Murdaugh friend Fleming gets nearly 4-year sentence in theft of insurance proceeds

Despite a torrent of letters from friends and family saying what a fine father, husband and man ex-lawyer Cory Fleming is, U.S. Judge Richard Gergel on Tuesday sentenced him to nearly four years in federal prison for his role in a $4.3 million theft of insurance proceeds resulting from the 2018 slip-and-fall death of Alex Murdaugh’s family housekeeper.

Fleming was sentenced to 46 months in prison and ordered to pay $102,221 in restitution, plus interest, and a $20,000 fine. A grim-faced Fleming, wearing a blue suit and tie, was immediately taken into custody by U.S. marshals, who hustled him from the courtroom through a side door.

Pronouncing sentence in a packed courtroom filled with some 100 Fleming supporters, some of his victims and more than a dozen journalists, Gergel called Fleming’s actions “amazingly egregious misconduct,” and said the nearly four-year term was intended to send a message to the public and to other lawyers.

“We must uphold the rule of law,” Gergel said.

Fleming had actively participated in an embezzlement scheme cooked up by Murdaugh to make money off his housekeeper’s death, Gergel said.

“He is no victim of Mr. Murdaugh’s. He joined the team,” Gergel said.

Fleming, weeping at times and standing before the judge, apologized to his family, his former law partners, his friends, the state’s lawyers and the S.C. Supreme Court, whose justices oversee attorneys’ disciplinary proceedings. “I am profoundly and deeply disappointed in myself ... I am deeply sorry my actions negatively impacted a profession that I love.”

Fleming, 54, of Beaufort, had pleaded guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of five years. Sentencing guidelines in his case said he should serve at least 46 months — nearly four years — in prison. Other potential charges against Fleming were dropped as a result of a plea deal.

During the two-hour hearing at the Charleston federal courthouse, Fleming’s lawyer, Debbie Barbier, urged Gergel to show Fleming mercy and give a sentence substantially lower than 46 months because of his remorse, acceptance of responsibility and cooperation with prosecutors.

Barbier, a University of South Carolina School of Law classmate of Fleming, told Gergel she had been “blown away” by the unsolicited scores of people who have come forward to tell how their lives were touched by numerous “selfless acts of kindness” over the years by Fleming. These supporters are young, old, lawyers, courthouse staff and working class people, said Barbier, who at times appeared to choke back tears.

More than once, Gergel commented on Fleming’s opposite sides.

“As many good things that Mr. Fleming did, he did some really bad things... there must be consequences,” the judge opined.

The $4.3 million of stolen liability insurance was supposed to go to the two sons of longtime Murdaugh housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, but Murdaugh — abetted by Fleming — hatched a scheme whereby nearly all of that money was diverted to him and Fleming. Murdaugh wound up with most of it. State and federal charges against Murdaugh in the Satterfield theft are pending.

Fleming and his former law firm received $676,255.59 from the theft, with the rest of the $4.3 million going to Murdaugh, according to evidence in the case. That money has since been “disgorged” and given to the Satterfield sons, Tony Satterfield and Brian Harriott, who were in court Tuesday.

Emily Limehouse, the lead federal prosecutor, had asked the judge to give Fleming at least 46 months in prison. Stealing money from a client — especially one who is vulnerable, as were the Satterfield sons — is a major sin for a lawyer, she said. “As a lawyer, he should be held to a higher standard,” she said. Prosecuting the case along with Limehouse were two other assistant U.S. attorneys, Katie Stoughton and Winston Holliday.

Tuesday’s sentence closed another chapter in the sordid, shocking saga of convicted murderer Murdaugh, a once-prominent lawyer whose alleged white collar thefts of millions of dollars from law partners, clients, friends and others have attracted national publicity over the last two years as they were slowly exposed by law enforcement, lawyers and journalists.

Fleming’s sentence also marked yet another South Carolina lawyer being sent to prison after getting caught in a high profile white collar crime. The list includes Richard Breibart of Lexington, who stole from clients; former 5th Circuit Solicitor Dan Johnson, who stole from public funds; and former state Rep. Jim Harrison, R-Richland, who accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments while in the Legislature.

The list also includes Murdaugh, the fourth-generation scion of a Lowcountry legal dynasty who stands accused by state and federal officials of stealing millions. Although Murdaugh admitted, during his sworn testimony in a trial earlier this year, to stealing millions, he has yet to stand trial or formally plead guilty to any of the white collar charges against him. Murdaugh was convicted in March of murdering his wife, Maggie, and son Paul; he is now serving two consecutive life sentences in state prison for their murders.

Gloria Satterfield died in February 2019 of injuries received after a fall, reportedly caused by Murdaugh’s dogs, on the front steps of the Murdaugh family house, a two-story abode on the 1,770-acre family estate north of the town of Hampton in southeastern South Carolina.

Fleming, who practiced law in Beaufort, was one of Murdaugh’s closest friends. The two met in the early 1990s at the University of South Carolina School of Law in Columbia and stayed friends after their 1994 graduation. Fleming surrendered his law license in June, sparing him the indignity of being disbarred.

The embezzlement of $4.3 million from Satterfield’s estate was first revealed in early fall 2021 in a lawsuit brought by attorneys Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter, who represented Satterfield’s sons. The lawsuit alleged Murdaugh, Fleming and others had schemed to steal insurance proceeds from her death.

Fleming had no knowledge of Murdaugh’s numerous other criminal schemes to defraud others, prosecutors have said.

Barbier, Fleming’s attorney, portrayed him in her sentencing memo as being fooled by Murdaugh.

“Like many people, Mr. Fleming was under the impression that Mr. Murdaugh was a successful attorney from a wealthy and influential family who was happily married and a loving father.”

Barbier also presented Gergel with a seven-page list of other South Carolina white collar crime sentences, nearly all of which were lower than the 46 months that Fleming got.

Gergel wasn’t impressed.

“The cases you cited bore no resemblance to this catastrophic set of events here. These are unique facts,” Gergel said.

Although Barbier presented five people who spoke on Fleming’s behalf, the judge also let Fleming’s victims and their lawyers have a say.

Tony Satterfield, standing with attorneys Bland and Richter, told Fleming that he forgave him and quoted part of a Bible verse from the fifth chapter of Matthew: “Pray for those who mistreat you.... I have forgiven you.”

Bland, who said he wanted to make sure people knew the lawless nature of Fleming’s crime, described to the judge in detail the numerous illegal actions Fleming had deliberately taken to help Murdaugh steal the $4.3 million. Fleming — who was supposed to be acting as the Satterfield sons’ lawyer — had disregarded standard legal procedures by falsifying documents, putting in for phony expenses and lying to a state judge, among other things, Bland said.

In the scam Murdaugh cooked up, Fleming was supposed to be the sons’ lawyer and Murdaugh the defendant — but Fleming never even filed a lawsuit and plotted with Murdaugh to not only steal the $4.3 million but also to orchestrate the dispersal of the money from two insurance companies so Murdaugh got most of it, Bland told the judge.

Attorney Justin Bamberg, who represents Pamela Pinckney, from whom evidence showed Fleming and Murdaugh stole around $100,000, also spoke, pointing out Fleming was a repeat offender.

The Pinckney case involved Fleming’s theft of settlement funds around 2011 from Pamela Pinckney’s son’s estate. He died after becoming quadriplegic in a car accident. Fleming used $8,528 of the estate’s funds to issue two checks to pay for a private plane to attend the College World Series, Bamberg and prosecutors have said.

Prosecutors did not charge Fleming with the Pinckney theft because the statute of limitations had expired. But they were allowed to introduce evidence about it for Gergel to take into account for sentencing purposes.

Fleming is scheduled to go on trial Sept. 11 in Beaufort on the state charges involving the Satterfields and the Pinckneys before state Judge Clifton Newman. However, a trial will be avoided if Barbier can work out a plea deal with the state Attorney General’s office.

Earlier in August, another longtime Murdaugh friend — former Palmetto State Bank CEO Russell Laffitte — was sentenced by Gergel to seven years in federal prison for Laffitte’s role in helping Murdaugh steal millions from Murdaugh’s former clients by manipulating their money in accounts over which Laffitte exercised stewardship.

A jury in Charleston had convicted Laffitte last November of six counts of bank and wire fraud after a trial that ran three weeks. Laffitte has filed notice he will appeal the verdict and the sentence. Like Murdaugh, Laffitte was the son of a prominent, well-to-do Lowcountry family.

Of all the more than 50 letters written to Gergel on Fleming’s behalf, and filed on the public docket, one of the most poignant was a three-page letter from Fleming’s wife, Eve.

“I ask that you please extend mercy and grace to my husband your honor,” wrote Eve Fleming, a Beaufort lawyer who works as a public defender.

“I have told Cory, and have repeated to others, that I will not define him by his worst moments. I can dislike and disapprove of some things he’s done, but I can still respect him for everything else. And there are so many good things.”

Fleming said, “I will spend the rest of my life in regret and shame.”

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. South Carolina’s U.S. Attorney Adair Boroughs, said, “Cory Fleming was trusted by clients who had suffered tragic losses, and he abused that trust for his own personal gain.”