Murdaugh Murders Podcast - Who is Blanca? And What is PMPED Trying to Do Here? (S01E71)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Ugh, another pointless video call where nothing gets done. I think you're on mute, David. Uh, sorry. What did I miss? IT just approved Miro for the whole company. Miro? That's the... Online whiteboard.

Starting point is 00:00:15 For team collaboration. We can make these long video meetings so much shorter with Miro boards. We can share ideas, feedback, and updates on them whenever. Actually see what we're talking about? It's all online. Miro will make our flexible work set up so much easier. With one virtual space for our brainstorms, projects, presentations... Oh, that sounds kind of amazing.

Starting point is 00:00:38 So I don't need to wake up for 6am calls with the London office anymore. Now you're getting it. Don't let time zones get in the way of your team working well together. See why 99% of the Fortune 100 trust Miro to get good work done. From anywhere. Get your first 3 boards free at Miro.com. That's M-I-R-O.com. I don't know what the future holds for former PMPED attorneys, but the role that they played

Starting point is 00:01:10 in allowing Ellic Murdoch to become Ellic Murdoch cannot be ignored. And the more we find out, the more questions we have about what they knew and when they knew it. My name is Mandy Matney. I have been investigating the Murdoch family for almost 4 years now. This is the Murdoch Murders podcast produced by my husband David Moses and written with Liz Farrell. We are excited to announce MMPED Premium, a membership community for Murdoch Murders

Starting point is 00:02:03 podcast and cup of justice fans, powered by Supercast. So first of all, do not panic. MMPED will still be available for free for everyone. But those of you joining this community will be helping us change the world of journalism for the better. I get tweets asking if we can look into different cases and right now we just don't have the resources or time to do that. But next year we have big plans to hire several amazing journalists who can take on new cases

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Starting point is 00:04:18 Recordings of those hearings will be available to the public afterward, but the live interactions will be reserved for MMP Premium members only. And with your help, we are excited that we are planning to launch a new podcast focusing on where crime meets corruption across the country in 2023. And we plan on launching Cup of Justice on its own feed also in 2023. But perhaps most ambitious, we are building a platform for journalists to create local stories directed at global audiences and we want you to be a part of that mission. MMP Premium will be available to the public on December 15th, but you can get a first

Starting point is 00:05:07 look at mmp.supercast.com and check the link in the description. Subscribers received an email to get a discount and get early access to our beta site until its launch on the 15th. So be sure to subscribe to our free email list at murdochmurderspodcast.com to get the most up to date alerts and offers. We plan to grow this community as we grow our reach, so stay tuned and stay in the sunlight. So as we wait for this week's pre-trial hearing in the double homicide case, Liz and I, along with our researcher Kali Lyons, poured through hundreds of documents and several ongoing cases

Starting point is 00:06:03 that we haven't updated y'all on in a long time. Just realized today it's almost been a month since the defeat trial began. Crazy, huh? Anyway, given the big revelations during the defeat trial, in the latest motions and two cases in particular, we have a big question. What is up with PMPED? Or rather, what is up with a Parker law group? Because remember, they renamed themselves last year during a little PR crisis, started by

Starting point is 00:06:36 you know who. And who is Manuel Santes-Cristiani, the first person in all of the Murdoch cases to name individual PMPED attorneys in a lawsuit? Like so many other victims in this podcast, Manuel's life became linked to Ellic Murdoch's when he was in a car accident more than a decade ago. In 2008, Manuel, a man from Mexico, was in a terrible crash on I-95 in Colleton County, South Carolina. He spent 88 days in the hospital receiving life-saving care.

Starting point is 00:07:14 Three years later, in 2011, Ellic Murdoch and two of his PMPED colleagues, Ronnie Crosby and William Barnes, filed a lawsuit on Manuel's behalf against another driver, maker of the driver's vehicle, and the maker of the faulty tire that they say caused the crash. Ronnie Crosby, by the way, is a longtime partner at PMPED. His specialty is tire tread separation cases. His is a key name to remember in all of this. You might remember him from the Lafitte trial when he testified. He's one of the attorneys who apparently knew about Ellic Murdoch's missing money

Starting point is 00:07:57 before and after the murders. Also, his wife Jennifer is the owner of the boutique where Mallory Beach and two of the Boat Crash victims used to work, just to show you how interconnected all of this is. So back in 2013, PMPED attorneys negotiated a settlement that was apparently unknown to Manuel and they agreed to dismiss the case. Crosby signed the dismissal form. According to Santas Cristiani, PMPED deposited his settlement funds with Palmetto State Bank and failed to inform him about just how much they settled the case for.

Starting point is 00:08:37 You might remember Cristiani from a year ago when Ellic Murdoch was indicted on two charges in his case. It was one of the first indictments to come against Ellic. According to the indictment, Ellic took $70,000 from Cristiani's client trust account, which was supposed to go to the hospital to cover Cristiani's bill. Instead, Ellic had a check made out to forge LLC and we all know where that money went. And now, years later, attorneys Corey Williams and Glenn Waters are suing PMPED, Palmetto State Bank, Russell Lafitte, Ellic Murdoch, and his two former colleagues, Ronnie Crosby

Starting point is 00:09:23 and William Barnes, who worked on the case initially with him. This lawsuit is essentially saying y'all drop the ball on this client, not just Ellic. You owe a duty to Manuel and you've failed at that. Specifically, the lawsuit accuses Barnes, Crosby and PMPED of aiding and abetting and civil conspiracy, which is strong language to use lawyer to lawyer. Manuel's attorneys are not only calling for the court to award his client actual impunity damages, they are demanding quote an immediate full complete and accurate accounting of any and all funds, costs, and expenses related to the settlement.

Starting point is 00:10:11 They're saying we want all of the receipts in this. Manuel still claims he doesn't even know the total amount that was settled in his case. Essentially, Williams and Waters are being ballsy here and they are going essentially where other victims lawyers haven't really gone before in accusing PMPED of being a part of the conspiracy. And clearly, we can see why PMPED has fired back at this lawsuit with full force. Within a few weeks, the firm's three attorneys, Wallace Lightsey, James May, and Jessica Montsell filed a nine page complaint basically saying, how dare you and check your facts, asking

Starting point is 00:10:58 for the court to sanction Manuel's attorneys for making defamatory allegations before filing the lawsuit. So PMPED says that Manuel knew about the settlement because of a woman named Blanca Simpson. Now we have talked about Blanca several times on this podcast. We know there are at least two Blancas in the Murdoch universe. There is a Blanca who was Russell's assistant at Palmetto State Bank, as we've reported, and it appears the Blanca who was mentioned several times in Elec's jailhouse phone calls was Blanca Simpson.

Starting point is 00:11:33 That's a different Blanca. It's been reported that Blanca Simpson was the Murdoch's housekeeper. We have not confirmed that, but we do know that Maggie did at one point have a housekeeper named Blanca. Either way, Blanca Simpson appears to be a key part of PMPED's defense in the case, which is weird, because it also appears that she's the reason for the lawsuit. PMPED said Manuel not only knew about the settlement, he apparently traveled to Mexico to Hamilton County for mediation, where Blanca Simpson translated for him.

Starting point is 00:12:07 Attorney's fees and litigation expenses were paid from the settlement funds, which left $143,857.24 for Manuel. Of that amount, $70,000 was held in Escrow to pay his medical bills, which Elec eventually stole, allegedly. PMPED also maintains that the remaining balance of Manuel's settlement, $73,000, was wired to him in 2016 through Palmetto State Bank. On September 27, 2021, after Elec's financial crimes were exposed, PMPED deposited $70,000 for Manuel.

Starting point is 00:12:43 PMPED says they couldn't get ahold of Manuel to give him the $70,000, and they were unaware of the medical liens he owed at the time, so the money was still sitting there. But typical to every Murdoch case, here is where it gets really weird. According to PMPED attorney Lee Cope, he ran into Blanca at the food line either late last year or early this year, and they got to talking about Manuel's settlement. Later, Blanca told him that Manuel wanted her to hold on to the money in an American bank account because he was afraid the Mexican government would take it away if they wired the money to Mexico.

Starting point is 00:13:18 Blanca told PMPED that Manuel wanted her to have control over the account, and PMPED was like, uh, we need to talk to Manuel about that. And then it got weirder. According to the Hampton County Guardian, which was citing a document filed in Hampton County Court on June 24th, 2022, Blanca Simpson was named Santas Cristiani's power of attorney on May 19th, 2022. We looked for that document, and our researcher Callie Lyons found it. And that's where it gets even weirder.

Starting point is 00:13:56 Manuel's attorney Corey Williams stamped the power of attorney document, and it appears like he filed it. Why did he want Blanca to be Manuel's power of attorney? And why doesn't he mention Blanca at all in his lawsuit? But according to Crosby's affidavit, he had spoken to Blanca Simpson in June 2022 while trying to get Cristiani his money. And after Blanca was apparently granted power of attorney in his case, Simpson allegedly told Crosby that Corey Williams was representing Manuel.

Starting point is 00:14:38 Crosby then called Williams and told him that his money was in a trust. Crosby said he told Williams that he would provide a copy of Manuel's file to him. He just needed it authorized by Manuel. Then according to Crosby, he didn't hear anything from them until they were sued in October. So that's two times PNPD told Blanca they needed to speak with Manuel to authorize an action, though it's not clear why. If Blanca were Manuel's power of attorney, why couldn't she authorize PNPD herself

Starting point is 00:15:17 to provide Williams with a copy of his file? And another really weird thing, Ronnie Crosby said that he asked Blanca Simpson in October 2022 why they were being sued and she quote confirmed that she was unaware of anything they had done and told Ronnie that PNPD should not be a part of the case. According to Ronnie's affidavit, Blanca said quote this wasn't supposed to go this far and that it was supposed to be a settlement with the firm quote because of all that had gone on. And what is the this that wasn't supposed to go this far?

Starting point is 00:16:01 We have some ideas on that. So here we need to talk about Blanca. We went back to our transcripts of all of the jail has phone calls that we reviewed. Granted, we know that it isn't all of them, but it appears that Elix started bugging Buster to call someone named Blanca on November 18th, 2021. What's weird about that? Elix was indicted for Manuel Santis Cristiani's case on that same day, November 18th, 2021. And then Elix kept bugging Buster.

Starting point is 00:16:45 Here's another mention on November 23rd, 2021, just a few days later. Did you talk to Blanca? Um, no, I haven't talked to anyone. All right. What am I supposed to tell her again? Just tell her that I want to give her a call and explain to her what she has to do and if that's okay with her. What is, oh, yeah, with the account?

Starting point is 00:17:15 Yeah. And will you do that today? I'd like to call her over the holidays. Yeah. I'll do that today, man. Me and Blanca have been rubbing on the same cylinder. What? I said, me and Blanca, I've got some serious problems with Blanca's joints and things.

Starting point is 00:17:32 Like what? You know, man, I went out in the nose the other day and she didn't tell anybody. I mean, she's packed up everything and knows I don't know where anything is. So I can't find anything that I want. So, as you remember, Blanca sold several of Maggie Murdoch's items on Poshmark after she was murdered, which was obviously super weird and sketchy and says a lot about her character. But what account are they talking about?

Starting point is 00:17:59 This account is mentioned again along with Blanca's name on a December 5th phone call with Buster. I did. I talked to Blanca and she said she'd be happy to set up an account for you to call her. Thank you for doing that. I need to give that a number too. So this account that Elix suddenly needed Blanca's help with.

Starting point is 00:18:20 I'm just throwing this out there, but at Elix's first bond hearing on the financial indictments, Dick Harputlian told the court that there was one client whom the firm wanted to pay back, but they couldn't. They were having trouble locating him, meaning Elix's attorney seemed to be aware that there was $70,000 for an allegedly undocumented immigrant whom no one could find sitting in one of the firm's accounts. Around this very same time, a woman named Blanca also has a conversation with one of PMPED's partners about the $70,000, allegedly telling him that this allegedly undocumented

Starting point is 00:18:58 immigrant whom no one could find wants her to be in charge of his money here in the United States. And around that very same time, Elix is talking about a woman named Blanca and an account being set up. And later, after this lawsuit pops up out of the blue, this same Blanca allegedly tells another PMPED partner that quote this, whatever quote this is, wasn't supposed to go this far. I want to be clear.

Starting point is 00:19:27 I'm not accusing Elix of anything. Specifically, I'm not accusing him of masterminding a plot to get his housekeeper to steal money from behind bars. But to quote Justin Bamberg, something in the milk definitely isn't clean here. And we'll be right back. So obviously Blanca is raising a lot of red flags for us, and we're still not sure on her deal here. But what is important here is how strongly PMPED is fighting this.

Starting point is 00:20:01 And why? In PMPED's response, they accused Manuel's attorneys of filing the lawsuit quote based solely on information provided to them by Blanca Simpson without further investigation or that they simply made up, meaning in response to the lawsuit, PMPED is accusing Manuel's attorneys of defaming them while also insinuating that those lawyers are making up facts, which could be construed as defamatory. PMPED is asking for the court to dismiss the lawsuit. And of course, the situation has escalated.

Starting point is 00:20:43 Manuel's attorneys filed a fiery motion saying that PMPED's motion to dismiss is a quote poorly drafted emotional response to plaintiff's serious allegations that he deserves an accounting of any funds that were allegedly recovered from the accident that occurred in 2008. Manuel's attorneys are hinting that PMPED is hiding something when it comes to the settlement. Here is David reading that motion from his attorneys. Moreover, the court should note that the defendants never mentioned in its motion to dismiss the total amount of funds that it received on behalf of the plaintiff. The amount that the defendants received on behalf of the plaintiff is still a mystery

Starting point is 00:21:30 to this day. Cristiani's attorneys noted in their motion that Ronnie Crosby and William Barnes III were the attorneys of record for Cristiani when his case was settled. And where were they? Here is David reading the motion again. Where were these two lawyers while defendant Richard Alec Murdoch was stealing the plaintiff's funds? This is totally incredible and disingenuous conduct on the part of the defendants, including

Starting point is 00:21:59 the two defendant lawyers that are trying to procedurally short-circuit the legal process to make the claims against them go away without giving plaintiffs his rights in court. These motions were heard in court last week, according to the Post and Courier. A judge still has not ruled on them. So again, Manuel is the first client of Alec's to come out specifically and unequivocally against PMPED. As these cases progress, we don't think he's going to be the last. But for now, he's the only one publicly calling them out like this.

Starting point is 00:22:36 Throughout all of this, we've heard some pretty big numbers in terms of how much Alec has allegedly stolen from clients, and $70,000 is among the lowest, if not the lowest amount. Don't get us wrong, $70,000 is a lot of money. Is it enough money for attorneys to take such a risk? We say this a lot, but if you come for the king, don't miss. Coming for PMPED is a big, big deal. Why are they doing this? It could simply be that what's fair is fair and what's right is right.

Starting point is 00:23:08 But is there more to it? Does Blanca Simpson and Manuel Santis Cristiani's attorneys know something we don't about what might be in that paperwork? In other words, is this case about more than the $70,000 that was allegedly stolen? Let's talk about PMPED's lawsuit against Alec and where that stands. First, a quick run-through of the history here that we can now talk about with some perspective. As you know, in September 2021, in the hours after Alec Murdoch's so-called roadside shooting, two partners from PMPED went to the crime scene to tell investigators that Alec had been let

Starting point is 00:23:53 go from the law firm because he'd been stealing from them. There have been a couple ways to look at this. The first is the generous one and consider that PMPED's act would be that of good citizens. They knew something was wrong and as soon as they knew it, they went to authorities. Like literally went to them physically and in that moment went to them to the shooting scene. And as you know, there's another take on why they did that. Back then, even before we knew what we now know, the act of going to the scene of this alleged shooting felt like a giant uh-oh moment for the firm.

Starting point is 00:24:31 From the outside, it looked as though Alec's bizarre behavior had backed PMPED into a corner of sorts and this was them cutting bait. It was PMPED making a formal town square declaration that they were no longer connected to Alec Murdoch. Which is understandable because Alec had gone too far for them and reality was closing in. PMPED had to know that Alec's alleged financial schemes were inevitably going to be discovered by law enforcement and that this was going to put their law firm in the spotlight where everyone in his office of disciplinary counsel brother would be asking what did PMPED know

Starting point is 00:25:14 and when did they know it? So remember, lawyers generally fear the ODC more than they do law enforcement. Without a license to practice law, a lawyer cannot earn a living. For lawyers like the ones at PMPED, this would be like taking all the honey away from Winnie the Pooh for the rest of his life. Because PMPED bears are not about to give up their honey. Because if PMPED had known Alec was up to no good for a while and hadn't reported it because they were quietly trying to contain that mess with them confines their brick walls

Starting point is 00:25:47 and that would be a big old honey deal breaker for them with the ODC. And we'll talk about all this in a second because one of the biggest issues for us right now is the ODC's investigation into PMPED. So up until this point in September 2021, PMPED seemed to be publicly supporting Alec and by their own accounts on the stand at the Russell Lafite trial, it seems like they simply viewed him as a grieving father and widower, like the victim of a horrific crime. They were all at the funerals. Ronnie Crosby even gave Paul Murdoch's eulogy, which let's talk about that for a second

Starting point is 00:26:31 because people found this really strange at the time. Why Ronnie? Why did Alec choose Ronnie, the guy who was a part of the group at PMPED looking into those missing fees to give his son's eulogy? Obviously we don't know the circumstances that led Ronnie to be giving that eulogy, but if Alec did ask him to do that, then Alec is an even bigger psychopath than we suspect. Because what a creepy and manipulative thing to do right? Ronnie can't be mad at me now because I'm a sad father and now I'm giving him the big

Starting point is 00:27:11 honor of making him a part of my mourning process. Anyway, the question is this, behind the scenes, did PMPED really see Alec as an innocent man and an unfortunate and misunderstood victim of circumstance? I mean, it's pretty clear that when the report came out that Alec had been shot at by a stranger while changing attire, PMPED immediately didn't believe it. Going off of PMPED's public stance on Alec, we would have assumed they'd have given Alec the benefit of the doubt with that, but that's not what they did. As you guys know, the Russell Lafayette trial gave us new perspective on the murders and

Starting point is 00:27:51 where they fit into the timeline of Alec's problems with PMPED. And frankly, we don't think we know the half of it yet when it comes to what PMPED knew and when they knew it, but here's what we do know about them. PMPED knew Alec was trying to hide money from the boat crash victims, or at least saying that's what he was doing, or at least that he was saying that's what he was doing. PMPED had confronted Alec about missing money before the murders, and on the day of the murders they put down their foot and told him that they wanted to see evidence that he had not stolen the money.

Starting point is 00:28:24 At some point, PMPED says it was September 2nd, 2021, they began looking into Alec's clients and whether he'd been stealing from them, and it was then that they began, in their own words, trying to make those clients, quote, whole, in other words, paying them back for the money Alec allegedly took from them. How PMPED allegedly went about making victims whole is going to be important, by the way. Not just with the civil suits, some of which have settled, but with the ODC complaint. So there are a couple of things I want to mention here. One is that it has always struck us as highly unusual when you consider the time it took

Starting point is 00:29:01 between when PMPED says it first started looking into Alec's client funds and when PMPED started paying back clients, and when the South Carolina grand jury started indicting Alec two months later. I mean guys, that was fast. Think about it. Things went from zero to 60 in September of 2021. They went from knowing about the Satterfields, Alec stealing from his maids family, to suddenly knowing about dozens of other victims very quickly.

Starting point is 00:29:30 And I don't mean us, we still don't know the full list of Alec's victims, but we know there are at least 27 of them, and we're not sure why there haven't been more indictments, frankly. Another peculiar thing about this time was the lawsuit that PMPED filed against Alec on October 6th, 2021. PMPED says it first discovered Alec's forged scheme on September 2nd, 2021. On that same day, they say they found a check on Alec's desk from Chris Wilson's office that Alec had deposited into his personal account.

Starting point is 00:30:10 Also on that day, PMPED says it went through Alec's client files and found anomalies, including checks from the law firm that were made out to Forge Consulting. PMPED says it called Forge and found out that Forge did not have accounts corresponding to those checks. September 2nd, 2021 was a very busy day for these guys, right? PMPED must be really good at solving mysteries for them to go from spotting a check for hundreds of thousands of dollars made out to Alec from Chris Wilson's office on Alec's desk to discerning that this check had been not only deposited, but deposited to an account

Starting point is 00:30:58 bearing the name Forge, to then being able to suss out which of Alec's clients had been stolen from using that Forge Sutterfuge, to then checking with Forge to see which checks they had actually received. Not only is PMPED great at solving puzzles, they and Forge must have had some responsive employees and some slick backend systems for them to have so quickly figured out this scheme that Alec had allegedly been able to pull off for years without detection. Anyway, according to their lawsuit, the next morning PMPED confronted Alec and demanded his resignation, which he gave them that afternoon.

Starting point is 00:31:37 By the way, according to Ronnie Crosby's testimony in the Lafitte trial last month, Alec had admitted to stealing client money during this confrontation, and yet Alec wasn't fired. No, no, they let a guy who should have been walking out of that office in handcuffs resign. Again, we have to remind you of Alec's jailhouse call with his brother, John Marvin, when John Marvin informed him that Corey Fleming had been fired from his law firm and Alec was like, uh, for real fired, or… We will continue mentioning this phone call for all of eternity because it so perfectly

Starting point is 00:32:12 demonstrates how the men in this world do not understand consequence because they are always given pillows for a gentle landing. But Alec, being Alec, he could not appreciate those pillows. The next day, September 4th, was the alleged shooting incident. You know, the incident we were told that was committed by a passerby targeting Alec and that maybe it was Maggie and Paul's killer, and then we were told that it was a suicide attempt or, rather, a drug addict's final act of paternal love. Anyway, it wasn't until that weird day, because of that weird incident, the PMPD finally

Starting point is 00:32:52 told law enforcement what they had found two days earlier. Because again, uh oh, a guy whose family was murdered hours after they confronted him about missing money was now the victim of a very weird and suspicious roadside shooting. One day, after they allowed him to resign instead of getting arrested, oh, and they didn't tell the ODC about all of this until September 6th, oh, and they didn't tell the ODC about all of this until September 6th, four full days after they allegedly discovered the forge scheme. PMPD only told the authorities after Alec, the man they let resign, left them no other

Starting point is 00:33:40 choice. You know who they did tell, though, Palmetto State Bank. According to Ronnie Crosby's testimony at the Lafitte trial, they let the bank know on Friday that if Alec had loans out with them, which LOL IF Alec had loans with them, there would be, quote, issues. You know, priorities. And we'll be right back. So okay, in the same lawsuit, PMPD says that every client who was known to be a victim

Starting point is 00:34:22 of Alec at that point had been reimbursed. Again, this complaint was filed October 6th, 2021. They went from not knowing about this complex scheme for years to being able to identify and reimburse victims within 34 days. And it seems they were including their attempt to contact Manuel Santis-Christiani through Blanca Simpson as a win. Now this lawsuit is also interesting because of how Alec responded to it 37 days later. He was basically like, I plead the 5th.

Starting point is 00:34:53 In other words, he didn't deny any of the allegations or fully answer the complaint. And this was basically like handing PMPED a wrapped gift to be opened at a future date. By pleading the 5th, Alec would eventually leave the court, no choice, but to agree to a summary judgment in the case. If PMPED asked for such a thing, which of course they did. Like everything else in the Murdoch world, this situation is wearing shady boots. Okay, rewind to September 2021 again. You already know that despite PMPED having every reason to be suspicious of Alec Murdoch

Starting point is 00:35:30 in July 2021, Johnny Parker, the big daddy partner at PMPED, loaned him $250,000, which Alec apparently used to pay back Chris Wilson in part. On September 2nd, 2021, the day of the big PMPED investigation, Randy Murdoch apparently transferred $75,000 into Alec's bank account at Palmetto State Bank. Four days later, Randy had to again loan money to Alec. This time it was for $15,000 for rehab. Yes, Alec apparently spent the equivalent of two full-time Hampton County salaries in two days.

Starting point is 00:36:05 On what? We still don't know. In October 2021, Johnny and Randy both filed complaints against Alec to get their money back. And Alec signed confessions of judgment to be like, yes indeedy, I do owe that money and I will give it back to them. On the same time, Alec's brother John Marvin was liquidating Alec's assets by selling them to family members and other people within their inner circle.

Starting point is 00:36:27 They were using the money from the liquidations to pay off Alec's and Randolph's strange and unsecured loans at Palmetto State Bank. I picture this as looking like a snow globe, with Alec Murdoch in the middle and little dollar bills floating around him instead of snowflakes. Because even though it appears that money is moving away from Alec, it's all staying within the confines of that little glass globe. Because even though it appears that money is moving away from Alec, it's all staying within the confines of that little glass globe.

Starting point is 00:36:57 Meaning, Johnny Parker and Randy Murdoch's lawsuits and John Marvin's liquidations and the repayment of some of Palmetto State Bank loans were viewed by many as being nothing more than tricks to keep Alec's money away from the victims of the boat crash. By the way, the estate lawyers hired by the Murdoch family to tend to Paul and Maggie's assets have likewise been accused by the Beach Family Attorney of charging unnecessary fees which is basically consuming the Murdoch's assets. In other words, it looks like all of these people, whether knowingly or unknowingly, are helping to keep Alec's money circulating in his own tiny economy.

Starting point is 00:37:48 And to some, it has even looked like PMPED is doing this very same thing when it comes to their own efforts to collect the money Alec allegedly stole. Now remember, PMPED partners had a duty to protect Alec's clients, whether or not they knew he was stealing. That is a liability unto itself. It doesn't mean that they're wrong for wanting to recoup money allegedly stolen from them. Who wouldn't want to do that? But there are many people who see Alec's alleged thefts as being an inevitable result

Starting point is 00:38:27 of PMPED's alleged lack of oversight. So what I'm saying here is this, yes, PMPED had a right to collect that money from Alec if he stole it, but they also had a responsibility to prevent that money from being allegedly stolen in the first place. And I know this will cause some members of PMPED's ears to bleed, but sometimes in life we need to buck up and pay for mistakes that were made on our watch. Or accept the loss that comes as a result of our own apathy, inaction, lack of result, misplaced trust, or whatever it is, to allow someone like Alec to allegedly get away with

Starting point is 00:39:13 what he did for so long. And you know what? I'm going to say this even more explicitly, PMPED should take the loss on this one. Instead, they are trying to snatch dollars out of the hands of the very victims they claim to want to make whole, and they are doing exactly what Alec appears to have been doing and that's keeping money away from the Boe Crash victims. Here is how. In August of this past year, PMPED filed a motion to compel Alec to fully answer their

Starting point is 00:39:49 complaint, which of course he was like, nah. In October, Judge Bentley Price, who is the chief administrative judge for the 14th Circuit, heard arguments from PMPED in favor of his summary judgment. On November 18th, an unsigned order was filed at Colleton County Court granting PMPED their motion for summary judgment. The order ends by stating that a formal damages hearing will be held in open court to determine how much Alec will owe to PMPED. It's not clear yet when that will be scheduled.

Starting point is 00:40:19 This is not a good look at all for PMPED. So first, I reached out to Judge Price to verify that this unsigned order wasn't filed preemptively. I say this because generally the lawyers involved in the case are the ones who write the orders that the judges then sign. Some lawyers take liberties with what the order says or how strongly it's worded, etc. I'm not saying the lawyers did that here though. This seems to be a very ordinary order, but it's worth noting that PMPED historically

Starting point is 00:40:49 has been known for its close relationships with judges in the 14th Circuit. I've seen Judge Price in action and he seems like he's fair and reasoned, but I have no idea what happens behind the scenes and unfortunately because of the history here with the 14th Circuit, the Murdochs, and their law firm, we have to raise these questions. This is not a statement about Price's reputation. Nevertheless, his office did not respond to my question about whether or not this was a legitimate unsigned order. Now back to the part where this isn't a good look for PMPED.

Starting point is 00:41:46 The receivership is asking to be paid $374,000 for their work, so that only leaves about a million dollars to be split among a lot of victims. Now, when the receivership was put in place, they basically laughed in Johnny and Randy's faces about those complaints and Ellick's confession of judgment. They were like, get out of here with that y'all. But in the meantime, Ellick offered a confession of judgment to the Satterfield family, admitting to stealing $3.8 million from them, which was great. We totally think he did that as a way to try to convince the judge that he was a good man,

Starting point is 00:42:29 taking responsibility for his actions, and therefore should be let out on bail. Obviously, that, like many other things, backfired on him. So again, the receivership was put into place by Vote Crash Victim's attorney Mark Tinsley. This technically puts them at the front of a line when it comes to doling out assets for victims. But ultimately, it's up to the judge to decide who gets what here. The judge will have to look at the long line of Ellick's creditors, which includes the Vote Crash Victims, the Satterfields, the other financial crime victims, Johnny Parker and

Starting point is 00:43:06 Randy Murdoch, PMPED, and Nautilus Insurance, that's the insurance company that Ellick allegedly bullied into paying that giant settlement after Glorious Satterfield's ball. Assuming there are no settlements, the judge will have to look at that long line and consider what's fair and in what order. Think of that line like the line for the life-saving rafts on the Titanic. Think of this scene from the movie when all the women and children are being lowered into the water and some rich guys hop on and hope they're not noticed. That is what we see happening here with PMPED.

Starting point is 00:43:40 While this order doesn't technically place them at the front of the line, it most certainly puts them on deck where the rafts are. And this brings us to one of our biggest ongoing questions in all of this, besides where did the money go? And that's what is the ODC doing about PMPED? Or better yet, will the ODC have the strength necessary to take action? Should they find evidence of wrongdoing at PMPED? From what we saw at the Russell Levy trial, PMPED partner Ronnie Crosby and CFO Jeannie

Starting point is 00:44:14 Seconder appear to be prepared for their line of questioning. Meaning if there were corners to look around, then they looked there, down the whole street and in all of the buildings before getting up on that stand. Like we keep saying, the Murdoch case is a major opportunity for the state to take out the trash, wherever that trash may be. No one should be protected. If there are lawyers who have been stealing money, then that is the state's duty to call all of it out and call it out loudly.

Starting point is 00:44:50 They need to call out any law firms where money is being stolen outright and where it is being stolen through inflating costs and faking expenses. They need to call out any law firms that are OK with their lawyers creating special interest companies and other small businesses that they can then use to bill clients for alleged third party services without ever informing their client of this potential conflict of interest. And they need to call out law firms whose cultures promote and encourage the excessive stripping of client settlements which is leaving those clients the people whose injuries are

Starting point is 00:45:34 being exploited here with pennies on the dollar. It requires a lot of bravery for lawyers to do the right thing in this state when it comes to reporting bad behavior. Only bad acts in South Carolina are kind of like shootings and nightclubs. The system offers such little assurance that justice will prevail, meaning that the bad guys will actually end up behind bars, that there are simply no witnesses to any crimes. It's too dangerous, so the gunmen go free. Over the past year, we've gotten a front row seat to see how this works, and we think

Starting point is 00:46:14 we see things pretty clearly. Honestly, it seems like it's a game of unspoken blackmail and implied bullying, which is basically the good ol' boy system. It is structured so that those who have the strength to call out unethical behavior do so at the potential expense of their careers. And that is where the cancer lies. That is at the heart of what needs to be fixed. If the law, if the rules, are applied equally and without favor, then only then will we

Starting point is 00:46:47 see change. Stay tuned and stay in the sunlight. There is a lot more coming. The Murdoch Murders podcast is created and hosted by me, Manny Matney, produced by my husband, David Moses, and Liz Farrell is our executive editor. From Luna Shark Productions.

Murdaugh Murders Podcast - Who is Blanca? And What is PMPED Trying to Do Here? (S01E71)

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