Crime

Alex Murdaugh Extradited to S.C. to Face Charges in Alleged $4.3 Million Insurance Settlement Scheme: Reports

The disgraced attorney is reportedly in South Carolina to face charges in an insurance payout scheme he allegedly plotted to steal money from the sons of his family's late housekeeper

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Published on October 17, 2021 01:31 PM

Alex Murdaugh was reportedly extradited to South Carolina from Florida on Saturday to face charges in connection with allegations that he misappropriated $4.3 million of insurance settlement funds in the wrongful death suit that followed the mysterious trip and fall death of his longtime housekeeper.

Citing inmate records, NBC News reported that Murdaugh is currently in custody at Columbia's Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.

On Friday, the once-prominent attorney waived his right to an extradition hearing in Florida, according to a waiver of extradition filed in the circuit court of Orange County by Orange County Corrections, WSAV, The State, and CNN report.

According to the waiver, he agreed to "waive the issuance and service (warrant) and all other procedures incidental to extradition proceedings," and remain in custody without bail.

On Thursday, Murdaugh was arrested as he left a drug rehabilitation facility in Orlando. He was charged with two felony counts of obtaining property by false pretenses connected to the Gloria Satterfield wrongful death settlement case.

Gloria Satterfield. Brice W. Herndon and Sons Funeral Home

Murdaugh is scheduled for a bond hearing on the charges on Tuesday at 10 a.m. local time at the Richland County Courthouse in Columbia, according to a release from South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who is prosecuting the case.

Satterfield worked as the housekeeper for the Murdaugh family for years. She purportedly died after a "trip and fall" accident in their home in 2018, court documents show. Her sons filed a wrongful death lawsuit — allegedly at Murdaugh's suggestion, the sons' attorney, Eric Bland said.

"But they never saw a dime of it," Bland said.

On Friday, one of Murdaugh's attorneys, Dick Harpootlian, appeared on Good Morning America, saying his client is going "to right every wrong, financial wrong and others that he may have committed."

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He also acknowledged that Murdaugh knows he'll go to prison for this. "He understands that," Harpootlian said. "He's a lawyer."

On June 7, Murdaugh, a longtime attorney and fixture in the South Carolina legal world, allegedly came home to find his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and their son, Paul Murdaugh, 22, gunned down on the grounds of their Islandton hunting lodge.

He has been considered a person of interest in the killings "from the get-go," his attorney, Jim Griffin, recently revealed in an interview with Fox Carolina News.

Authorities have not identified a motive or a suspect or arrested anyone in the killings. Authorities are revealing little about the case — except to say that Maggie and Paul were shot with two different firearms.

Police were still investigating their murders when Murdaugh called 911 on Sept. 4, the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, to report that a man in a truck drove by him while he was changing a tire and shot him in the head.

However, police quickly found out that Murdaugh had allegedly asked the man, Curtis Smith, a former client, to shoot and kill him so his surviving son could reap the benefits of a $10 million life insurance payout. They are both facing charges in that incident.