you'd like to see here. And as always, we encourage you to subscribe for the latest updates in the case and best news in South Carolina. But now you can also follow the Murdoch Murders Podcast on Instagram and Facebook for alerts on the case, the podcast, and our team, including Luna.

Starting point is 00:02:54 Click the links in the description or search for Murdoch Murdoch's podcast on your favorite platform. Previously on the Murdoch Murdoch, we told you about how Ellick Murdoch is accused of stealing more than 6.2 million related to his fake forge accounts at Bank of America dating back to 2016. He's accused of stealing millions of dollars from clients while he was a partner at the law firm started by his great-grandfather. P-M-P-E-D. But so far, P-M-P-E-D has escaped accountability for the most part. While P-M-P-E-D partners have been claiming to make Alex's victims whole, It appears like something else was happening behind the scenes.

Starting point is 00:03:42 And today, I'm going to introduce you all to a new voice for victims in this case, Attorney Justin Bamberg. He was one of the first lawmakers I met. Earlier this year, I wrote a profile about Justin and his dad when his father was sworn in as the first African American sheriff in Bamberg County, South Carolina. Bamberg County, where Justin is from, is just north of Hampton County. It's small, rule, and poor, just like Hampton County. Justin is also a state representative for the district that includes Moselle, and he brings a different perspective to this case as a whole because of his roots in rural South Carolina.

Starting point is 00:04:20 If you grew up over in this neck of the woods or this part of the state, you've been familiar with the Murdoch family. You've been familiar with that particular law firm, and it's something that's kind of been around for a very, very long time. And in general, when you live in rural South Carolina, almost everything is institutionalized. The concept of new is not something you see here very often. Usually, if it's a doctor, that doctor was the doctor for your parent. If it's a law firm, that law firm was the law firm for one of your elders before you. Kind of how this part of the state has been. If you were in Hampton, it was the firm.

Starting point is 00:05:09 And that's what people referred to them as the farm. The reputation was one where, I mean, they would win. They would win folks' compensation. Hampton County has always been a bad venue to get sued in if you were a defendant or a company, much like most of these counties. You know, we don't have much over here. One thing that we have consistently had is people here are hard work,

Starting point is 00:05:35 They're good, honest folks, and they've had to effectively fight for everything that they've had in life. And people do not like companies that take advantage of folks or injure folks. What we're kind of seeing here is a firm and a family in the Murdoch, or Alec Murdoch, who have for years been on that side, you know, fighting against these companies. And now it turns out that people are at this point having to fight back against them. And they're in the position that some of the other defendants have been in that they've gone after for a hundred years or so. Things are coming full circle for PMPED. Long ago, the firm staked out its own corner of the earth in Hampton County.

Starting point is 00:06:21 Its brick building stands in stark contrast to every other structure within miles of it. It is large and formidable. It is the, quote, house that CSX built, which is a reference to the millions the firm made in suing the railroad company. PMPED has been at the helm for generations cultivating a reputation of absolute unassailability, like kings in their castle. Even now, the firm seems to be regarded as a legitimate second government of Hampton County. They have been punishers and heroes, saviors, and fixers. If you want help, you go to them.

Starting point is 00:06:53 They get results. They have spent decades projecting the image that they are right there, standing by the side of regular folks, protecting them from the bad guys, from the people who seek to take advantage of them. So many people feel they owe the firm and its individual attorneys their loyalty. But there are two sides to the firm's generosity. Hampton County has been called a judicial hellhole and is known for fixed juries, judges

Starting point is 00:07:17 friendly to plaintiffs, outsized settlements, and jury awards, chasing businesses and job opportunities away. This has helped people individually, but has also been seen as playing a major role in holding back the county as a whole. Hampton County is impoverished. There's virtually no industry there, which means a good portion of the country, the population must travel an hour and a half in some cases on stuffy, crowded buses to work on the coast, the same coast that serves as the weekend playground for many of the firm's

Starting point is 00:07:44 attorneys. Now, for the first time, the firm is finding itself on the other side of the courtroom, and the question is being asked, were they the real bad guys all along? Justin Bamber got involved in this case earlier this month when a man by the name of Johnny Bush called him. Bush was one of six victims named in the December indictment, against Elyke Murdoch. Bush suffered catastrophic injuries in a vehicle accident in 2016 and hired Murdoch to represent him. In June 2016, Elyke Murdoch allegedly told his client Johnny Bush that he had spent $100,000 of a settlement money on accident reconstruction for Bush's case. Instead, Murdoch had a check written for $95,000 to his own fake Forge account for his personal use.

Starting point is 00:08:37 I've been keeping up with everything that's been going on. A, it's been absolutely crazy. I have been following the work that you've done since the beginning in terms of putting information out to people. So I was well aware of what was transpiring. I did not know how deep this particular aspect went. And I end up getting a call about some missing money. and kind of asked certain questions and find out exactly what's going on, trying to get your feet up onto you. And it really was mind-boggling.

Starting point is 00:09:15 And it started with one, and then it led to another call and another call of people who had certain experiences with the office, not just in Alec Murdoch misappropriating and stealing money. And that's where the misconception is, I think, for a lot of people who may be, be looking at what's going on. Alec stealing people's money is one thing. These are things that have transpired afterwards that in reality had very little to do with what Alec did. When Justin started digging and asking questions,

Starting point is 00:09:52 he noticed something was really wrong here with the way he was hearing that victims were being treated by PMPED attorneys. And what we saw is, for example, with Mr. Mr. Bush, his money gets taken five years ago. And when it comes to light by law enforcement, hey, Mr. Bush, you know, you're owed another $95,000. He goes and he's able to get that back, but that doesn't make anybody hold. And I've said this time and time again, if I went to a bank and I said, I want to borrow money to purchase a home.

Starting point is 00:10:31 and Mr. Bankerman, you're going to give me $95,000, and I'm going to pay you back when I want at zero percent interest, they're going to call security and have me escorted out because they're going to think that I've lost my mind. And that is what has been going on. I think most of us can agree that Alex's former clients deserve to receive interest on the money he allegedly stole from them. Honestly, this should go without saying this should shouldn't even be a conversation at this point, especially not when ELEC's defense attorneys attempted to make their client free by capitalizing on the good optics of making victims whole at his bond hearing earlier this month. But along with the matter of making victims whole by

Starting point is 00:11:16 accounting for factors like inflation and interest, there's another important consideration here, and that is the basic business of life. Every day, ELEC's former clients have made critical decisions in their lives based on not having their settlement money. Whether it was $95,000 or a million dollars, people make very different decisions when they don't have the security of knowing there's money in the bank. If Ehrlich did what he's accused of doing, he not only robbed these people of their money. He also stole an uncountable number of life choices from them. Decisions about medical care, employment, vehicle repairs, child care, education, relationships. All of these things are affected by our financial status, all of them.

Starting point is 00:12:01 So if he did this and if PMPED is making it worse by trying to limit damage to the firm, then we wouldn't call that, quote, making victims whole. I want to go back to the bond hearing again for a second because it's important to note that Alex attorneys Dick Harputlian and Jim Griffin indicated to the judge that 10 of the 12 victims who have been named in the indictments so far had been made whole. And yet here we are now talking about some of these same victims who have since sought representation because they do not believe they were made whole. That is quite a discrepancy.

Starting point is 00:12:33 One thing that is encouraging, though, is that law enforcement appears to be on its game when it comes to letting former clients of Ehrlich know they might be one of his victims. We'll be right back. On December 16th, Justin dropped a press release where he pretty much went for the jugular. In his news release,

Starting point is 00:13:01 Justin attacked the good old boy system than enabled Elyke Murdoch's bad behavior. He said Murdoch literally P&P. P-M-PED people's pockets. And he asked victims to email him at PMPED My Pockets at Bamberglegal.com. The funny thing here is that lawyers across the state who are familiar with PMPED are incredibly careful in what they say about the firm publicly. PMPED holds a lot of authority and frankly there's a crazy amount of reverence paid to them,

Starting point is 00:13:31 to the point that attorneys outside the firm will even go to the firm to get the partner's blessings before pursuing cases that could be across interests. Since the murders of Maggie and Paul, and throughout this past fall, the whispers among attorneys and those in the legal field were loud, but not too loud. What Jeffston did here, it might be hard for people outside the state to understand just how bold of a move it was. He not only told the victims in the state that he was willing to go up against the great and almighty firm, he sort of did the unspeakable in his press release by openly using the, let's call it, alternative pronunciation of PMPED, which is pimped, pimped people's pockets.

Starting point is 00:14:06 And then he created a dang email out. address for it. People's access to justice or being made whole, people's access to having someone fight for them should not be contingent on who's on the other side. And there are individuals in that office that, you know, I know, I respect. This is about the entity and this is about the fact that people were done wrong. There's an underlying context associated with the practice of law, in my opinion, that is hanging in the balance here. And South Carolina has been known as a good old boy state for a very long time. I mean, that doesn't matter whether you're talking law, politics or what. And I've never really been in the good old boy system here. It is what it is. At the end of the day, Alec Murdoch, Murdo,

Starting point is 00:15:08 was a member of the firm. He presumptively put money up to help fund the operations of the firm. And quite frankly, the firm profited from Alex Misbeads. They're on the hook here. What Bamberg is saying here, the P&PED profited from Alex misdeeds, that is a big deal. Justin isn't messing around. He's going where other attorneys haven't really gone before. up against a law firm that has been feared by folks in his region for decades.

Starting point is 00:15:48 When my clients entered into a contract for legal representation, that contract was entered into between client and law firm. Not client and Alec Murdoch or anybody else, client and law firm, the law firm dropped the ball here. And Alec Murdoch, yes, he went and took people's money, money, but those checks didn't come out of Alex Murdoch's personal account. My client's money that got taken got taken from the firm's client trust account. That bank account is in the name of the firm.

Starting point is 00:16:27 The firm is responsible. It is admirable for someone in the wake of something like this going on to say, we're going to make it right. We're going to make people whole. That's admirable. and if that is what you are actually doing, then you deserve to be commended for that. But what is not okay in the way that I view it is

Starting point is 00:16:51 these people are not being made whole. These people are being taken advantage of, their trust is being taken advantage of, their misinformation is being taken advantage of, and there are things that should have been explained to them, that lawyers have an obligation to explain under the rules of professional conduct. For example, lawyers are not allowed to try and limit or mitigate their own or their

Starting point is 00:17:18 firm's liability to a client or previous client by not informing them of certain things. You have a right to seek counsel. We encourage you to seek counsel to discuss this and giving people a reasonable opportunity to do that. When you call somebody in and they come in and, you know, you give them a check and don't explain any of their rights. You're operating as an attorney giving them legal counsel, but you're giving them half-ass legal counsel. Justin told us that from what he's seeing, it appears like P&PED partners underestimated LX victims when they tried to make them whole.

Starting point is 00:18:01 And likely, they never imagined that any of these people would seek legal advice from a lawyer like himself. I honestly believe that if people had the correct information, none of them would have just accepted these checks like, here you go, this is money that you're owed. They would have contacted an attorney first. That attorney would have been done exactly what we're doing here, which is saying, yes, the firm is going to give this individual this money back. But on top of that, you're going to pay.

Starting point is 00:18:37 interest, you're going to take into consideration punitive damages that the firm may face should this matter go to trial. And we're going to look at it like we would look at any case. It really looks like they're being victimized a second time. And there lies the problem that we keep seeing over and over again in this case, the powerful refusing to actually admit to their mistake. deeds and take responsibility for their actions and revictimizing victims in that process, which is horrible. And ever since Justin dropped that press release asking victims to come forward, he keeps hearing these jaw-dropping stories. I've been receiving calls from individuals. For example, there was someone who called in and was asking questions. And the underlying situation was really mind-boggling.

Starting point is 00:19:37 to me, you know, hey, when Alec tried to commit suicide, a week later he was in rehab, and I understand that, but he called me from rehab and told me that he settled my case. How? How? That literally, it's so mind-boggling, but at this point, you know, I think most people are of the position that nothing surprises them anymore. You know, that's just one example. Lord. So we cannot stress this enough. When it comes to allegations of Murdoch-involved crime,

Starting point is 00:20:21 the jig is never up. Never. I think most people would cool their jets for a while after being airlifted to a trauma center with a boo-boo on their head in an alleged murder-for-hire-insurance fraud scheme that ends up on national television. I think most attorneys would probably be a little embarrassed that the whole world now knows that they don't even know about the suicide cause and their own insurance policy, but not our boy. Elick's alleged suicide attempt was on September 4th. Four days later, the state Supreme Court suspended his license to practice law in South Carolina. From what Justin is saying here, Ehrlich appears to have practiced law after that. Why? Because the jig is never up. We'll be right back. Okay, so that story that we just heard about

Starting point is 00:21:13 Ehrlich allegedly claiming to have solved a case after his suicide incident, that isn't the only shocking story that Justin Bamberg has heard from Alex's clients recently. If you look at Mr. Anderson, another client of mine, not only did his money get misappropriated for approximately two years, when law enforcement made it known that money, he was missing. He then went to the firm and they took a 40% legal fee, which just blows my mind. You know, it blows my mind that under the eye of the firm, which owes a duty to this individual and others, that two years later, law enforcement tells them that they're missing $750,000.

Starting point is 00:22:06 And when they come in to get their money, because every penny of that along to them, the firm who says they had nothing to do with anything takes a $300,000 legal fee. And that is just not okay. And we take issue with that. And these are just a couple of examples. You know, I know there are others where individuals have had money missing and either not. not received any of their money to date or have only received a portion of what they're due. And there's no telling how deep it goes. I really don't know.

Starting point is 00:22:51 I can only speak to, you know, that which I had been exposed firsthand to. But it just feels like the deeper you go down the rabbit hole, the more upsetting the whole ordeal is because all of this was a vote. avoidable and all of this is, it's very damaging to the legal profession. I asked Justin about attorney fees, as it seemed shocking that PMPED appears to be collecting fees from clients who their partners stole from. Is there a clear rule or law about how much lawyers can take in fees and when they can take them? So attorney's fees are always contractual in nature.

Starting point is 00:23:37 At the onset of representation, law firm says, this is what the fee is going to be, and this is how we're going to get paid. And generally, in the personal injury arena, that fee is on a contingency fee basis. I absolutely think there are some moral questions and some business practice questions with them taking a full 40% fee at that stage. right if me and my mom go to a restaurant and her order comes out and it is completely disgusting and we send it back and they bring out another plate of food we better not get charged for both that's not how this that's not how life works that's not how business works either we asked jeston who owns his own law firm Bamberg legal LLC if it's possible that pm pm p and p ed partners like their claiming were truly unaware of Alex's alleged mass thievery until September 2nd the

Starting point is 00:24:42 day that they claimed in their own lawsuit that they found out about Alex's fake accounts. Well it really just makes you wonder, you know, you're talking about five, six, seven years, however long, and every single year when equity partners or the accountant or the tax people may go over the numbers, they look at the process, They look at how much money that they need to put in. And nobody, nobody at all questioned, hey, well, that's $5 million going to forge. What's up with that?

Starting point is 00:25:17 Or, hey, it looks like on a lot of Alex cases, we're not seeing the reflection of legal fees in the operating account. Or none of those things. Nobody asked at all. you know and I mean me personally I've been poor before so I watch my money like I'm never going back I watch my money I look at my office books that's just good business sense and either they were asleep at the wheel and the firm itself was not paying attention to what was going on or maybe they just made and have so much money that nobody cares whether or not they're missing a few million bucks

Starting point is 00:26:01 Either way, I think that that's grossly negligent on the farm or worse. So if nobody knew, that's absolutely grossly negligent. If somebody knew, then it's worse than gross negligence. But I do not understand how that would have been the case for all these years. Justin told me that he knew there would be some backlash in getting involved in the Murdoch mess and publicly calling out P&PED. But it came down to something very simple for him.

Starting point is 00:26:35 Right is right and wrong is wrong. There were multiple things that made me decide to get involved. I mean, I'd be lying if I said it was like something I just did on a whim. I mean, you know what you're stepping into. Okay, I mean, it is what it is. Like the same thing that allowed Alec Murdoch to do everything that he did, okay, tied to the boat crash, tied to the case stuff, doesn't, just go away because now they're on a receiving end, right? So when you do what Eric did or you do

Starting point is 00:27:08 what I'm doing, you know that there's going to be some stuff attached to that. And you got to just be prepared to deal with it, you know. But I think the primary motivation for me was I had always committed myself to fighting the good fight regardless of who's on the other side. And I've done that. Going back to the time I put a claim in against the sheriff's office that my mother was the fourth highest ranking member of. It is what it is. There's right and then there's wrong. And if you're wrong, you've got to pay the piper for that. Justin told me that he immediately knew that he made the right decision to go after P&PED when something really weird happened soon after he stepped into this arena.

Starting point is 00:27:55 Any doubts that, or reservations rather, doubt is a strong word, but any reservations that I may have had went out of the window. When one of my clients received a phone call from the firm saying, yeah, we're getting your file together, we're going to send it where you asked us to send it. And by the way, I'll see you in court. I want to pause here because this is absolutely horrifying. If the firm is making threats like I'll see you in court, then that is a huge problem. PMPED appears to have been able to continue its operations without any sort of formal intervention from the Office of Disciplinary Council, the state Supreme Court, or law enforcement. Shouldn't the court be appointing a receiver to freeze PMPED's assets and protect the best interest of these clients?

Starting point is 00:28:51 If this is what's going down, then they clearly shouldn't be handling this themselves, and the court needs to step in now. Okay, literally, Mandy, in the wake of my office sending letters of representation for certain individuals, one of them did receive a phone call from the firm or an individual at the firm, and the ending of that conversation was, I'll see you in court. And the client is like, well, what exactly do you mean by that? And it's, yeah, the lawyer you got said he's suing my firm, so I'll see you in court. That's not appropriate.

Starting point is 00:29:28 That is indicative of part of the problem here. And I'm sorry, but ain't nobody going to punk us. That is not going to fly. And, you know, that comment was received a certain way by my client. It did come off as though it was semi-intimidation slash, do you really want to do this? And that comment was reported to the appropriate authorities because these people are victims. Okay? I don't care how people want to label it.

Starting point is 00:29:59 They are victims of a crime that occurred. And ain't nobody about to plunk my clients or punk me or my office. And that ain't going down. So any reservations that I did have about this whole ordeal went out the window the day I got that phone call. And I know that we're doing the right thing. And we ain't going to let up because this train ain't got no brakes. Justin plans on turning up the heat on the firm in the new year. He said a class action lawsuit is still on the table, as well as individual lawsuits against PMPED.

Starting point is 00:30:41 At the end of the day, I think whether or not a lawsuit ends up having to get filed after the new year against the firm itself is going to be contingent on. on the firm, quite frankly. You know, if insurers get involved, if the firm wants to step up and truly make these people hold and by making them hold, taking into consideration all of the things, including actual impunitive damages,

Starting point is 00:31:13 then there may not need to be a lawsuit. The whole point of filing lawsuits is accountability. And it's to hold people accountable. when they don't want to voluntarily accept accountability. So where we end up, who knows? But I do know that we're going to keep pressing forward, and we're going to press forward against everybody who had anything to do

Starting point is 00:31:44 with these folks' money getting taken. So I will be clear here, while Elex attorneys have claimed he stole money from clients, to support an opioid addiction, we don't actually know how many victims are out there. Like we said before, sources have told us that Elyke Murdoch could ultimately be facing hundreds of charges related to financial crimes. But looking at the victims who have been identified in the first two rounds of indictments, we noticed something.

Starting point is 00:32:20 80% of them were minorities. When I look at the individuals who fell victim to this whole ordeal, I really think they fall into three categories of people. People who just had long-term ties to Alec Murdoch and or his family, the minority community, which is very upsetting to me personally. And then equally as upsetting is folks who I would consider working class, just working class folks it doesn't matter black, white or whatever,

Starting point is 00:33:02 working class people who fell victim. So the people with close ties to the Murdoch family, minority, the minority community, and then your average everyday working class person trying to live the best life they can.

Starting point is 00:33:20 And Mr. Bush is actually disabled. You know, and that's part of the the troubling aspect of his case and others is these are not independently wealthy, don't have to worry about anything financial and life-type individuals. These are people who are just trying to make it day by day. And they trusted Alec Murdoch, but they trusted the firm and the firm brand. Justin grew up in a middle-class family in Bamberg County as the son of two police officers.

Starting point is 00:34:10 He told me that back then, train tracks literally separated black folks from white folks in Bamberg, South Carolina. Justin didn't forget about his upbringing, and he spent his whole career fighting for people who have been wrong by the system. every single one of these people deserve 150% respect. It doesn't matter how much money they have. It doesn't matter what type of relationship anybody has with them. At the end of the day, an important ball was dropped, okay? and for a lawyer in a firm that dropped the ball to tell one of these people who's doing nothing more than asserting their rights under the letter of the law, I'll see you in court.

Starting point is 00:35:06 It's inappropriate. It's intimidation. It's disgusting. And it is indicative of the way that this entire process has been handed. handled and nobody got time for that kind of stuff. It's a new day in the idea here that there are people who ain't afraid of nobody. There's no other way to say it. Okay, I'm happy to see people standing up for themselves. I'm happy to see people standing up for themselves and they ain't afraid anymore and they ain't got a reason to be afraid and I'm not saying afraid of an individual.

Starting point is 00:35:42 I'm saying afraid of an institution, right? Those are two two separate things on We know that it's a powerful institution that has existed. I mean, hey, it predates the, you're talking about going back in time when my great granddaddy was sharecropping, picking cotton for people, right? It's an institution that has controlled and dominated, and people have always been afraid to buck these type of institutions. And I'm happy to see people not doing that anymore. We have a lot more to discuss about PMPED, aka the firm, and Elex alleged co-conspirators, and we're excited to continue to expose the truth wherever it leads in 2022. As always, subscribe for the latest on this story and more, and follow the Murdoch Murders podcast on Facebook and Instagram at Murdoch Murders Pod. Until then, have a safe and happy new year from all of us at the Murdoch.

Starting point is 00:36:48 Mardock Mardor's Podcast. Stay tuned. The Mardock Marders podcast is created by me, Mandy Matney, and my fiance, David and Moses. Produced by Luna Shark Productions.

Murdaugh Murders Podcast - MMP #25 - Taking On "The Firm" - Part One

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