An Associate Of Disgraced Former Lawyer Alex Murdaugh Has Been Indicted On Charges That He Helped Launder And Misuse Funds

An associate of disgraced former lawyer Alex Murdaugh has been indicted on charges that he helped launder and misuse funds. 
Palmetto State Bank CEO Russell Laffitte was charged by a federal grand jury on Wednesday on counts of conspiracy, wire fraud and bank fraud. 
Prosecutors allege Laffitte schemed with Murdaugh to swindle two young sisters out of money they received after their mother and brother were killed in an accident in 2005. 
The pair hatched the plan in 2011, while Laffitte worked as a conservator for sisters Alania Spohn and Hanna Plyer, and Murdaugh represented them.
Even though Laffitte was paid over $400,000 for watching over the sister's money, they attempted to embezzle $990,000 for Murdaugh and $355,000 for Lafitte. 
Russell Laffitte, CEO of Palmetto State Bank, faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of charges he helped Alex Murdaugh swindle hundreds of thousands of dollars
Disgraced legal heir Alex Murdaugh arrived at a South Carolina court Wednesday for a hearing over last year's brutal murders of his wife and son - as cops now claim they have a 'mountain of evidence' against him
Laffitte was fired from his role at the bank in January, and now faces up to 30 years behind bars if convicted.  He's also accused of misusing bank funds and granting Murdaugh a $750,000 loan for 'beach house renovations and expenses,' according to the grand jury, as well as illegally using his banks money to pay Murdaugh $680,000 to pay back a debt. 
Murdaugh arrived at a South Carolina court Wednesday for a hearing over last year's brutal murders of his wife and son, which saw the scion plead not guilty to the grisly double slaying.
The hearing also saw Murdaugh, 54, denied bond for the alleged crimes - with cops now claiming they have a 'mountain of evidence' against him, including cell phone and video footage of him talking to his wife moments before she was killed.
Asked how he pleaded to the felony murder charges, Murdaugh, who sported a jail-style buzzcut for the court appearance, confidently asserted: 'Not guilty.'
When questioned by a prosecutor on how he will be tried, Murdaugh maintained, 'By God and by country.'
The once-prominent lawyer looked gaunt during the court appearance, which was held to decide whether Murdaugh should be awarded bond for the double murder, which transpired on June 7 of last year.
Both sides agreed that a bond should not be awarded to the suspected killer, due to the fact that he's already in jail on a $7 million bond for 74 other criminal charges - the lion's share being an array of financial scams. 
Murdaugh was filmed leaving Colleton County jail for the hearing before being carted back to jail Wednesday - more than a year after the lifeless bodies of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh on his estate in Hampton, Colleton County.
Murdaugh, 54, was filmed briefly leaving jail for a bond hearing over the two first-degree murder charges - more than a year after the lifeless bodies of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh on the family's sprawling hunting estate in Colleton County
Murdaugh is pictured during his bond hearing at Colleton County Courthhouse Wednesday, during which the scion pleaded not guilty and was denied bond for the grisly double slaying
Murdaugh was denied bond by Judge Clifton Newman, the same judge who previously denied bond for him last October when the family of his former housekeeper accused him of stealing insurance money after her death
The hearing - which was held at 10 a.m.

and lasted less than a half hour - saw Murdaugh denied bond by Judge Clifton Newman, the same judge who previously denied bond for him last October, when the family of his former housekeeper accused him of stealing insurance money after her death.
The once prominent lawyer was pictured leaving the Colleton County Courthhouse in chains - after being indicted last week on two counts of murder for the slayings.
Cops say Murdaugh shot Maggie, 52, with a rifle, and Paul, 22, with a shotgun at their Moselle property in June 2021.

A motive for the slayings had yet to be determined.
Murdaugh, sporting a jail buzzcut, is pictured shortly after being denied bond for the two felony murder charges.

The once-prominent lawyer looked to have lost a great deal of weight since being incarcerated in October for unrelated financial crimes
A handcuffed Murdaugh is pictured inside the Colleton County Courthouse shortly after he pleaded 'not guilty' to the murders 
Murdaugh is led away in cuffs after being denied bond.

When questioned by a prosecutor on how he will be tried, Murdaugh said, 'By God and by country'
Murdaugh, 54, wore a wrinkled, white-button down and khakis for the hearing - his first in relation to the June 202 The source also said that Murdaugh's cell phone, watch, and vehicle GPS also contradict those claims, People reported.
The outlet also added that investigators are adamant that Murdaugh lured his wife to the scene, under the guise he wanted her to accompany with her to visit his ailing father, with whom she was close.
The sources said that the couple - who had been influential figures in the South Carolina legal scene -had hit a rough patch in their marriage prior to the killings, and that Maggie at the time was staying at the family's beach house on Edisto Island, roughly an hour away from the family's estate. 
The insider reportedly told People that Maggie at first declined requests from Murdaugh to meet at the family home, suggesting instead they meet at the hospital.

After some convincing, however, she consented to meet at the home, saying she would follow Alex to the hospital in her car.
Bond denied for Alex Murdaugh.
We will await the On her way to the home, Maggie allegedly messaged a friend to tell her she felt uneasy about the arrangement, and that she was worried that Murdaugh was 'up to something.'  
The texts, People reported, saw Maggie theorize that something about her husband's behavior felt 'fishy,' with one of the messages flat-out declaring: 'He's up to something.' The identity of the recipient of those texts was not identified at Wednesday's hearing.
However, the most damning piece of evidence in lawmen's possession, allegedly, is cell phone audio and video that the source said places Murdaugh at the crime scene 'moments' before the murder, talking with Maggie just before she was killed.   
Murdaugh is pictured leaving the Colleton County Courthhouse in restraints immediately after the hearing, before being brought back to a local jail
The once prominent lawyer was pictured leaving the Colleton County Courthhouse in chains - after being indicted last week on two counts of murder for the killing
Murdaugh - who reportedly struggled with a debilitating opioid addiction in the months building up to the murder - was officially charged with their murders last week.

The one-time legal scion was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. 
He is already behind bars on separate charges relating to embezzlement and fraud.
It has taken police roughly 13 months to level charges against Murdaugh- who is already behind bars on separate charges relating to  fraud and embezzlement charges relating to the money he stole from his law firm and a failed attempt to stage his own murder as part of a $10million life insurance scam for his son in September. 
Mere months after his wife and son were murdered, Murdaugh tried to stage his own death so that Buster, his 26-year-old surviving son, could reap the sum, but was criminally charged when the suicide-for-hire plot fell apart after the attempt failed and his hired hit man was arrested. 
The incident, which transpired on September 4, was Murdaugh shot three times by 61-year-old Curtis Smith - one of the former legal eagle's many clients - however, according to police, he only suffered a 'superficial gunshot wound to the head' 
Smith has since been charged with assisted suicide, aggravated assault, and battery related to the shooting.

He is awaiting trial on those charges. 
Murdaugh, meanwhile, was charged with conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and jailed the following month. His trial is also pending. 
Murdaugh, whose father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were also top prosecutors South Carolina for nearly a century, 'believed ending his life was his only option,' his lawyers said at the time, citing his spiraling opioid addiction, which they said evaporated the blue blooded jurist's net worth over the course of 20 years. 

In the months following, investigators looking into Maggie and Paul's deaths also uncovered a litany of crime and insurance fraud that have seen them reopen two suspicious deaths linked to the family
Thirteen months ago, Murdaugh told police he 'found' the bodies of his youngest son and wife outside a series dog kennels on the family's 1,700 square feet hunting estate around 10pm on June 7, 2021.
In audio of the 911 call that he placed at 10:07pm that night, Murdaugh can be heard telling the dispatcher in a high-pitched screech: 'I need the police and an ambulance immediately.

My wife and child were just shot badly.'
Paul, 22, was shot twice with a shotgun - once in the head and once in the chest. Maggie had been shot multiple times with an assault rifle. Their gunshot wounds were believed to be consistent with 'execution-style' killings, reports said. 
According to several sources, Paul's body was found partially inside one of the kennels, while his mother's was several feet away, leading investigators to believe that she ran from her killer before being gunned down. 
At least two of her gunshot wounds were believed to have been inflicted while she was on the ground. 
In audio of the 911 call, Alex Murdaugh, pictured with Maggie, Paul and surviving son Buster (far left) can be heard telling the dispatcher in a high-pitched screech: 'I need the police and an ambulance immediately.

My wife and child were just shot badly'
According to several sources, Paul's body was found partially inside one of these dog kennels outside the family's Hampton home, while his mother's was several feet away, leading investigators to believe that she ran from her killer before being gunned down
Pictured: A gated entrance to the Murdaugh hunting lodge.

The disgraced attorney had originally told investigators that he was visiting his dying father and his mother about 11 miles away at their home in Varnville at the time of the murders
In the immediate aftermath of the discoveries, Murdaugh's family and attorneys vehemently defended the lawyer, who they asserted had a 'ironclad alibi' and that his marriage with Maggie was 'full of love.'
However, Murdaugh's 'alibi' was far from airtight, and has changed significantly since his initial claims that he was nowhere near the property between 9 and 9:30pm - the time the coroner gave the approximate time of death.
In the immediate aftermath of the crime, Murdaugh told investigators that he was visiting his dying father and his mother about 11 miles away at their home in Varnville at the time of the murders.
Two weeks later, his brothers John Marvin and Randy Murdaugh told Good Morning America that he had in fact dropped his father at a hospital in Savannah before going to visit his mother, who has dementia.
Now, according to an account given by Murdaugh's lawyer Jim Griffin to The State newspaper, Murdaugh claims to have left the property around 9pm to make the 20-minute drive to his mother's house and returned to Moselle as originally claimed around or shortly after 10pm.
It is an account that places him squarely on the scene within the timeframe of the killings.
It has been speculated that audio and video data gleaned from Paul's cellphone found by his body, but only recently unlocked by law enforcement, is what prompted Murdaugh's dramatic change of tune.
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