Attorneys for disgraced South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh are asking a judge to lower his $7 million bond, arguing he has no money to pay it off.
Murdaugh’s attorneys are asking Circuit Judge Alison Renee Lee to reconsider the bond order she set in December 2021, arguing in a filing last week that the $7 million effectively amounts to a no bond decision. The filing cites Murdaugh’s assets, which were frozen in November 2021, making it impossible for him to use his own money to pay the bail, according to the Associated Press.
“Mr. Murdaugh does not have seven million dollars or anything close to that amount,” the attorneys wrote. “Mr. Murdaugh is a man who cannot pay his phone bill.”
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Prosecutors have accused Murdaugh of stealing over $6.2 million from about a dozen clients from 2015-2020 with a fraudulent bank account. They suggested Lee set bond at the same amount Murdaugh was accused of stealing or at $4.7 million, roughly $100,000 for each count, the outlet reported.
Murdaugh faces a total of 48 charges for allegedly establishing a bank account he used to deposit the stolen $6.2 million. The first 27 charges were filed against him on Nov. 19, with an additional 21 filed on Dec. 9.
The former lawyer resigned from his law firm in September 2021 and later turned himself in on charges related to an insurance fraud scheme in which he allegedly hired a man to kill him in order for his son to collect a life insurance policy.
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A month later, Murdaugh allegedly withheld insurance settlement money from the sons of his dead former housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, and was arrested. Murdaugh allegedly told Satterfield’s sons at her funeral that they would receive $500,000 in insurance settlements, but no settlement funds were ever received by the sons.
