TRUE CRIME

Murdaugh Update: Retrial Date Set For Russell Laffitte

A quick recap of the latest legal developments in this ongoing saga…

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Former Palmetto State Bank (PSB) chief executive officer Russell Laffitte‘s federal retrial has been scheduled for this spring by U.S. district court judge Richard Gergel. Guilty verdicts entered against the disgraced South Carolina banker were vacated last fall by a federal appeals court – which determined Gergel violated Laffitte’s Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury via an eleventh hour reshuffling of the panel during his 2022 trial.

Laffitte’s new federal trial is scheduled to begin on May 5, 2025.

Prior to the appeals court undoing his convictions, the Hampton, S.C. native had been serving his sentence in a federal prison in Florida.

In addition to his federal retrial, Laffitte is also slated for prosecution by the state of South Carolina later this year. Prosecutors in the office of S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson are poised to put him on trial this fall in Allendale, S.C. for the the alleged misappropriation of more than a million dollars in bank funds.

Laffitte is accused of conspiring with convicted murderer and confessed fraudster Alex Murdaugh to steal bank funds in order to cover a shortfall produced by an earlier alleged misappropriation involving a trustee for whom Laffitte served as a fiduciary.

Laffitte faces numerous other state charges for which he will presumably be tried at a later date.

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Murdaugh pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme in November 2023, negotiating a 27-year sentence which resolved all of the state financial charges brought against him.

Meanwhile, Murdaugh’s attorneys have appealed his March 2023 convictions for the graphic murders of his wife, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh, and younger son – 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh – on the family’s hunting property near Islandton, S.C. on the evening of June 7, 2021. State prosecutors have until April 10, 2025 to file their response to Murdaugh’s appellate motion.

In related news, another Murdaugh financial crime co-conspirator, Cory Fleming, was held civilly liable for his role in defrauding the insurance firm Nautilus, which held Murdaugh’s $5 million liability policy that was drawn under false pretenses following the 2018 death of Gloria Satterfield, Murdaugh’s former housekeeper.

A ten-citizen federal panel cleared Fleming’s former law firm – Moss, Kuhn, and Fleming – of liability and ordered Fleming to pay Nautilus $1.25 million in damages at the conclusion of a three-day trial. The panel also ordered Fleming to pay $50 in punitive damages. Gergel subsequently ordered Fleming to pay $3.75 million – a sum he is unlikely to be able to produce after exhausting most of his assets repaying the Satterfield heirs and defending himself in court.

Murdaugh previously elected to default in the suit and was ordered by Gergel to pay Nautilus $14.8 million in damages.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

(Via: Travis Bell)

Dylan Nolan is the director of special projects at FITSNews. He graduated from the Darla Moore school of business in 2021 with an accounting degree. Got a tip or story idea for Dylan? Email him here. You can also engage him socially @DNolan2000.

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