Alex Murdaugh Trial Hears Evidence Of Financial Crimes

In her testimony on Thursday, Seckinger described how she and other law firm staff eventually discovered that Murdaugh had been stealing from multiple clients and the firm itself for over a decade. He allegedly did this in part by setting up a bank account with the same name as the consulting group the firm normally used to receive client payments or attorney fees and then misappropriated these funds to himself.

Seckinger explained that in May 2021, she had noticed Murdaugh had been trying to structure legal fees he’d received from a case in an unusual manner. She said he told her that he was “trying to put some money in Maggie’s name” to shield it from discovery in the boat crash lawsuit.

She and other partners at the firm did not yet believe Murdaugh was stealing money, but they were concerned that he was trying to skirt the law and hide income. “That would be wrong, and we did not want any part of that,” she said. 

Later that month, she became aware of the missing $792,000, which eventually prompted the closed-door meeting in his office on June 7.

Chris Wilson, an attorney at another firm and longtime friend of Murdaugh’s, had worked with him on that case, in which his share of the legal fees amounted to $792,000. He testified Thursday that in March 2021, Murdaugh had asked him to make the check out to him directly, rather than the firm, so he could use the money to purchase an annuity with his firm’s blessing. 

“It was different, but it didn’t raise any red flags or suspicions to me that anything wrong was going on,” Wilson testified.

“Because you trusted your friend?” Waters asked. 

“Very much,” Wilson said. 

But Seckinger said that the same afternoon she had confronted him about the missing money, she received a phone call from Murdaugh, who was still working in the office and inquiring about his 401(k) balances as part of preparations for the upcoming boat crash hearing. “I was surprised he was in the building working on it,” she said. “I thought he left to go deal with his father.” 

Wilson told the court that the month after the killings Murdaugh had told him he had “messed up” and could not structure the fees as he thought he’d be able to. He paid back $600,000 to Wilson’s trust and asked his friend to temporarily cover the remaining $192,000, which he said had been tied up in an annuity. Wilson agreed to do so, but later had his friend sign a promissory note pledging repayment. He wanted this agreement in writing, he said, because he was worried Murdaugh might kill himself. 

Seckinger said that in July she was sent an email from Murdaugh and Wilson claiming the $792,000 was in the trust and could be sent whenever convenient. That assurance temporarily ended her inquiry, Seckinger testified, because there had been a long “history of trust and brotherhood” in the firm that previously allowed Murdaugh to pay back money that he had wrongly received — he always said it was by mistake — and others simply moved on. 

But in early September 2021, Seckinger decided to double-check accounts and discovered more irregularities involving a series of checks that Murdaugh had signed over to his fake company. 

Firm leadership, including Murdaugh’s older brother Randy, convened a meeting for Friday, Sept. 3, to discuss the matter. Seckinger said Randy agreed it looked like Murdaugh had stolen and would need to be immediately confronted. She said she heard that Murdaugh had admitted to the thefts and agreed to resign. Due to a wedding and the Labor Day weekend holiday, senior law firm staff decided they would consult with ethics attorneys and announce Murdaugh’s resignation on Monday, Sept. 6.

But that Saturday, the day after Murdaugh agreed to resign, Seckinger again received a shocking phone call, this time informing her that Murdaugh had been shot in the head by the side of a rural road. “Fear went through [the firm],” Seckinger said. “Was this retaliation? Was he involved in something bigger that was going to get more of us in trouble? [There was] just fear.”

The shooting only injured Murdaugh superficially, though, and in mid-September, authorities arrested Curtis “Eddie” Smith, a distant cousin and former client of Murdaugh’s, whom they said Murdaugh had asked to kill so that his surviving son, Buster, could collect a $10 million insurance payout. Murdaugh was subsequently charged with insurance fraud. 

The morning before the roadside shooting, Wilson had visited Murdaugh to confront him about his resignation and the alleged theft. Wilson said Murdaugh broke down crying as he told him he’d stolen from him and others to fund a 20-year drug addiction. “I was so mad,” Wilson said. “I had loved the guy for so long, and I probably still love the guy a little bit, but I was so mad.” 

Hours later, he too received a call about Murdaugh having been shot. “What the devil’s going on?” Wilson recalled thinking. “I thought he tried to kill himself.”

Waters, the prosecutor, told the judge that the jury needs to hear evidence about the roadside shooting because it goes to Murdaugh’s supposed motive. “Everyone immediately assumes the bad guys are back,” Waters said. “There’s a symmetry between what happens on the side of the road and what happens on June 7, because when the hounds are at the door, when Hannibal is at the gates for Alex Murdaugh, violence happens.”

Griffin, the defense attorney, countered that there was no financial reason for Murdaugh to kill his wife and son, arguing the prosecution’s case was grounded in theory, not facts. “They’ve got a whole lot more evidence about financial misconduct than they have about a murder, and that’s what this is all about,” Griffin said.

At several points in his testimony, Wilson grew visibly emotional as he recounted how his longtime friend had behaved. “He was one of my best friends. I thought he was and I thought he felt the same way about me,” Wilson said. “I don’t know how I feel now.”