Beaufort lawyer Cory Fleming, Alex Murdaugh indicted on new financial crimes

Beaufort attorney Cory Fleming, who is alleged to have participated in a multi-million dollar theft scheme orchestrated by suspended Hampton County lawyer Alex Murdaugh, has been indicted on multiple financial crimes.

The 44-page state grand jury indictment against Fleming was unsealed Wednesday morning by state Judge Alison Lee and announced by the state Attorney General’s Office.

Fleming, 53, who was known as Murdaugh’s close work associate and was his classmate at the University of South Carolina School of Law, is the first associate of Murdaugh’s to be charged in connection with alleged financial crimes.

The indictment charges Fleming with money laundering, criminal conspiracy, making a false statement and breach of trust with fraudulent intent.

Murdaugh, 53, who is in jail, also was indicted on one new conspiracy charge and three new counts of making a false statement or misrepresentation in connection with an insurance transaction of $50,000 or more.

A bond hearing for Fleming has been tentatively set for 9 a.m. Thursday in Judge Lee’s virtual courtroom.

In all, Wednesday’s indictment included 13 charges against Murdaugh and 18 charges against Fleming. Murdaugh has now been indicted on a total of 75 charges for defrauding victims out of $8.4 million.

Fleming’s lawyer, Debbie Barbier of Columbia, released this statement later Wednesday: “Mr. Fleming is deeply disappointed in the decision of the Attorney General’s Office to seek criminal charges against him. This unfortunate decision not only devastates him, but also his family, friends, and those who know him well. Mr. Fleming is yet another casualty of the host of crimes perpetrated by Alex Murdaugh.”

Barbier also said that Fleming “looks forward to defending himself in a court of law and will refrain from trying this case in the media.’’

Meanwhile, Barbier said, Fleming “wants to thank his family, his colleagues in the Bar, and his friends for standing by him. He is very grateful for the overwhelming support he has received during this very difficult time.”

Jim Griffin, Murdaugh’s attorney, told The State Wednesday that “Alex adamantly denies that he was involved in any conspiracy with Cory Fleming to engage in unlawful activities of any type.”

Indictment spells out new financial crimes

The new charges against Fleming stem from the Satterfield insurance inheritance scheme, first detailed last September in a civil lawsuit against Murdaugh by the two sons of the family’s deceased housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield.

In this case, Fleming acted as a lawyer to facilitate getting $4 million in insurance proceeds released in a form where most of those proceeds would be paid to the two sons, Michael Satterfield and Tony Harriott.

Satterfield died after a February 2018 fall at Murdaugh’s house, and the money that was supposed to go to Satterfield’s sons came from Murdaugh’s homeowner’s and personal liability insurance.

But, the lawsuit said, the two sons got nothing.

The money instead went to Fleming, Murdaugh and Hampton banker Chad Westendorf, who served as the personal representative of Satterfield’s estate.

Murdaugh had already been indicted for stealing from the Satterfield sons, and the new charges are ”superceding,” or containing more detail than the earlier charges.

Fleming and Murdaugh now face a joint criminal conspiracy charge for “conspiring to surreptitiously” pay Murdaugh a share of Fleming’s legal fee from the multi-million dollar Satterfield settlement, the S.C. Attorney General’s office said Wednesday.

“Murdaugh convinced the Satterfield family that after Gloria’s death, he would help Gloria’s sons recover against his insurance for a fall that Gloria suffered at the Murdaugh family home,” the indictment said. “To that end, he convinced the Satterfield family to retain Cory Howerton Fleming, who was a close friend of Murdaugh.”

The new indictment charges Fleming “caused a settlement disbursement sheet to be created with fraudulent amounts of prosecution expenses and estate funds,” and Fleming made out fraudulent expense checks to himself.

The money laundering charge against Fleming alleges that he converted money owed to the Satterfield sons to his own use, and he spent it “on his mortgage and a large credit card debt.”

Fleming is specifically charged with defrauding the Satterfield sons of $3.4 million.

Fleming, in a joint statement released last October by his attorneys and the attorneys for the Satterfield family, admitted “material mistakes” in the handling of the Satterfield case, but placed blame solely on Murdaugh.

“When it came time to disburse the settlement funds, Mr. Fleming trusted his close friend and colleague to deal with him truthfully and honorably, only to be misled and deceived in one of the worst possible ways for a lawyer: Alex Murdaugh lied to Mr. Fleming to steal client funds,” the statement said.

The statement came days after Fleming, his law firm and their insurance carrier agreed to pay back their share of the death settlement from the Satterfield estate.

The Beaufort-based law firm Moss, Kuhn & Fleming — where Fleming appears to have been a partner for almost 25 years — dropped Fleming’s name in October and is now called Moss & Kuhn, the firm’s website shows.

Since September, the State Law Enforcement Division has been investigating Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes, as well as last June’s unsolved murders of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, at the family’s Colleton County estate.

Eric Bland, the Columbia lawyer who represents Satterfield’s two sons, said Wednesday that the state grand jury obviously did not believe Fleming’s assertions in recent months that he was unwittingly used by Murdaugh.

“The grand jury has spoken loudly and clearly that Cory Fleming was not another one of Alex Murdaugh’s victims and did not believe his defense that he was too trusting of Alex,” Bland said. “Justice may move slowly, but when it moves, it comes crashing down like a mighty stream, as Martin Luther King said.”

Murdaugh has been in jail at Richland County’s Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center since last October, unable to post a $7 million in connection with numerous alleged financial crimes totaling $8.4 million.

The FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office are also involved in the Murdaugh investigations. The state grand jury operates under the aegis of the attorney general and its chief prosecutor Creighton Waters, who works with SLED investigators.

The exact role of the federal authorities has not yet been made public.

Here are the charges against Fleming, Murdaugh

Fleming has been charged with the following 18 crimes, according to the indictment:

▪ Criminal conspiracy (one count)

▪ False statement or misrepresentation with an insurance transaction of $50,000 or more (three counts)

▪ Breach of trust with fraudulent intent of $10,000 or more (four counts)

▪ Breach of trust with fraudulent intent between $2,000 and $10,000 (three counts)

▪ Money laundering of $100,000 or more (three counts)

▪ Money laundering between $300 and $20,000 (three counts)

▪ Computer crime more than $10,000 (one count).

Murdaugh, in addition to his previous charges, was charged with four new crimes, the indictment said:

▪ Criminal conspiracy (one count)

▪ False statement or misrepresentation with an insurance transaction of $50,000 or more (three counts)

This story was originally published March 16, 2022 at 10:07 AM.