Alex Murdaugh, disgraced South Carolina lawyer accused of killing wife and son, faces new legal trouble

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced legal professional accused of killing his wife and son, was indicted Friday by a grand jury in South Carolina on 9 counts of tax evasion, incorporating to the slew of rates he faces in the aftermath of their fatalities extra than a calendar year back.

Prosecutors mentioned Murdaugh, 54, produced approximately $14 million as a lawyer more than nine a long time, but also stole nearly $7 million from his legislation business at the exact same time.

As a result of tax returns from 2011 to 2019, the grand jury indictments shed a light on a man who designed hundreds of thousands at the legislation agency his spouse and children founded a century in the past, but who also experienced big swings in cash flow and stole about half as a great deal income as he made from Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick.

The most current indictments bring the full selection of charges from the disgraced legal professional to more than 100.

Murdaugh will be attempted in late January on murder charges in the June 2021 taking pictures fatalities of his spouse Maggie and their son Paul at the family’s dwelling in Colleton County. Prosecutors have said they will request life in jail if he is convicted.

Murdaugh’s lawyers adamantly deny he experienced any purpose in the killings, but they have acknowledged his role in taking income from shoppers.

Nine counts of willful try to evade or defeat a tax had been included to Murdaugh’s costs Friday. Prosecutors claimed he dodged approximately $487,000 in state revenue taxes. He faces up to 5 many years in jail on every single rely if convicted.

Most of the other charges towards Murdaugh deal with either thieving $8.8 million in lawsuit settlement funds from terribly wounded clients, or people of folks killed in wrecks or on the work, as effectively as a drug ring and money laundering plan, according to the indictments handed down in almost two dozen waves considering the fact that September 2021.

Friday’s indictments demonstrate Murdaugh claimed almost $14 million in gross modified income from the business on tax returns in excess of the course of nine several years, when prosecutors mentioned he also stole nearly $7 million intended for the firm’s lender accounts and unsuccessful to pay back taxes on the ill-gotten gains.

In his ideal year, Murdaugh claimed creating $5.3 million in 2013 right after building $2.4 million the year just before. But the later on tax returns showed his reputable earnings was drying up. Murdaugh mentioned he made just $219,000 in 2017 and only $1.6 million in excess of the following two yrs, according to the indictment.

On the unreported aspect of the ledger, Murdaugh stole practically $3.8 million in 2019, a sharp improve about most years when he took hundreds of hundreds of pounds from his agency, according to the indictments.

Close to that time, Murdaugh managed to get a $3.5 million insurance coverage settlement for the family’s longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, who died in 2019 in a drop at a relatives house. The settlement was meant for Satterfield’s sons, but they say they under no circumstances noticed a dime right before his arrest.

An additional victim involved an injured condition trooper, and Murdaugh allegedly used a fraudulent financial institution account to divert the settlement funds to himself, in accordance to preceding indictments.

Prosecutors mentioned in courtroom past week that the swirling financial complications are what led Murdaugh to shoot and eliminate his wife and son simply because he feared his schemes have been about to be disclosed and imagined the sympathy in excess of their deaths would invest in extra time to go over his tracks.

But they did not give any direct monetary payment Murdaugh received for their deaths, and Murdaugh’s lawyers claimed he was a wise adequate lawyer to know the violent fatalities of his spouse and son would convey more scrutiny into his lifestyle.

Murdaugh and his relatives were being the most significant gamers in the lawful scene in small Hampton County. His excellent-grandfather, grandfather and father were all elected prosecutors, and the law firm started by his loved ones was acknowledged for having lifetime-transforming lawful settlements in civil circumstances.