A banker charged with serving to disbarred legal professional Alex Murdaugh take cash from the authorized settlements of shoppers was discovered responsible late Tuesday of wire and financial institution fraud expenses in South Carolina.
Former Palmetto State Financial institution CEO Russell Laffitte was allowed to stay free on bail as he awaits sentencing at a later date. Every of the six expenses he was convicted of in federal court docket carry a most sentence of as much as 30 years in jail.
It was the primary trial associated to the sprawling Murdaugh authorized drama that has captivated true-crime audiences.
Murdaugh is charged with killing his spouse and son and his homicide trial is about to start out in January. He additionally faces practically 100 different expenses starting from cash laundering to drug offenses to stealing from shoppers and making an attempt to rearrange his personal dying to get his surviving son a $10 million life insurance coverage profit.
And whereas Murdaugh, 54, wasn't within the federal courthouse in Charleston, he loomed over Laffitte's trial.
Laffitte, 51, did not deny that his dealing with of Murdaugh's funds helped the legal professional steal from shoppers, however testified in his personal protection throughout his federal trial that he was duped, in line with information shops.
When a prosecutor requested Laffitte if he stole, he answered "I did, however completely not deliberately."
Prosecutors needed to show Laffitte willfully participated within the fraud to convict him.
Prosecutors stated Laffitte knew what he was doing when he successfully labored as Murdaugh's private banker and ultimately turned the court-appointed custodian for the settlement cash for a number of of his underage shoppers.
Laffitte loaned Murdaugh and himself cash from these settlements, diverting that cash from private harm or dying circumstances.
Murdaugh had a plan to steal the cash, however wanted somebody organized and detail-oriented to stop him from being simply caught, prosecutor Emily Limehouse stated in her closing assertion.
"None of this is able to have occurred with out Alex Murdaugh, however none of it may have occurred with out the defendant," Limehouse stated.
Each by means of Laffitte's testimony and different witnesses, protection attorneys tried to indicate the banker was simply making an attempt to observe the directions of one among his largest shoppers and was lied to and manipulated.
"He admits to doing all of it," protection legal professional Matt Austin stated in his closing assertion. "He simply would not assume he was committing against the law."
However prosecutors identified that Murdaugh was giving Laffitte checks written to the financial institution as an alternative of to the shoppers, which allowed the lawyer to divert the money to individuals he owed cash to, whether or not or not it's his regulation agency he was stealing cash from, different shoppers he had already stolen cash from or relations.
That additionally allowed Laffitte to keep away from paying taxes.
Laffitte was convicted on one rely every of financial institution fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy, plus three counts of misapplication of financial institution funds. He additionally faces 21 counts of monetary crimes in state court docket.
Murdaugh was disbarred and Laffitte was fired final yr.
The Murdaugh homicide case even made an look Laffitte's trial. Murdaugh's spouse Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, had been shot to dying with completely different weapons on June 7, 2021, exterior a household dwelling in Colleton County.
An worker at Laffitte's financial institution testified she confronted Murdaugh about lacking charges from one among his circumstances hours earlier than the killings. Neither prosecutors in Laffitte's, nor the investigators within the killings, have talked about whether or not they see a hyperlink between the occasions.
Each Murdaugh and Laffitte are from tiny Hampton County. Murdaugh's household regulation agency dominated the authorized neighborhood and his father, grandfather and great-grandfather had been the realm's elected prosecutors for 87 years straight.
Laffitte's household constructed Palmetto State Financial institution, incomes a sterling popularity that led to honors like being named banker of the yr by the Impartial Banks of South Carolina in 2019.
And, as in lots of small cities, their households intertwined. The regulation agency worker who confronted Murdaugh concerning the lacking cash the day his spouse and son died was Jeanne Seckinger, Laffitte's sister-in-law.
Greater than a 3rd of the witnesses in Laffitte's trial had been his family, with most of them testifying for prosecutors.