Alex Murdaugh alleged co-conspirator, Cory Fleming, indicted for first time over Gloria Satterfield settlement

A brand new South Carolina indictment made public on Wednesday for the primary time names an accused co-conspirator in disgraced legal professional Alex Murdaugh’s alleged sophisticated internet of monetary crimes. 

Cory Fleming, a suspended lawyer and Murdaugh’s former school roommate and shut good friend, is charged with 18 new counts accusing him of conspiring with Murdaugh to defraud his former shoppers – the sons of Murdaugh’s very long time housekeeper and nanny Gloria Satterfield – out of $3.6 million in settlement funds following their mom’s deadly alleged trip-and-fall accident. 

The superseding indictment additionally expenses 53-year-old Murdaugh with 4 new expenses. 

SOUTH CAROLINA JUDGE HELPED HIDE ALEX MURDAUGH-GLORIA SATTERFIELD SETTLEMENT, COMPLAINT ALLEGES 

The state grand jury expenses Murdaugh and Fleming along with one depend of prison conspiracy “for conspiring to surreptitiously give Murdaugh a share of Fleming’s payment from the multi-million-dollar settlement of civil claims in opposition to Murdaugh,” South Carolina Lawyer Normal Alan Wilson mentioned in an announcement. 

As alleged within the 43-page indictment dated March 10, Fleming not solely conspired to defraud the victims out of $3.4 million in wrongful loss of life settlement cash from a number of insurance coverage corporations delivered to Murdaugh, however Fleming wrongfully appropriated or retained a further $140,000 payout himself. 

That is the fourth time Murdaugh has been indicted up to now for the reason that unraveling of the highly effective Low Nation authorized household first started with the still-unsolved double murder of his spouse, Maggie Murdaugh, and their 22-year-old son, Paul Murdaugh, on the household’s “Moselle” property final June.   

Along with Satterfield’s sons, Murdaugh’s higher-profile victims embody a freeway patrolman damage within the line of obligation and Hakeem Pinckney, a deaf quadriplegic man, each of whom Murdaugh represented as a private harm legal professional at a close to century-old regulation agency based by his great-grandfather.

Earlier than Labor Day weekend, the agency confronted Murdaugh for allegedly stealing authorized charges. Murdaugh, in an alleged opioid-fueled scheme, employed a hitman to kill him so his surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, may gather a $10 million life insurance coverage coverage. However he survived the alleged botched roadside taking pictures. 

ALEX MURDAUGH EMBEZZLED FROM DEAF QUADRIPLEGIC, PATROLMAN INJURED IN LINE OF DUTY: LAWYER 

The state Supreme Court docket suspended Murdaugh’s regulation license on Sept. 8 and Fleming’s on Oct. 8. 

Attorneys for Satterfield’s sons have alleged that they didn’t see any of the cash and even know in regards to the multimillion-dollar settlement obtained over their mom’s loss of life till media reported it final fall. 

Satterfield died in February 2018 on the hospital having by no means regained consciousness weeks after Murdaugh mentioned she suffered a head harm after tripping and falling on steps on the household’s property. He allegedly informed her boys to sue him for a civil payout and launched them to Fleming to signify them. 

The 71 counts in opposition to Murdaugh embody expenses of breach of belief with fraudulent intent, acquiring property by false pretenses, cash laundering, pc crimes, and forgery.

Fox Information Digital beforehand confirmed {that a} judiciary criticism was filed earlier this month in opposition to Beaufort County Decide Carmen Mullen alleging she helped maintain the multi-million-dollar settlement finalized in Might 2019 in connection to Satterfield’s loss of life out of public file amid already spiraling dangerous publicity over the deadly boat crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Seashore.

The criticism got here on account of a deposition from Chad Westendorf, an government at Palmetto State Financial institution, who acted because the monetary consultant of Satterfield’s property. Although Westendorf has not been charged with any wrongdoing, Fox Information Digital reported in January that Palmetto State Financial institution fired their CEO, Russell Laffitte, amid allegations he helped Murdaugh defraud Pinckney and his members of the family. 

On the time of his loss of life, Paul Murdaugh was nonetheless going through pending boating beneath the affect expenses for allegedly drunkenly steering his father’s boat right into a bridge close to Parris Island in February 2019. Seashore was thrown from the boat and her physique wasn’t discovered till every week later by fishermen 5 miles away. 

Murdaugh, at the moment held on the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Heart, was beforehand indicted in November 2021, December 2021, and January 2022. By means of 15 indictments containing 75 expenses, the state grand jury accuses Murdaugh in schemes to defraud victims of a complete quantity of almost $8.5 million.