The South Carolina law firm where attorney Alex Murdaugh was once a partner, issued a statement claiming he “lied and stole from us.”
“We were shocked and dismayed to learn that Alex violated our principles and code of ethics. He lied and he stole from us,” Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick said in a statement on their website. They said no member of the firm was aware of “Alex’s scheme” or his drug addiction, acknowledged by his attorney in an interview earlier this month on NBC’s “Today.”
The firm also said it still has “lots of questions about Alex and what has recently come to light” and vowed to continue assisting law enforcement. The law firm previously announced Murdaugh had resigned in early September for what it said was a misappropriation of funds.
Murdaugh, a once prominent South Carolina attorney, was shot in the head on a roadway September 4 but survived. The 53-year-old later admitted to authorities he conspired with 61-year-old Curtis Smith, a former client, to kill him as part of a suicidal fraud scheme so that his only surviving son could collect a $10 million life insurance payout.
Murdaugh has since been charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and filing a false police report.
The arrest comes about three months after Murdaugh called police to report he had found his wife, Margaret, and youngest son, Paul, shot dead at their home in Islandton.
In their statement, Murdaugh’s law firm also addressed South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s (SLED) criminal investigation into the February 2018 death of Gloria Satterfield, a housekeeper for the Murdaugh family, and the handling of her estate.
Satterfield died in 2018 in what was described as a “trip and fall accident” at the Murdaugh home, CNN has previously reported.
The firm said they did not represent Murdaugh in that case, but “have read the media reports about the lawsuit and settlement resulting from the death of Gloria Satterfield. If these reports are accurate, we are stunned at what occurred.”
CNN’s Gregory Lemos contributed to this report.
