COLUMBIA, S.C. — Another South Carolina lawyer is entering the fray of financial fraud allegations against Alex Murdaugh, but says more attention should be placed on the firm that was in control of the account Murdaugh allegedly took millions from.
State Rep. Justin Bamberg, a Democrat, said he plans to file a lawsuit against Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth, Detrick the law firm known as PMPED founded by Murdaugh’s great-grandfather, on Monday, seeking damages for Johnny Bush, an alleged victim of Murdaugh’s whose case was revealed in a recent indictment.
In August 2016, Murdaugh told Bush, a client, that $100,000 of the amount he was recovering needed to be used for accident reconstruction, an indictment alleges. But Murdaugh instead wrote a $95,000 check to his personal bank account fraudulently named “Forge,” according to the indictment.
Forge Consulting is a real company that assists firms with structuring settlements for clients, but the company had no role in this case.
Bamberg said the money meant for Bush was taken from PMPED’s client trust account and then transferred by Murdaugh to the “Forge” account he controlled.
“Nobody noticed? Forge is being paid a lot of money out of this trust for structured settlements,” Bamberg said. “Either somebody knew, or management at the firm was asleep at the wheel.”
Bamberg said his client is owed damages because “somebody allowed Alex to do that, someone left the front door unlocked.”
PMPED, in a statement to a reporter Friday, said: “We operate honestly and ethically, and we’ve taken steps to ensure that all clients are made whole.”
In a lawsuit filed by PMPED against Murdaugh, the firm said it confronted him on Sept. 3 and he “admitted to converting monies owed to PMPED and its clients to his own personal use.”
PMPED said it notified the Hampton County Sheriff’s Office and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division in subsequent days. It also reported Murdaugh’s conduct to the South Carolina Supreme Court agency tasked with lawyer disciplinary investigations.
The firm also said it has been going through Murdaugh’s accounts and reimbursing clients.
Bush got a call from PMPED in November, saying the firm had discovered discrepancies in finances related to his case, Bamberg said. The firm reimbursed Bush for the $95,000 taken.
But the lawsuit Bamberg is filing will focus on missed opportunity for investment for Bush from the $95,000 he didn’t get five years ago.
PMPED has also reimbursed clients in two other cases identified in the December indictments: Jordan Jinks and the estate of Sandra Taylor.
What links Bush, Jinks, and Taylor’s estate is the trust they gave Murdaugh, the indictments show. They believed their lawyer would do what was in their best interest.
“When we look at who he preyed upon allegedly, they were either people with longstanding family or personal contacts with him or they were people who were particularly trusting and vulnerable because of their unfamiliarity with the system, or both,” said Creighton Waters with the South Carolina attorney general’s office at Murdaugh’s bond hearing Monday.
Murdaugh faces 48 charges of financial crimes brought by the attorney’s general’s office, accusing him of taking $6.2 million from clients and law partners between 2015 and 2021, the indictments say.
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