Murdaugh Murders Podcast - The Big Picture Comes Into Focus - What Happened To The Money? Part Five (S01E60)

Episode Date: September 7, 2022

What happened to the money? The big picture is coming into focus as several new revelations surrounding Alex Murdaugh were revealed this week, including our latest discovery of how Alex is connected to an alleged Colleton County drug dealer. Russell Laffitte’s battle to have one of his two ankle monitors removed leads to more shocking details coming out about his alleged scheme with Alex. You'll also hear Mandy share an announcement that our entire team is excited for. SUNscribe to our free email list to get alerts on bonus episodes, calls to action, new shows and updates. AND by sharing your email, we'll send details on exclusive content only available from our upcoming SUNScription platform - CLICK HERE to learn more: https://bit.ly/3KBMJcP And a special thank you to our sponsors: Microdose.com, VOURI, and others. Use promo code "MANDY" for a special offer! Find us on social media: https://www.facebook.com/MurdaughPod/ https://www.instagram.com/murdaughmurderspod/ Twitter.com/mandymatney YouTube 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

Okay, here's how Miro works. See? It's amazing! What's everyone doing at David's desk? Ever since marketing started using Miro's collaborative online whiteboard, he thinks all our other teams should sign up. Why? He says Miro's making his meetings disappear. And if every team gets on it, that means even less meetings!

They're using Miro for brainstorms, mind maps, customer research? So could we use Miro instead of having another 100 meetings for every round of feedback? Yep, you can comment, react to ideas, even leave a recording on the board. And what about presentations? There are Miro templates for that. How do you know so much about Miro? I've actually been using it all along. I just used a Miro board to plan the best vacation.

Okay, I'm on board. See how Miro users save up to 80 hours every year by meeting less and doing more. Get on board at Miro.com with three boards free forever. That's M-I-R-O.com. I don't know how long it'll be before we find out the big answers in this case. But as we piece together a timeline with new information and new co-conspirators, the big picture here is finally starting to reveal itself. And it keeps getting uglier.

My name is Mandy Matney. I have been investigating the Murdock family for more than three and a half years now. This is the Murdock Murders Podcast with David Moses and Liz Farrell. As y'all know, we are committed to exposing the truth wherever it leads. But as much as we try to fit everything into these episodes each week, there is so much more that doesn't make the cut or is better suited for a different medium. So today, many of you who subscribe to our email list will get a message sharing additional content, calls to action and announcements about new podcasts and new Lunashark platforms,

which I'm so excited about. We will always have a free-to-you version of the most important reporting, but our new Sunscription platform gives y'all the option to be a part of an amazing community of supporters making real change happen in the justice system. So to sunscreen to the latest at Lunashark Productions, go to MurdockMurdersPodcast.com and submit your email address. It's that easy. And we will have a special announcement at the end of this episode,

so stay tuned, Sunscribers. This week also marked the one-year anniversary of Elec Murdock's alleged shooting incident, which really sent this saga off the rails. I was thinking about this the other day, and right before the Labor Day shooting incident occurred, I was seriously contemplating quitting this podcast. Then Alex pulled his little shooting stunt, which the media initially fell for, in our mission for the podcast to expose the truth, get the story straight, and be a voice for victims became so incredibly clear and necessary.

Ultimately, in that week after the shooting, we learned how much power the Murdock camp held over the media and steering public influence. While charges allege that Elec concocted a suicide for hire plan so that Buster could collect an insurance policy, we have found zero evidence of that. Rather, the scheme showed us just how far Elec will go for public sympathy and how much he believed that he could get away with. Now, it's really astonishing when you think about the scheme to essentially stage a roadside shooting and the power structures that supported him up until that point.

Elec Murdock believed he could convince his lawyers, the media, in the police of his lies, even without a simple head wound as supporting evidence, and he believed that he could get away with it. Think about that. His plan did work there for a minute. The Murdock family released a statement about how no other family has suffered like they have, and they asked for space and prayers while Elec entered rehab. Conveniently, just as the financial crimes started to see the light of day, as light begins to emit from behind the curtain,

we are getting a more clear picture of how these crimes and criminals were allowed to flourish. It seems that many of these people believed it was easier to go along to get along with people telling them that there's nothing to see here and all is well, rather than look inward to their own solicitor's offices, disciplinary committees, and other systems of justice. Where are the people of courage? The whistleblowers. Where are the public officials, the lawyers, the law enforcement officers,

the people of integrity who can admit what happened was wrong? Identify the systemic problems, fix it, and punish those accountable so we can move forward knowing that the system is not rigged by design. And one year later, we have 90 criminal charges for Elec Murdock, 27 state and federal charges for Russell LeFey, and 23 charges for Corey Fleming. And the mystery is still being unraveled. But the thing is that these power systems that failed to hold Elec accountable, law enforcement, the solicitor's office, the media, Palmetto State Bank,

the South Carolina Supreme Court, the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, the systems which made him believe that he could get away with what he did on Labor Day weekend, those systems haven't changed much at all. Duffy Stone is still at the helm of the solicitor's office despite so many unanswered questions about his involvement in the double homicide investigation and about Elec's involvement in his office. Palmetto State Bank is still in operation despite a damning paper trail that keeps growing and we will talk about that. The media is still hanging on every word of Dick and Jim acting like they totally didn't feed them a completely false story a year ago. Judge Carmen Mullen is still ruling from the bench while the Supreme Court has failed to even publicly acknowledge the need for an investigation of her.

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel, you know the ones who were supposed to catch Elec and Corey's misdeeds years ago. They are still fighting to keep their investigative process secretive. So while there have been signs of hope for the South Carolina justice system, we want to be clear that there is a lot of work to be done. This case should absolutely serve as a catalyst to change the justice system in South Carolina and week by week we will continue chipping away and shedding sunlight until that real change happens. So ever since the prosecution introduced us to two new alleged co-conspirators a few weeks ago, we have been polling at every thread possible trying to connect the dots and make more sense of the greater criminal operation

that appears to involve millions of stolen dollars, drug trafficking and money laundering. What were they up to? What were they a part of? Had it been going on for generations, how many powerful people were involved and where did all the money go? Was Elec really connected to this cowboy gang and what was his role? Most importantly, did Elec abuse his position of power in the solicitor's office while he was allegedly involved in all of this criminal activity? We first heard about the alleged cowboy gang connection back in October when the Post and Courier published a story claiming that the grand jury was expected to investigate, quote, a drug pipeline that fed disgraced attorney Elec Murdoch's decades long addiction to opioids, according to their sources.

Now this story came just 10 days after Fitznews published its first report on the alleged jellyfish operation in Elec Murdoch's ties to accused drug smuggler Barrett T. Bollware. Back in October, a source told the Post and Courier that investigators followed a trail of checks Elec apparently wrote to people to buy drugs. This claim made by Dick and Jim that Elec had this $10 million drug problem that was backed up by a paper trail of checks has always been suspicious because one, no one spends that much money on opioids. Two, who writes checks to their drug dealers? And three, why was the defense so quick to point us to the drug money? What else was really going on?

It appears while digging into the money trail from Elec Murdoch, investigators discovered a pipeline involving a man named Spencer Roberts, who was accused of receiving a downstream of checks from Elec Murdoch. Roberts was indicted last month for money laundering and other financial charges connected to the scheme. In August, sources told reporter John Monk at the state newspaper that the pipeline works like this. Murdoch would give checks of stolen money to Smith, who would cash them. Then Smith would give the cash to Roberts, who would use the cash to buy drugs. Roberts would then give the drugs to Smith, who would then give them to Murdoch, the sources said. Hmm, in the words of Craig Melvin,

Dick, that's a lot of oxy. Anyways, we wanted to figure out exactly how Roberts was connected to Elec Murdoch, who was a badge-carrying member of the solicitor's office at the time those checks were being written. This is important because if Elec was a part of a criminal operation slash drug pipeline in Colleton County, where he was a prosecutor, who knows how many cases were compromised due to his involvement. As we told you before, Roberts has a few drug charges in his past and a very odd insurance fraud conviction when he was a teenager. But what we found that was interesting about Roberts, who again is the alleged receiver of a bunch of large checks from Elec Murdoch, he created four new LLCs since May of 2020.

One of those caught our attention, Buckner-Roberts Construction, which was incorporated on April 9th, 2022. According to the South Carolina Secretary of State, a man named Emmanuel Buckner co-founded the company with Spencer Roberts. Yes, you have heard the name Emmanuel Buckner before. A few months ago, we told you all in episode 38 about how we foy it Solicitor Duffy Stone's office for a list of all cases that Elec Murdoch was involved in, while he was in his position as a volunteer solicitor. Elec wasn't removed from that position until his little shooting incident last September, by the way, which is after he was identified as a person of interest in the double homicide investigation, and there was clearly enough evidence against Elec for Duffy to recuse himself.

I'm saying this because it's crazy. Our local solicitor's office continued to embolden Elec Murdoch by letting him keep his badge, blue lights, and position of power up until September 2021. So in all of those years that Elec carried a badge for the solicitor's office, which he was known to whip out often, official records only indicate that Elec was the lead prosecutor on one case, and that would be Colleton County vs. Emmanuel Buckner. This crime allegedly took place in 2016, and the case was adjudicated in 2019, after the boat crash, and when the walls started closing in on Elec Murdoch. Let me repeat that because it's crazy and confusing. Spencer Roberts, a recently accused co-conspirator of Elec Murdoch, who allegedly received a substantial amount of checks from Elec Murdoch in the scheme, recently co-founded a construction company with Emmanuel Buckner, the only defendant Elec Murdoch ever prosecuted during his tenure at the solicitor's office.

And guess what that case involved? Drug trafficking. So Emmanuel Buckner of Walterboro, South Carolina, the same place where the cowboy gang is from, has a lengthy criminal history, mostly involving drug charges dating back to 2002. Something I noticed about Buckner's early charges, prosecutor Sean Thornton dismissed them in the early 2000s. Now Sean Thornton was one of several members of Duffy's office, who was pictured at the double homicide scene in 2021. To be completely fair, Duffy's office drops a lot of charges, and Sean Thornton has worked a lot of cases. But in a case where there have been so few coincidences, I thought that was worth pointing out. In August 2016, Buckner led Colletin County deputies on a high-speed chase after they attempted to pull Buckner over because his taillights were out.

Buckner was eventually caught after fleeing on foot. While searching his vehicle, investigators found crack cocaine and several pills believed to be molly, according to court documents. They also seized $7,500 in cash from Buckner's vehicle. According to a document filed by the solicitor's office, Buckner was an identified gang member, involved in known drug activities with no proof of employment, and the money was believed to be the proceeds of illegal drug sales. This was the only case Alec worked on as a solicitor. The question is, why this case? So Alec's role in the solicitor's office is still so not clear to us.

As we've said before, multiple sources with direct knowledge of Alec's participation in prosecuting cases as a volunteer have told us that Alec would pop up at the solicitor's office with no warning. Full-time prosecutors would find out that out of nowhere, Alec had struck deals with defense attorneys in drug cases. When the prosecutors raised the issue, they were told by Duffy, who may or may not have been aware of what was happening, that Alec was a special advisor on the case and whatever he says goes. So one would think that the only case Alec was assigned to as a solicitor would be significant in one way. In what's really interesting about this 2016 case, the jury could not reach a verdict on Emanuel Buckner's two drug charges. In the case, Alec's only case as a prosecutor was declared a mistrial. Those drug charges are still pending according to online court documents. So essentially, we have this. Alec prosecuted one case at the solicitor's office.

That case involved an alleged gang member accused of drug trafficking and ended in mistrial. Now, a trail of checks has connected that alleged gang member to Alec Murdoch through Spencer Roberts, who was recently indicted. Again, Spencer Roberts, who allegedly received checks from Alec, started a business with Emanuel Buckner, the one guy who was prosecuted by Alec, in April 2022, as investigators were closely combing through Alec's finances. The question then becomes, was Alec using his role at the solicitor's office to protect certain criminals connected to a certain gang and its affiliates? Alec is one of the most notorious criminals in our state's history, with a track record of abusing his power to get what he wants. We have to ask these questions out loud right now because no one else will. And again, we live in Duffy Stone's district. This is our criminal justice system, in our home, that needs to be fixed now.

In our opinion, Duffy Stone has completely lost the public's trust through his secretive actions involving this case. We are at the point where it's not even worth it to suggest an internal investigation because of what a joke that is. We hope that these questions lead to a full, external investigation into Duffy Stone's office to ensure the citizens of the 14th Judicial Circuit that the corruption ended with Alec Murdoch. Again, this is what we mean when we say that the whole system is on trial here. This is what we mean when we say the crux of this case is about public corruption. We need answers, and we will be making noise until we get those answers. We'll be right back. While we still don't have the answer as to what Alec Murdoch might have been involved in, his kaleidoscope of alleged crimes is coming into focus.

Like we said last week, in Episode 59, for the past year, we have been wondering, did something major happen in August 2021 in the murder case? We keep finding more and more evidence to support this theory that something big did, in fact, happen that month. This all started with tips I was getting in early August 2021 during the South Carolina Association for Justice conference on Hilton Head, which Alec and Buster had attended less than two months after the double homicide. Alec apparently didn't go to any workshops and was just there to party as evidenced by the many photos that were sent to me, of him day drinking at bars, and by the fact that the Office of Disciplinary Counsel later cited him for not meeting his 2021 continuing education requirements. After the trial lawyers left town, we heard that sled agents had approached a couple restaurant owners with photos of Alec and 14-circuit solicitor Duffy Stone, asking whether they had seen the two of them together over the weekend and whether they had security footage they could share from specific evenings.

About a week later, on August 19th, Liz texted me two things she had heard. One was that Duffy had quietly recused himself on August 11th and the other was that the AG's office was presenting the murder case to the Colletin County Grand Jury. Like we said, even though Alec wasn't indicted, we still believe there might have been some truth to that info, that maybe there was a plan of some sort and it got derailed. This was further solidified last week. At Alec's motion to compel a hearing on August 29th, we told you how Dick Harputlian had told the court that quote, over a year ago, he had asked the Attorney General's office for a copy of an order that allows the State Grand Jury to share evidence with the local Grand Jury. If the Colletin County Grand Jury was poised to indict Alec on charges based on evidence gathered by the State Grand Jury, then this is the kind of order that would have been necessary. We took that as further evidence that something big seemed to have happened in August 2021 because why else would there have been an order and why else would Dick be seeking it more than a year ago?

Now we have even more proof that supports our theory that something major happened. According to a response filed by the United States Attorney's office in Russell Le Fitt's federal case last week, in early August 2021, just two days before Duffy recused himself from the case, and ten days before we heard that charges were coming, a Palmetto State Bank board member sent an email to Russell asking for a summary of the bank's quote, a total exposure from Alec Murdoch. What does total exposure mean? In this context, it most likely means liability, either legally or financially or both. This would mean that at that time, on August 9th 2021, well before the Labor Day shooting and before Alec's alleged financial crimes became public, something had prompted this board member to become concerned about whether the bank might face a major loss because of the absurd amount of money Alec owed to Palmetto State Bank at the time.

Or perhaps the board member was concerned about getting sued because of the bank's very permissive relationship with Alec. Either way, it means that in August 2021, the inner circles were hearing something. Why is this so important? There are several reasons. Mainly, it's important because it looks like, in the lead up to the Labor Day shooting, a number of key players were being told that Alec Murdoch was about to have some very serious legal issues. Serious enough that board members at Palmetto State Bank, or as Liz calls it, his piggy bank, were taking note. This could mean that Alec's alleged co-conspirators and the other key players had even more time than we thought to cover their tracks, or attempt to cover them anyway. And if true, it also means that a whole lot of people were playing pretend in public. The age old question is always, what did they know and when did they know it, right?

Last spring, we found out as a part of the obstruction of justice probe into the boat crash, the state grand jury subpoenaed for Alec's financial records sometime in April 2021. Then in June, we received confirmation that on May 19, 2021, less than three weeks before the murders, a paralegal at PMPED contacted the law office of Alec's friend Chris Wilson to ask him about the $792,000 fee that was supposed to have gone to PMPED, the one that Alec allegedly took. Those two pieces of information were game changers, because they gave us new insight into Alec's frame of mind around the time of the murders. Assuming Alec knew about these two incidents, given his relationship with the bank and with Chris Wilson, it's probably safe to assume he did know. As investigative journalists covering complex stories like this one, we constantly have to revisit the timeline and reconsider whatever new piece of information we just learned might change our understanding of the situation. In this case, after realizing that even more people seem to be aware of something significant happening in August of last year, we took a new look at what was going on at the time. First, let's start with Duffy.

As you'll remember, the reason he gave for not recusing himself was that there was nothing at that time that indicated to him that Alec, who was a badge-carrying member of Duffy's office, was a suspect, which is really weird because even though they were saying this on the record, Alec was absolutely considered a suspect by law enforcement and wasn't just a person of interest. We find it really hard to believe that Duffy didn't know that. At the time though, Duffy was like, relax people. If he becomes a suspect, I'll totally recuse myself. This is why his sudden and unexplained recusal in August had everyone wondering whether Alec was now officially being considered a suspect in the case. However, since we doubted that his refusal to recuse himself had anything to do with Alec's status as a suspect, we wondered if that tip about the silhouette agent with the photos on Hilton Head was the reason Duffy had quietly moonwalked his way out of the situation. Now that we know there were other indications that something was going on around that time, it seems like that recusal could have been tied to that, meaning potential charges. So we have a serious question to ask once again. Why did Duffy wait until after the Labor Day shooting to take Alec's badge? Why did he allow Alec to walk around for another four weeks with all the power and authority of the 14th Circuit Solicitor's office?

We told you before that, according to several sources, Alec actually carried around that badge and used it in whatever way he wanted, in ways that were totally unrelated to the single case he actually tried during his many years of being a volunteer solicitor. Was Alec using his position to get charges dropped in cases? Was he using it to pressure people in various ways? And is anyone going to look into that? Duffy only took away that badge when he was left with no other choice. He only did it when Alec resigned from his law firm and was put on temporary suspension by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel. Was Duffy scared of stepping in and taking that badge before then? If what we think is true, that people in Duffy's world knew Alec was likely going to be charged with something, possibly murder, by August 11th, 2021, then that is a big deal. Duffy is the Chief Law Enforcement Officer in five counties. This would mean he knowingly led a potential murderer represent his office. And if Duffy was scared, who was he scared of? Randolph Murdoch, the person who got Duffy appointed to office in 2006, was dead. He was no longer around to advocate for Alec and protect him from consequences. Could this mean Randolph wasn't the only person Duffy was beholden to when it came to Alec? Or is this simply political obedience on Duffy's part?

According to sources, Duffy is a protege of Dick Harpoolian. Dick was apparently Duffy's legal mentor, and apparently Duffy's son Ike even served as a courier at Dick's office in 2020, according to a LinkedIn page with Ike's name on it. Was Duffy reluctant to take Alec's badge because of Dick? Did he refuse to recuse himself at first because if he had, then people would have read between the lines and the optics of that wouldn't be good for Dick. As gross and corrupt a thought as that is, let's put it aside for this one. Did Duffy let Alec hold on to that badge because to take it away meant that the public would know what Duffy, Dick, and Palmetto State Bank appeared to have known at the time that Alec's future was about to include charges of some sort. Two side notes here about Duffy. It is going to be really interesting to see whether he and his squad, including Sean Thornton, gets a peanut to testify in Alec's murder trial because how could they not? They inserted themselves into this investigation and now look where they are. A prosecutor and a half dozen of his employees are witnesses and there is no doubt that Dick and Jim will be doing everything they can to give the jury the impression that the Murdoch crime scene was a hot and holy mess. In our own prosecutor has basically helped him make that point by doing the one thing he always said prosecutors shouldn't do which is make themselves witnesses in criminal cases. To further illustrate how bananas this is, even if Alec weren't a suspect in this case, Duffy and his number two guy seemed to have been on the scene at a time when evidence was apparently still being collected. Media caught them both on camera. This makes them fair game as witnesses and a crafty defense attorney creating chaos in the courtroom would likely seize upon that and guess what?

If they're called as witnesses they can't prosecute the case. So basically the two most seasoned and effective prosecutors in the 14th Circuit took themselves out of the game just by being there and maybe that was the point. Sources have told us that Alec was always a chess piece for Randolph when it came to Duffy, that Randolph made it clear to Duffy that he put him in this game and he could take him out by having Alec run against him. Dick could easily twist that into a Duffy secretly hated Alec narrative. And don't worry, I'm not giving Dick any ideas here. I'm sure he thought of this a long time ago and it's exactly why Duffy and his guys did not belong on that scene. And it's why our public officials should not be making decisions based on how the optics might look for one powerful person. Another reason it's important to know whether something big happened in August is because it gives us a better perspective on the timeline in any potential cover-ups on Russell Lafitte's part. So first, Russell is fighting his criminal charges so much more vigorously than we had anticipated and this full-throated effort to minimize his time behind bars has got to be costing him a lot of money. Part of this fight is because he's been incredibly uncomfortable wearing federal and state GPS monitors on both ankles while farming his land, which we checked up on by the way.

Real quick, Russell the farmer is apparently Hampton County's ninth highest recipient of federal farm subsidies. Since 1995, he has received around $260,000 in money from the US government to farm cotton, corn, and wheat. His father, Charlie Lafitte, is the county's third highest recipient of federal farm subsidies. Since 1995, he's gotten more than $800,000 in taxpayer money to farm cotton, corn, wheat, soybeans, and peanuts. So yesterday, Russell's attorneys went head to head with the United States Attorney's Office in an effort to get them to loosen the terms of Russell's bond. The hearing went on for more than three hours and according to Post and Courier reporter Thad Moore, Russell took the stand for about two of those hours. The judge ruled against Russell's request to have the federal ankle monitor removed but decided to remove him from house arrest and widen his perimeter, which means that he can now travel more freely in Hampton and Allendale counties.

Now, it is obviously very hilarious that Russell is being forced to wear two ankle bracelets. I imagine every time he showers, his tub and toilet struggle not to burst out laughing in his face. In the meantime, a shirtless Corey Fleming has been seen bouncing around Buford County looking even more tan and fit than usual, like he's been living his best life between junior and senior years. Whether Russell knows about hot Corey's summer or not, he's clearly not happy about Corey's freedom, as evidenced by the federal filings where Corey's measly $200,000 bond makes an appearance in a footnote. So in the lead-up to Russell's bracelet hearing Tuesday, the Assistant U.S. Attorney handling his case and Russell's attorneys pushed each other into disclosing more information than ever before in Russell's federal case. First, on August 23rd, Russell's attorneys filed a motion asking for modification of the terms of release in which they blame the media for lumping Russell in with Ellick.

Which, hmm, I wonder why we're doing that. And they also said the terms of Russell's bond were far more restrictive than need be. They also called out the government for allowing the Plylar sisters' civil attorneys, Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter, to quote, recklessly and cavalierly testify as to the facts of the case instead of calling a law enforcement officer to do so. The motion basically says, listen, Russell isn't going anywhere. He was not in on this scheme the way you guys are making it seem. Also, this was years ago. And besides all this, the terms of bond aren't supposed to be sending a message.

They're supposed to be based on the nature of the crime, the weight of the evidence against him, and the history and characteristics of the defendant. The next day, the Assistant U.S. Attorney filed a 16-page response that was like, nice tri-boys. So here are the facts of the case again in case you missed them the first time. And also, we've been super cool about Russell's farm stuff. And by the way, we know he's making $230,000 a year doing that so he can handle that bond we set. Your guy is a multi-millionaire and his assets are not frozen. Oh, and just so you know, we have plenty of receipts. We looked at thousands of documents and have dozens of witnesses, including a probate court judge.

So the evidence against him is pretty overwhelming actually. Also, Russell lied in his proffer agreement and we're absolutely going to hold him accountable for that. And PS, you guys want to trial this year so I think you can handle a few more months of this. And guess what? We're not done. Russell wasn't even the personal representative for Arthur Badger, but somehow had no problem taking a $1.325 million check on his behalf and then helping Alex split it up for himself. Then, when Russell got caught last year, he offered to go split-seize with PMPED and pay back Arthur for the stolen money. He wrote a check to PMPED for $680,000 from the bank, but spoiler alert, Russell never asked the bank if he could do that. Instead, he told the bank that he took a $680,000 loss to pay PMPED because, quote, we, as in the bank, handled the checks from that stolen money.

Did Russell tell the bank he was the personal representative in this incident and made $35,000? No, he didn't. Also, not to be picky, but he wasn't even legitimately Arthur Badger's PR, so he took that $35,000 fraudulently. In conclusion, don't make us bring up that post-murder loan. So this post-murder loan, let's talk about it because it does not look great for Russell. According to the federal filing, on July 15, 2021, Russell gave Alex a $350,000 loan from the bank. The official reason was for Beach House renovations. Again, this is Alex claiming that he needed to do Beach House renovations one month after his wife and son were brutally murdered. Anyways, then Russell wired that money to Chris Wilson, who is a lawyer in Bamberg County who's been brought up many times in this.

Now, we know that money was to cover part of the $792,000 fee that Elick allegedly stole from PMPED, which Chris apparently had to pay back on his behalf. Elick Russell might have wanted to ask, so does Chris do Beach House renovations on the weekends now? Again, all these people in Elick Murdoch's circles want to say they were tricked, but that alleged tricking would immediately have been undone by the utterance of just a few words, such as what, why, and mmm, that sounds shady. The assistant US attorney points out in her filing that Elick had already overdrawn his account by $100,000 when Russell sent that wire for him. Then weeks later, Elick had overdrawn his account by another $300,000. And again, this is after the murders. What was he spending his money on? According to the filing on August 9th, 2021, a bank board member sent Russell and members of the bank's executive committee an email asking them to prepare a summary of Palmetto State Bank's total exposure regarding Elick Murdoch. Hours after receiving this email, the one that we know indicates that certain people knew something serious was about to happen with Elick, Lafitte allegedly logged on to Elick's account and then transferred $400,000 of the bank's money to cover Elick's overdrawn account.

You got that, right? A bank president logged on to a delinquent customer's seriously overdrawn account and deposited hundreds of thousands of the bank's dollars into that account to erase the negative balance. What a life these guys had before the sun rose on their escapades. According to the federal filing, Russell then began processing a loan for Elick for $750,000 that same day to cover the $350,000 wire to Chris Wilson and the $400,000 overdraft protection. Russell had a bank employee prepare the paperwork and get this back date the whole thing to July 15th, 2021. The loan was labeled a commercial loan and the proceeds were supposed to be used as an investment. The Edisto Beach House and the Green Swamp Hunting Club share were apparently listed as the collateral. But this is where the U.S. Attorney's Office points out that the Beach House wasn't in Elick's name and the Hunting Club share was already listed as collateral for two other loans that Elick had out from Palmetto State Bank. And we'll be right back. So no big. Russell emailed the curious board member back and told him all about this in his Alec Murdoch summary report. Just kidding. According to the federal filing, Russell did no such thing. The federal government maintains that this is all proof that he was covering his tracks.

I imagine Russell's attorneys would say it's just proof that Small Town Banker is going to Small Town Bank. Also in the filing, the federal government notes that when Hannah Plylar turned 18, Elick still owed nearly $300,000 from those 14 super secret loans that Russell let him take from her account over the years. To pay that off, Russell apparently gave Elick a $500,000 line of credit from the bank for his quote-unquote farming. Farming? What? Why? Mmm, that sounds shady. According to the federal filing, Elick never paid back that line of credit, so the bank charged it off at a loss. In response to the government's fiery filing, Russell's attorney filed their own bomb of a response. And to be honest, this is when the case came dangerously close to becoming a rap battle. Russell's attorneys were like, you're indictments full of errors. We might sue people for defamation.

A nice copy and paste job you did there in your response. Hmm, where have I read those accusations before? Oh right, your error-filled indictment. That was a lot for me to summarize for you, so here are the four major takeaways. The first is woe, because now we know more about how Russell and Elick worked together, and it seems like a sitcom. The second is, was Russell covering up his tracks? The third is something clearly happened in August 2021, or else we're looking at the world's biggest coincidence. And fourth, why was Russell, allegedly, doing all this? So, was Russell in on this game as federal government, state government, and civil attorneys all say? He knows the feds have all of his emails, records, and receipts. He knows what this paper trail looks like. And yet, he is fighting really hard against all notions that he conspired with Elick.

And speaking of Elick, did Russell even like him? Was Russell being controlled by Elick? And if so, why? Could this have been a long time, multi-generational, bad habit that Russell and Elick inherited? And I guess the biggest question is what does Russell know? Is he hiding something? Is he protecting other people? Is Russell sitting on the answers to the question we have been asking for a year now? What did Elick Murdock do with all of that money? And if he does know the answers, if he's been hiding those answers this whole time, will he keep hiding those secrets, even if it means him going to prison for 30 years? As we keep digging for answers, please email us all of your tips and questions to info at murdockmurderspodcast.com This week, we covered a lot of ground, but we want to do more to truly change these systems that have held up the good ol' boys for so long. The legal system is complicated, and we want to make these super complex issues in the podcast more easy to understand.

So we're excited to say that we will be teaming up with Attorney Eric Bland for bonus episodes every week to answer your questions about our justice system. This week, for instance, I want to ask Eric, what is the process for a judge like Carmen Mullen to be investigated? How would that be done? And what about Duffy Stone's office? How can we, as citizens, file FOIA requests to get more information out of our public officials? And what is going on with their office of disciplinary counsel and how they police our lawyers? David, Eric, Liz, and I have all seen the corruption for ourselves. We've known so many people who have been hurt by this system, and we want to give you, the public, the tools to help fix it so we all can drink from the same cup of justice. So we're going to have a bonus episode for y'all this week discussing these issues and how to fix them. So please head to MurdochMurder'sPodcast.com right now and click subscribe so you won't miss out on this awesome new content,

and we will be taking questions on our social media pages, so look out for that this week. Brighter days are ahead y'all. Stay tuned. The MurdochMurder's Podcast is created by me, Manny Matney, and my fiance, David Moses. Our executive editor is Liz Farrell. Produced by Luna Shark Productions.