A former banker and accomplice of Alex Murdaugh has learned his fate after pleading guilty to eight felony charges stemming from financial crimes committed alongside the convicted murderer.
A South Carolina judge sentenced Russell Laffitte, the former CEO of Palmetto State Bank, to 13 years in state prison on Monday, according to FOX 57.
The sentence comes after prosecutors said Laffitte exploited his roles as a court-appointed conservator for Murdaugh’s personal injury clients and chief of Palmetto State Bank to funnel over $2 million in fraudulent transfers from clients to Murdaugh and himself, the outlet reported. Laffitte would then label the transfers as “loans,” while also cashing in on tens of thousands in conservator fees from his victims without providing basic fiduciary services.
Alex Murdaugh, convicted of killing his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, in June 2021, sits during a hearing on a motion for a retrial, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024, at the Richland County Judicial Center in Columbia, S.C.
Prosecutors reportedly revealed Laffitte’s misappropriation of funds allowed Murdaugh to pay off fraudulent loans and personal debts, further cementing that his assistance was pivotal in allowing Murdaugh to keep his financial crimes in motion over the course of several years.
“Laffitte was responsible for loaning so much money to Murdaugh that Murdaugh became too big to fail,” prosecutor Creighton Waters said, according to FOX 57. “Alex was so much in hock to Russell that Russell was in hock to Alex.”
Waters did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Murdaugh is currently serving life in prison for the 2021 shotgun murders of his wife and son on the family’s sprawling Lowcountry estate.
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