Alex Murdaugh stole from former SC law firm and his brother, new indictments charge

Disbarred South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh has been indicted on new charges that he stole money from his former Hampton law firm and that he illegally cashed a sizable check that should have gone to one of his brothers, according to new state grand jury indictments.

The indictments were handed up Tuesday and were released Friday by the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office after The State published a news story about the new indictments. Also Friday, two other alleged accomplices of Murdaugh’s financial schemes were indicted on new charges: Spencer Roberts and Jerry K. Rivers.

Up to now, Murdaugh, 54, has been charged with stealing millions of dollars from clients, associates and other lawyers, as well as using his law firm’s client trust account as an integral part of illegal money-making schemes dating back at least to 2011.

This is the first time Murdaugh has been charged with stealing from a relative and from his own law firm.

“Alex Murdaugh betrayed our trust when he stole funds from our clients and our firm. Alex hurt a lot of people with his crimes that are shocking and inexcusable. We’re grateful to law enforcement officials for the thorough investigation that led to the recent indictments, and we support a speedy and fair prosecution of the charge,” said a spokesman for Murdaugh’s former firm, now called the Parker Law Group.

Murdaugh’s lawyers, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, declined comment on the new charges.

One indictment charges that Murdaugh stole a total of $175,200 in legal fees from his firm, including $91,867 in December 2020 and January 2021 and again in May 2021, when he stole another $83,333 in legal fees due to the firm, the indictment says.

Each time, Murdaugh converted the money to his personal use, including credit card payments, transfers to family members and checks to associates, the indictment said.

Another indictment alleges that the firm mistakenly wrote out a $121,358 repayment check to Murdaugh that actually should have gone to his brother, who was also a partner in the firm. The brother is not named in the indictment, but Murdaugh had only one brother who was a law firm partner, Randy Murdaugh.

“Instead of calling attention to the mistake, Murdaugh instead went to the (firm’s) accounting office and through false representations had the office cut another check for the same amount and void the original one within the internal accounting system,” the indictment said.

“Murdaugh then deposited that replacement loan repayment check into his account and converted the funds to personal use,” the indictment said.

Murdaugh’s old law firm had an informal tradition whereby, at the beginning of a year, the firm would get loans from partners, including Randy, to cover firm operating expenses until later in the year, when money would then flow into the firm, one indictment said.

The firm would usually pay back the loans, with interest, by April or May of the same year, the indictment said.

In all, this week’s indictments charge Murdaugh with one count of obtaining signature or property by false pretenses and one count of money laundering for misappropriating funds rather than paying the fees into the firm as he was required to do.

He also was indicted on two counts of obtaining signature or property by false pretenses, one count of money laundering, and one count of computer crime that alleges Murdaugh, through false representation, took a loan repayment from the firm that was due to another partner.

Murdaugh’s old firm was called Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth and Detrick. It has since rebranded itself and formed a new entity called the Parker Law Group. Murdaugh’s brother, Randy, is listed on the new firm’s website.

Murdaugh was forced to resign last September from the firm after it said he had “misappropriated funds.” He entered drug treatment shortly afterward to care for a substance abuse problem, his lawyers said at the time.

In October, the old firm filed a civil suit against Murdaugh, alleging in general terms — without naming specific amounts or dates — that he had stolen money from the firm. But no criminal charges against him were filed at that time for stealing.

“This is disappointing news for all of us,” the firm said at the time. “Rest assured that our firm will deal with this in a straightforward manner. There’s no place in our firm for such behavior.”

Separately, Murdaugh faces murder charges for the June 2021 shooting deaths of his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, at their Colleton County hunting lodge estate of Moselle.

His murder trial may take place as early as January in Walterboro. Murdaugh has said he is innocent of killings and wants the early trial so police, his lawyers said in court, can get back to search for “the real killers.”

Indictments in the case accuse Murdaugh of killing Maggie with a rifle and Paul with a shotgun. The indictments gave no motive. The lack of detailed information underscores the puzzling unknowns that have been part of the case since the killings.

Since last fall, Murdaugh also has been charged in 18 indictments containing 90 separate charges alleging he stole more than $8.7 million, including this week’s charges.

Indictments charge he engaged in sophisticated money laundering schemes and used at least part of the stolen cash to set up a pipeline whereby he buy drugs through intermediaries. Much of the stolen cash also went to personal expenses and replenish money in various bank conservatorships he had taken money out of.

Murdaugh is being held without bond on the murder charges in the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center outside Columbia.

His trial on murder charges is expected to be one of the most widely watched trials in the state and nation in recent years.

Murdaugh is a fourth-generation member of a powerful Lowcountry dynasty with deep roots in the state’s political and legal cultures. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all longtime solicitors who prosecuted criminal cases for more than 80 consecutive years in the five-county 14th Judicial Circuit.

State Grand Jury indicts Spencer Roberts, Jerry Rivers

Along with Murdaugh, the state Attorney General’s office also on Friday released indictments for Spencer Roberts, a Colleton County resident who state law enforcement officials have indicated was part of a drug pipeline that cashed checks and funneled drugs to Murdaugh.

Roberts, 34, was charged with fraudulently obtaining $20,000 in federal funds during the COVID-19 pandemic by making a false claim in 2021 that he ran a business that qualified for payments under the federal Paycheck Protection Program.

Roberts faces charges of money laundering, obtaining property by false pretenses and a count of computer crime.

Roberts is also charged with fraudulently obtaining $24,867 in unemployment benefits by filing a false claim with the state Department of Employment and Workforce that he lost his job at a car wash in 2021 during the pandemic. In fact, no such car wash existed, the indictment said.

Another man indicted Aug. 16 by the state grand jury and linked to Murdaugh’s alleged money and drug scheme is Jerry K. Rivers, 39, who was indicted on one count of obstruction of justice. The indictment said on or about Aug. 10 Rivers intentionally took a cellphone belonging to someone else who had been arrested.

The attorney general in its release did not say how Rivers was connected to Murdaugh.

But at a bond hearing for Rivers Friday at the Richland County courthouse, state prosecutor Creighton Waters told Judge Clifton Newman that Rivers is “one of the individuals downstream from Alex Murdaugh … who received substantial amounts of checks.”

Although Rivers’ defense lawyer, Lawton Matthews of Florence, described his client as “loving father” and urged the judge to set the “lowest possible surety bond,” Newman set the bond at $150,000.

Matthews, who represents Rivers with attorney Rose Mary Parham of Florence, also said Rivers has five children and is unemployed but looking for work, so he can’t afford the cost of a high surety bond.

But Waters told the judge that Rivers has an extensive criminal history, including a federal drug conviction, and the indictment is serious and merits a serious bond.