Bank of America accused in lawsuit of helping disgraced S.C. attorney Alex Murdaugh launder money stolen from heirs of late housekeeper
Attorneys for the estate of the late housekeeper of disgraced South Carolina attorney Richard “Alex” Murdaugh have accused Bank of America of helping the alleged embezzler launder money.
The nation’s largest bank was added on Monday to the list of defendants in an existing lawsuit in the Hampton County, S.C., Court of Common Pleas filed in September by the sons of the housekeeper, Gloria Ann Satterfield. The amended complaint alleges that Bank of America looked the other way as Murdaugh opened accounts funded with stolen money that he then transferred to a cousin.
The complaint strips out several defendants with whom the sons have settled and now is aimed solely at Murdaugh himself and Bank of America, according to the Greenville News.
Murdaugh is facing criminal charges for his alleged actions in the wake of Satterfield’s death from a reported “slip and fall” accident at his family home in February 2018. After she died, Murdaugh allegedly encouraged her sons, Michael “Tony” Satterfield and Brian Harriott, to file a wrongful-death suit against his insurance company, promising them any settlement money. Instead he stole up to $4.3 million from Satterfield’s estate, according to charges filed against him in October. The brothers say they never saw a penny, and their mother’s death is now being investigated.
About half of the $4 million settlement won for the sons by their attorney Cory Fleming was supposed to go to the brothers, according to a warrant issued in October by the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division. Instead, about $3 million in checks was written to an account called “Forge,” owned by Murdaugh, the division said.
The sons are also suing Murdaugh separately claiming that he never told them that Fleming was his old college buddy and his son’s godfather.
Bank of America should have known better, the newly amended lawsuit alleges.
“By flexing their own rules and ignoring banking customs, Bank of America helped Murdaugh establish his fake Forge accounts, which Murdaugh funded with stolen money,” the lawsuit claims, according to a copy obtained by The News & Observer. “Once he was in possession of his ill-gotten gain, Murdaugh engaged in other suspicious banking conduct (that) Bank of America should have identified.”
Bank of America also should have flagged the money that Murdaugh transferred from his “fake Forge accounts to a personal checking account” also established at the bank, from which he issued 254 personal checks to cousin Eddie Smith to the tune of $1.8 million, the lawsuit alleges.
“Murdaugh did not act alone,” the lawsuit states. “Bank of America is the bank of a money launderer. Bank of America is a bank of fraud. They are nothing more than a high-tech laundromat.”
“We all recognize the significance of adding Bank of America to this action,” Eric Bland, one of the sons’ attorneys, said in a statement obtained by the Hampton County Guardian. “They are a banking behemoth, as they are the largest bank in the United States and one of the largest in the world. A true David and Goliath battle lies ahead.”
Bank of America clapped back immediately.
“There is no basis for this lawsuit, and we are asking the court to dismiss it,” Bank of America spokesman Bill Halldin told The News & Observer. “Make no mistake, the wrongdoer here was Mr. Murdaugh, and the diversion of these funds occurred away from Bank of America. We had no knowledge of any theft and followed standard procedures in account openings for a sole proprietor business.”
Murdaugh faces more than 30 counts of financial crimes and is trying to get the entire Sutterfield lawsuit dismissed, according to the Hampton County Guardian.
