Jailed SC lawyer Alex Murdaugh fronted $110K for a funeral home in 2020, documents show
Jailed South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh allegedly fronted $110,000 to purchase a funeral home in Brunswick, Georgia, in January 2020, according to court records filed in Hampton County on Tuesday.
The funeral home, formerly Hall Jones and Brown Funeral Home, was purchased by Martin’s Funeral Home LLC owner John Martin. Martin also owns a funeral home in Estill, which is in Hampton County, where Murdaugh and his family have been lawyers for generations.
Documents show Murdaugh wired $147,000 on behalf of Martin from Palmetto State Bank to Southeastern Bank in Georgia on Jan. 7, 2020.
Russell Lafitte, the former CEO of Palmetto State Bank, who officials say oversaw cases in which Murdaugh allegedly stole millions from clients, signed off on this wire and a later one.
The filing says a review of Murdaugh’s financial records “does not indicate that John Martin has repaid Alex.”
It’s unclear how and whether this transaction is a part of Murdaugh’s litany of alleged financial crimes related to him stealing more than $4 million from clients and embezzling cash from a client trust account held by his former Hampton law firm.
Murdaugh has been incarcerated since October at the Alvin Glenn Detention Center in Richland County on these charges. He’s being held on a $7 million bond.
Tuesday’s filing was made by a law firm representing the court-appointed co-receivers who were assigned to manage Murdaugh’s finances, while legal action is underway, and determine what assets and money Murdaugh has.
The law firm had served a subpoena to Martin, the funeral home owner, in January and February and sent a letter in March asking for a response but have not heard back, the filing says.
This new motion asks that a judge step in and order Martin respond to the subpoena.
These documents were filed in a 2019 wrongful death lawsuit against Murdaugh and other defendants by Renee Beach on behalf of her 19-year-old daughter, Mallory Beach, who died in a Beaufort boat crash in February 2019. Murdaugh’s son, Paul Murdaugh, was charged with three felony counts of boating under the influence in the crash.
Last June, Paul Murdaugh and his mother Maggie, Alex’s wife, were found shot to death at their sprawling estate in Colleton County. Their deaths remain unsolved.
This story was originally published April 27, 2022 at 7:14 PM with the headline "Jailed SC lawyer Alex Murdaugh fronted $110K for a funeral home in 2020, documents show."
