Alex Murdaugh appears in an Oct. 14, 2021 mugshot obtained from the Orange County, Fla. Department of Corrections.
South Carolina prosecutors have unveiled a superseding indictment against the heir to a legal dynasty and one of his closest friends.
The charging document, obtained by Law&Crime on Wednesday morning, alleges four new counts against Richard Alexander “Alex” Murdaugh. It also alleges eighteen separate charges against Cory Howerton Fleming, an attorney who has been described as Murdaugh’s best friend.
The indictment marks the first time Fleming has been charged in connection with the grand jury investigation surrounding Murdaugh’s various alleged schemes and nefarious doings, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office said in a press release.
In summary, the document alleges that Fleming played a role in helping Murdaugh pocket settlement money that was supposed to go the family of a Murdaugh housekeeper who died in 2018.
Cory Howerton Fleming. (Image via screengrab from NewsNation/YouTube.)
Murdaugh was previously charged for allegedly cooking up a scheme to hire a hitman to kill him in order to trigger a payout from an insurance company. He was subsequently indicted in November 2021, December 2021, and January 2021 on a sum total of 71 counts, the AG’s office said. Those counts involve breach of trust with fraudulent intent, obtaining property by false pretenses, money laundering, computer crimes, and forgery.
The new indictment “charges Murdaugh and Fleming together with one count of Criminal Conspiracy for conspiring to surreptitiously give Murdaugh a share of Fleming’s fee from the multi-million dollar settlement of civil claims against Murdaugh resulting from the death of Gloria Satterfield,” the AG’s office said.
Gloria Satterfield was a Murdaugh housekeeper who died — allegedly in a trip-and-fall accident — on Feb. 26, 2018.
The AG’s office continued:
As to Murdaugh specifically, in addition to prior charges of Obtaining Signature or Property by False Pretenses, Value $10,000 or More (3 counts); Money Laundering, Value $100,000 or More (3 counts); and Computer Crime, Value $10,000 or More (3 counts), the State Grand Jury charged Murdaugh with three counts of False Statement or Misrepresentation in Connection with an Insurance Transaction, Value $50,000 or More. The new charges arise out of the alleged scheme to defraud multiple insurance companies in the course of surreptitiously delivering to Murdaugh a share of the proceeds resulting from the settlement of the claims against him. As before, the indictment alleges schemes by Murdaugh to defraud the victims of $3,483,431.95.
As to Fleming specifically, in addition to the criminal conspiracy charge, the State Grand Jury charged Fleming with three counts of False Statement or Misrepresentation in Connection with an Insurance Transaction, Value $50,000 or More; four counts of Breach of Trust with Fraudulent Intent, Value $10,000 or more; three counts of Breach of Trust with Fraudulent Intent, Value More than $2,000 but less than $10,000; three counts of Money Laundering, Value $100,000 or More; three counts of Money Laundering, Value More than $300 but less than $20,000; and one count of Computer Crime, Value More than $10,000. Fleming’s charges arise out of the alleged scheme to defraud multiple insurance companies, the personal representatives of the Estate of Gloria Satterfield, and the heirs of Gloria Satterfield in the course of surreptitiously delivering to Murdaugh a share of the proceeds resulting from settlement of the claims against him. The indictment alleges schemes by Fleming to defraud the victims of not only the $3,483,431.95 delivered to Murdaugh, but also of $140,000 wrongfully appropriated or retained by Fleming.
Murdaugh has long been in custody. Both he and Fleming were suspended from practicing law last year.
Murdaugh, the son of at least four generations of local attorneys and prosecutors in South Carolina’s Lowcountry region, said he found his wife Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, and their son Paul Murdaugh, 22, shot and killed on family property in Islandton on the night of June 7, 2021. Both were reportedly shot multiple times with different weapons. Paul had been charged in connection with a deadly and allegedly drunken boating crash that claimed the life of Mallory Beach, 19. Scrutiny on the family increased after the boating crash, the subsequent criminal and civil litigation surrounding it, and (naturally) the subsequent deaths of Maggie and Paul. Reports that Alex Murdaugh had months later been shot in the head — claims the state says were part of an effort to off himself and save his surviving son from financial ruin — spread quickly last September and led to myriad probes into the family’s dealings. Those probes included the one that has now ensnared Fleming for allegedly helping Murdaugh pocket settlement money that was supposed to go to the Satterfield family.
Eric S. Bland, an attorney for the Satterfield family, did not immediately respond to a Law&Crime request for comment, but he has said elsewhere that he is elated with the indictment. Murdaugh’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read the full indictment below:
Editor’s note: this piece, which began as a breaking news report, has been updated.
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