SC justices disbar Murdaugh pal Cory Fleming for multiple schemes to steal clients’ money

Evidence that Beaufort lawyer Cory Fleming had helped fellow attorney Alex Murdaugh steal millions from clients has been clear for more than two years.

But it was late Thursday, after close of the business day, that the S.C. Supreme Court posted an order on its internet site finally disbarring Fleming for “deplorable misconduct and shocking abuse of the legal system in South Carolina.”

Disbarment, the ultimate legal sanction for a lawyer, means Fleming is unfit to practice law and removes him from the profession.

Over 10 years, Fleming carried out various crooked schemes in which he stole money from clients, the Supreme Court said in its 11-page order. The order contained the most extensive written narrative yet of how Fleming stole from clients.

“Rather than vigorously representing his clients’ best interests as he was professionally obligated to do, (Fleming) abused the privilege of his law license in taking advantage of clients who were particularly vulnerable as a result of various life and health circumstances beyond their control,” the Court’s order said.

Fleming, a longtime close friend who was a classmate of Murdaugh’s at the University of South Carolina law school, and Murdaugh “worked independently and in conjunction to steal from clients over the course of at least a decade using various dishonest schemes,” the Supreme Court wrote in an order signed by all five justices.

One scheme involved fabricating fraudulent litigation expenses that were never actually incurred, justices wrote.

In another scheme, Fleming “repeatedly stole settlement funds disguised as reimbursements for sham litigation expenses and disbursed other fraudulent litigation expenses directly to Murdaugh,” the order said.

Fleming also retained in a trust fund money sufficient to cover any pending medical liens against a client, then negotiated “with medical providers to accept a lesser amount in satisfaction of those liens,” the justices wrote. Fleming then split the remaining money between himself and Murdaugh, the justices wrote.

Fleming also diverted funds due to clients into a sham bank account labelled “Forge,” after a legitimate company, that Murdaugh had created to launder his stolen money, the justices wrote.

Fleming “repeatedly claimed he did not know the imitation Forge bank account was an illegitimate vehicle through which Murdaugh stole millions from unsuspecting clients.”

But the State’s evidence “proves otherwise,” justices wrote.

“Through these fraudulent schemes and other tactics, Respondent (Fleming) and Murdaugh engaged in a troubling pattern of wrongdoing related to the 2011 death of Hakeem Pinckney and the 2018 death of Gloria Satterfield. It is Respondent’s conduct in the Pinckney and Satterfield matters that resulted in his state and federal criminal convictions,” justices wrote.

The Supreme Court had suspended Fleming’s law license in September 2021 after reports of Fleming’s crimes with Murdaugh surfaced in a lawsuit and in news reports.

In August, Fleming was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison by U.S. Judge Richard Gergel for what the judge called “amazingly egregious conduct” for helping Murdaugh steal $4.3 million from the estate of his late housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. Gergel also ordered Fleming to pay $102,221 in restitution, plus interest, and a $20,000 fine.

In September, Fleming was sentenced in state court by Judge Clifton Newman to roughly 13 years in prison. The 46-month federal prison term Fleming is facing will be served first, followed by the 13-year sentence in the state system, officials said.

The justices said in their Thursday order they were using the facts developed in both the state and federal criminal investigations of Fleming.

As a result of those investigations, Fleming pled guilty to 24 state and federal criminal charges relating to misconduct in the Pinckney and Satterfield matters involving conspiracy, false statements and misrepresentations, breach of trust with fraudulent intent, money laundering, and computer crimes,” the justices wrote. Thus, his guilty pleas are “more than sufficient to satisfy the required level of clear and convincing evidence of dishonesty,” justices wrote.

Murdaugh was disbarred in July 2022, the same day that a Colleton County grand jury indicted him on murder charges in the 2021 shooting deaths of his wife, Maggie, and son Paul. Murdaugh is now serving two consecutive life sentences in state prison after a Colleton County jury convicted him of their murders last March.

On Tuesday, Judge Newman sentenced Murdaugh to 27 years in state prison for his financial crimes, which involved millions of dollars and approximately 20 victims. Murdaugh has also pleaded guilty in federal court to a host of financial crimes and is awaiting sentencing from Judge Gergel for them.

Fleming’s attorney, Deborah Barbier of Columbia, declined comment. She is appealing Fleming’s 13-year state sentence as being excessive and “grossly out of proportion” to usual financial crimes sentences.

Earlier this month, the Georgia Supreme Court reviewed and accepted the facts in the Satterfield scheme that caused the S.C. Supreme Court to disbar Fleming.

Fleming had voluntarily turned in his law license in Georgia, that state’s high court noted in a Nov. 7 opinion, and that action by Fleming “is tantamount (virtually the same as) to disbarment,” Georgia justices said.

Eric Bland, an attorney for the Satterfield heirs, from whom Fleming and Murdaugh stole $4.3 million, applauded the Supreme Court disbarment.

But, said Bland, “It’s almost too little too late. The State of Georgia acted first. Our court should have been first on that. The minute Cory pled guilty (in May) before Judge Gergel, his license should have been taken. There really needs to be reformation on this subject.”

This story was originally published December 1, 2023 at 10:38 AM.