A former banker and alleged confederate of disgraced authorized scion, Alex Murdaugh, has agreed to a responsible plea in serving to with some of his monetary crimes.
Court docket information obtained by WCIV present that Russell Laffitte pleaded responsible to a number of federal fraud expenses final week and can spend 5 years in jail.
The information present that Laffitte additionally agreed to pay $3,555,884.80 in prison restitution. Moreover, the previous financial institution CEO won’t be allowed to work at any federally insured financial institution or credit score union with out prior consent.
On the time of the crimes, Laffitte served because the CEO of Palmetto State Financial institution and allegedly used his place to hold out the schemes. He additionally acted because the conservator or monetary consultant for Murdaugh’s private damage shoppers.
ALEX MURDAUGH, ACCOMPLICE ORDERED TO PAY MILLIONS IN MONEY SCHEME AFTER HOUSEKEEPER’S DEATH
New mugshots for Alex Murdaugh and Russell Laffitte from Wednesday, July 20, 2022. (Richland County Detention Heart/Kershaw County Detention Heart)
Laffitte’s household based the financial institution in 1907 in the identical rural city of Hampton, South Carolina, the place the Murdaugh’s too would rise to prominence.
Throughout his earlier testimony, Laffitte claimed that he merely did what Murdaugh requested of him and was not conscious of the lawyer’s alleged schemes.
In 2022, a jury convicted Laffitte of serving to Murdaugh steal round $2 million from shoppers.
Alex Murdaugh’s most up-to-date mugshot (South Carolina Division of Corrections)
Laffitte was sentenced practically seven months after the conviction to seven years in jail and was ordered to pay $3.5 million in restitution.
Nonetheless, Laffitte’s sentence was overturned in November 2024 when an appellate court docket decided that, throughout his trial, the elimination of two jurors was mishandled and violated Laffitte’s Fifth Modification rights.
Laffitte was fired from the financial institution shortly after the allegations got here to gentle that he helped Murdaugh and Murdaugh’s lawyer buddy and faculty roommate, Cory Fleming, steal from a authorized shopper named Hakeem L. Pinckney, a deaf athlete rendered a quadriplegic following a rollover automobile accident that critically injured his relations.
ALEX MURDAUGH SPED UP WHEN HE PASSED LOCATION WHERE HIS SLAIN WIFE’S PHONE WAS FOUND: WITNESS
Alex Murdaugh appears over proof of a examine delivered to him and his attorneys within the double homicide trial of Alex Murdaugh on the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Submit and Courier/Pool)
A choose ordered Murdaugh and Fleming to pay thousands and thousands to an insurance coverage firm in January 2025 after they conspired to steal about $4 million in insurance coverage funds from his housekeeper’s household following her demise.
Murdaugh’s housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, apparently tripped and fell on the entrance steps of the Murdaughs’ house on their South Carolina looking property, Moselle, and died later in a hospital.
The $4 million Murdaugh stole from the Satterfield household is a part of the 100 monetary crimes expenses filed in opposition to Murdaugh involving thousands and thousands in stolen funds from his former legislation agency shoppers.
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Murdaugh had beforehand been ordered to serve 40 years for his monetary crimes in federal court docket and 27 years for his monetary crimes in state court docket.
These sentences got here on high of his life sentence for killing his spouse, Maggie, and youngest son, Paul, in 2021.
A Colleton County jury discovered the disgraced lawyer responsible of taking pictures Maggie and Paul close to canine kennels on the household’s looking property in June of that 12 months. Prosecutors say he was making an attempt to create a distraction from his mounting monetary crimes, which had been starting to return to gentle round that point.
Fox Information Digital’s Audrey Conklin and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
Stepheny Worth is a author for Fox Information Digital and Fox Enterprise. She covers subjects together with lacking individuals, homicides, nationwide crime circumstances, unlawful immigration, and extra. Story suggestions and concepts could be despatched to stepheny.value@fox.com
