A South Carolina federal judge ordered the disgraced legal descendant of Alex Murdaugh and his accomplice to pay millions to an insurance company after they conspired to steal about $4 million in insurance from his housekeeper’s family after her death.
A judge ordered Murdaugh to pay $14.8 million and Murdaugh’s longtime friend and fellow attorney, Cory Fleming, to pay nearly $3.8 million in a federal civil suit against Fleming.
Fleming is on trial for two days in Charleston before U.S. District Judge Richard Mark Gergel issued a settlement order.
“Fleming’s dishonest and fraudulent practices played a critical role in Murdaugh’s ability to ultimately steal more than $4 million in settlement funds,” Gergel wrote in part in the settlement order filed Jan. 9.
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Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to two consecutive double life sentences for the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, his wife and son. (South Carolina Department of Corrections)
Murdaugh’s housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, apparently tripped and fell on the front steps of the Murdaughs’ home on their South Carolina hunting property, Moselle, and died later in hospital.
Murdaugh convinced her sons to sue his insurance company, Nautilus, which awarded them more than $4 million— most of which Murdaugh stole, according to court records.
Murdaugh admitted “that he ‘made up the story of his dogs causing the death of Gloria Satterfield to create his own liability to the Satterfield beneficiaries’ in order to produce a payment from his insurance carriers that he intended to, and actually did, steal,” Gergel wrote in to his order on January 2.
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Former attorney Cory Fleming in state court on August 23, 2023. (state)
Gergel noted that “the entry of judgment against defendant Murdaugh does not affect the claims plaintiff has against the remaining defendants, Cory Fleming and Moss & Kuhn, PA.”
Charging documents filed against Fleming allege the attorney worked with Murdaugh to deposit forged settlement checks into a fake bank account apparently named after an insurance consulting firm.
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The Murdaugh family said their housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, fell on the front porch steps of their South Carolina hunting property in 2018. She died at the hospital. (Eric Bland)
Fleming argued in a federal civil suit that he owed nothing to Murdaugh’s former insurance company, Nautilus.
“The court finds that the accused Fleming committed an ‘intentional or knowing violation’ [the South Carolina Unfair Trade Practices Act] and hereby triples Plaintiff’s damages, resulting in an award of $3,750,000.00.”
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Michael Tony Satterfield, son of Gloria Satterfield, points out Alex Murdaugh during Murdaugh’s double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina on February 3, 2023. (Sam Wolfe/State, Pool)
A federal jury also awarded Nautilus a total of $1.25 million in damages, Gergel wrote in a Jan. 9 filing.
“Plaintiff established at trial that defendant Cory Fleming committed multiple acts of unfair and deceptive practice in his handling of the Gloria Satterfield Estate’s wrongful death and survivorship claims,” Gergel wrote. “This includes multiple unethical communications, as plaintiff’s attorney, with a potential defendant in the case, Richard Alexander Murdaugh, despite the fact that Murdaugh was represented by counsel.”
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Alex Murdaugh cries as he listens to testimony during a double-murder trial in Colleton County Court on February 27, 2023. (Jeff Blake/Country/Pool)
“Furthermore, Fleming made false statements to opposing counsel and the excess carrier regarding alleged communications with one of the beneficiaries of the Satterfield estate and the potential issuer of the structured settlement,” Gergel continued.
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The $4 million Murdaugh stole from the Satterfield family is part of 100 financial crime lawsuits filed against Murdaugh that include millions in stolen funds from his former law firm clients.
A photo of the Murdaugh family taken a few days before Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were shot. From left, Buster, Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh. (defense exhibit)
Murdaugh was previously sentenced to 40 years in prison for his financial crimes in federal court and 27 years for his financial crimes in state court.
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Those sentences were on top of his life sentence killed his wife, Maggie, and youngest son Paul in 2021.
Colleton County Grand Jury found the disgraced lawyer guilty of shooting Maggie and Paul near the doghouses on the family’s hunting grounds in June of that year. Prosecutors say he was trying to distract attention from his growing financial crimes, which were beginning to come to light at the time.
