Alex Murdaugh agrees to pay $4.3 million to housekeeper’s estate
FILE – Alex Murdaugh walks into his bond hearing, Sept. 16, 2021, in Varnville, S.C. Murdaugh is scheduled for a virtual hearing Monday, Jan. 10, 2022 as a judge could consider lowering the $7 million bond she set last month. Prosecutors have accused the prominent South Carolina attorney of stealing more than $6.2 million from about a dozen clients between 2015 and 2020 by using a fraudulent bank account to divert settlement and other money to himself. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)
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(NewsNation) — Court-appointed financial receivers upheld a judgment ordering Alex Murdaugh to pay $4.3 million to the estate of his former housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield.
Satterfield died at Murdaugh’s home in 2018, after what the attorney described as a “trip and fall accident,” NewsNation local affiliate WCBD reported. Murdaugh was later accused of swindling Satterfield’s sons out of millions they were owed in a wrongful death settlement.
Affidavits released by the South Carolina Enforcement Division and reported on by CNN say that Murdaugh coordinated with Satterfield’s family to sue himself to seek an insurance settlement, with the intent of giving the proceeds back to the family. But, CNN reported, Murdaugh deposited nearly $3 million into an account he owned.
In a court filing, Murdaugh admitted liability to the Satterfield’s claims.
The Satterfield family attorney, Eric Bland, said the court’s judgment is both “meaningful and symbolic.”
“As we have said all along, Gloria did not die in vain. Her death now had a purpose,” Bland said, according to WCBD.
Bland said the Satterfields’ plan is to use some of the funds to set up a foundation in Gloria Satterfield’s honor that will benefit underprivileged Hampton County families, WCBD said.
Murdaugh, the fourth generation of a prominent legal family in Hampton County, South Carolina, has been jailed since his October arrest for mostly financial crimes. In January, The Associated Press reported, he was facing 71 charges that he stole nearly $8.5 million in wrongful death and wreck settlements from more than a dozen people.
Murdaugh was indicted on crimes dating back to 2011. He has blamed his problems on years of drug addiction. At his bond hearings, Murdaugh’s lawyers said he has sought counseling and wants to make things right for the clients he hurt.
