Alex Murdaugh Is Being Investigated By The FBI Over Alleged Financial Crimes, Lawyers Say

The FBI is probing the alleged financial crimes of jailed South Carolina legal scion Alex Murdaugh, multiple attorneys said this week.

Attorneys for Murdaugh, as well as lawyers representing the plaintiffs in two of three recently filed civil cases against the wealthy litigator, confirmed that federal investigators are examining whether the 53-year-old pocketed $3.4 million intended for the heirs of his former housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. She died after a supposed trip and fall accident at his property in 2018. 

Ronnie Richter, one of the attorneys representing Murdaugh, said he has “direct knowledge” that the FBI is investigating his client.

“There is an active FBI investigation into the financial crimes,” Richter told The Post & Courier.

Jim Griffin, another defense attorney for Murdaugh, also said this week that “some prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s office” contacted him in October regarding Murdaugh’s finances, according to the South Carolina's The Island Packet news outlet. 

Griffin added that after the phone call with prosecutors ended he’d concluded that the FBI was “handling the financial end of the investigation.”

Eric Bland, a lawyer representing Satterfield’s family, also appeared to suggest that the focus of the FBI investigation had to do with the financial aspects of the Murdaugh case.

"I only know about the Satterfield portion of the investigation," Bland told Fox News Digital on Wednesday; Bland declined to go into further specifics with the outlet. 

A spokesperson for the FBI declined to verify the reports on Thursday when contacted by Oxygen.com. Rhett DeHart, the Acting U.S. Attorney for South Carolina, also refrained from commenting this week. 

However, state authorities previously confirmed the involvement of federal authorities in their investigations into Murdaugh.

“From very early on in this investigation, SLED has utilized federal resources as needed,” South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Teel recently told the Island Packet. “We will continue to call upon our federal partners, as their assistance is needed, to successfully investigate and prosecute specific aspects of these cases.”

The disgraced lawyer has been exposed to heavy scrutiny by law enforcement since the unsolved double murder of his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and son, Paul Murdaugh in June at the family’s Colleton County hunting estate.

Murdaugh was arrested earlier this month for his alleged theft of millions from an insurance payout after departing a rehabilitation facility where he’d reportedly been receiving treatment for what his legal team said was an opioid addiction. He was denied bond by a South Carolina circuit judge earlier this month in that case. 

This week, attorneys in a trio of civil suits targeting Murdaugh asked the courts to block his surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, from disposing of his father’s sizable assets. According to the recently-filed motions, Alex Murdaugh could be hiding millions of dollars worth of assets as lawsuits mount against him. The motions were filed after he turned over his financial assets to his 26-year-old son.

On Sept. 4, Alex Murdaugh was shot in the head, allegedly by a man he may have hired in an elaborate assisted suicide plot. He has been accused of attempting to die by suicide to allow his son to cash in on a $10 million life insurance policy. The bullet grazed Murdaugh and he was later airlifted to a hospital. 

Curtis Edward Smith, 61, was identified by authorities as the gunman and charged with assisted suicide, insurance fraud, and other charges in connection with the botched shooting. Smith has said publicly that he was "set up" by Murdaugh that day. 

You can watch "Alex Mudaugh. Death. Deception. Power." here or on Peacock starting January 6.