Bond for Alex Murdaugh, disgraced South Carolina attorney, set at $7 million

By Maria Cartaya and Wesley Bruer, CNN

Bond for Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced South Carolina attorney accused of financial wrongdoing and of setting up a suicidal insurance fraud scheme, was set at $7 million in a virtual bond hearing on Monday with Judge Alison Lee.

Last week, state Attorney General Alan Wilson announced that seven indictments with 21 criminal charges were filed against Murdaugh. A bond hearing Friday for Murdaugh for 27 previous charges was delayed after the new charges were filed, said a spokesperson from the attorney general’s office.

The once-prominent attorney, in custody in Columbia on other charges, has faced increased scrutiny since the renewed attention on the unsolved fatal shootings of his wife and one of his sons in June and the opening of an investigation in September into the 2018 death of his housekeeper.

The additional indictments bring the total number of charges faced by Murdaugh to 48 after a state grand jury investigation. All the charges stem from an alleged wide-ranging scheme that sought to defraud victims of more than $6 million.

Murdaugh is currently in jail on charges of conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, accused of misappropriating millions of dollars in funds meant for the family of his longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who died in an accident at the Murdaugh home in 2018. A lawsuit against Murdaugh was filed in September on behalf of Satterfield’s estate, seeking the money the family says it is due.

On September 4, a day after he resigned from his law firm amid allegations he had misappropriated funds, Murdaugh was shot in the head on a roadway, but survived.

He later admitted to authorities he conspired with former client Curtis Smith to kill him as part of a fraud scheme so that his only surviving son could collect a $10 million life insurance payout, according to an affidavit to support charges against the alleged gunman.

The shooting followed the June deaths of Murdaugh’s wife, Margaret, and son, Paul, who were fatally shot outside their home in Islandton. The case remains unsolved. Murdaugh has denied responsibility in the killings.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Dianne Gallagher, Eric Levenson and Alta Spells contributed to this report.