For first time, ex-banker Laffitte admits he’s a crook to get shorter prison term

In the guilty plea deal made public this week concerning Alex Murdaugh’s pal Russell Laffitte, the ex-banker did something he had never done before.

Laffitte admitted he’s a crook. He admitted he and Murdaugh, then a lawyer, deliberately used his bank to launder and steal a minimum of $3.5 million over an 11-year period.

In admitting to each of the six crimes that he is formally pleading guilty to at a hearing in Charleston this Friday, Laffitte will acknowledge that he knew he was breaking the law. Each of the crimes he is going to plead guilty to contains the element that the defendant knew he was acting unlawfully.

Up to now, Laffitte has only admitted to bad judgment, not paying attention and being manipulated by Murdaugh into helping steal money from lawsuit settlements that belonged to Murdaugh’s former clients and whose money was steered to Laffitte’s bank, the Palmetto State Bank in Hampton.

Over the years, Laffitte’s lies about his supposed innocence have been extraordinary, federal prosecutors pointed out in a 2023 sentencing memo.

“What separates the Defendant (Laffitte) from most ...is his complete unwillingness — and apparent inability — to take responsibility for his actions or show genuine remorse for his conduct. To the contrary, the Defendant has minimized, deflected, and denied his conduct at every level,” prosecutors wrote in their memo.

Laffitte has continued to “lie, blame-shift, and minimize. (Laffitte) has continued to lie on four different occasions — in a civil deposition, before the South Carolina Office of Disciplinary Counsel, at his federal bond hearing, and again during his trial,” prosecutors wrote.

Now, in return for his admission that he knowingly committed criminal acts, federal prosecutors have agreed to a five-year sentence for Laffitte. In their 2023 sentencing memo, they had asked for a sentence of from nine to 11 years.

“It’s kind of a win-win for both of them,” said veteran criminal defense lawyer Jack Swerling, who is not associated with either party. “Getting a lesser sentence would be a priority for Laffitte.”

In return for finally admitting he is guilty, Laffitte will get two years shaved off the seven-year sentence given him in August 2023 by U.S. Judge Richard Gergel after a federal jury found Laffitte guilty of six counts of bank-related fraud.

And prosecutors will also get a clear admission of criminality that ends Laffitte’s federal case and any potential appeals.

Laffitte had already served 14 months of the seven-year sentence when, last November, the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned his conviction, citing issues with the way Judge Gergel had replaced two jurors during jury deliberations. The appeals court found nothing wrong with the prosecution’s case, and the government promptly moved for a retrial. It will not now take place because of Laffitte’s guilty plea.

That 14 months already served will count toward Laffitte’s new five-year sentence.

In the deal, Laffitte also agreed to waive any appeals of issues in his case, including even — in a provision that applies to the trial where he was found guilty — an appeal on the grounds of “ineffective assistance of counsel.”

Laffitte also avoids being on trial a second time with its risk of being found guilty again and getting another stiff sentence from Judge Gergel, especially if the government chose to introduce new evidence that would have painted Laffitte in an even harsher light.

Any retrial would have also showed how Murdaugh and Laffitte worked together over 11 years to steal and misuse money Murdaugh had collected in large legal settlements for poor and vulnerable people involved in car crashes. Murdaugh brought more than $3.5 million in settlements to Palmetto State Bank, where Laffitte distributed it to smaller bank accounts controlled by him and Murdaugh.

That testimony would not have sat well with jurors in a retrial. Laffitte’s first trial in late 2022 came before Murdaugh’s convictions for two counts of murder in 2023 and other counts of stealing some $10 million from various victims, including former clients, his law firm and friends. Murdaugh is now known as one of the most infamous criminals in state history.

“Just being in the same room with Alex Murdaugh is enough to get anyone convicted,” said one lawyer associated with the Murdaugh cases who didn’t want to be identified. Murdaugh is far more toxic in 2025 than in 2022 during Laffitte’s trial, the lawyer said.

In the 2022 trial, Laffitte testified in his own defense for five hours. He denied stealing money from clients, but hedged when asked he helped anyone steal money.

“Not intentionally,” he testified.

Not until Murdaugh’s frauds and misuse of the bank started to become public in the fall of 2021 did he realize what Murdaugh had done, he testified.

“I realized what it looked like, and that it implicated me, and I was nauseous, furious, and every other emotion you could think of went through me, “ Laffitte told the jury. “…(Alex) set me up right there.”

Laffitte, the fourth generation of his family to lead the bank, was fired in early January 2022.

Attorney Eric Bland of the Columbia area said he agrees with the Laffitte plea deal. Bland represents sisters Hannah Plyler and Alania Plyler Spohn, whose settlement money deposited in Laffitte’s bank was misused by Laffitte and Murdaugh, according to evidence in the 2022 trial.

The deal will give his clients “closure,” at least on the criminal side, and avoids the grueling and painful experience of sitting through another trial and being subject to cross-examination by Laffitte’s lawyers, Bland said.

Bland said the Plylers have ongoing civil lawsuits against Laffitte in which the ex-banker has denied any fault for misaused money. But Laffitte’s current guilty plea deal in federal court in which he admits he knows he committed crimes undermines that defense, Bland said.

Rep. Justin Bamberg, D-Bamberg, an attorney who represents Natarsha Thomas, whom Laffitte and Murdaugh stole about $350,000 from in a settlement she won, said Laffitte’s admission of guilt is worth shaving some time off his prison sentence.

“This saves the victims emotionally of having to relive everything in another trial,” Bamberg said. “I have no problem with that. And to have someone actually own what they did, there’s a lot to be said for that.”

Mark Tinsley, an Allendale attorney, represents another of Laffitte’s victims, Arthur Badger, whose wife was killed in a car crash, leaving him six children to raise. Laffitte and Murdaugh stole at least $1.3 million from Badger, diverting money he should have gotten from the crash settlement.

“The evidence of Russell Laffitte’s guilt is overwhelming,” Tinsley said. An email exchange between Laffitte and Murdaugh about Badger’s money is particularly damning, the attorney said.

“Therefore, it’s not surprising at all that Russell is taking a deal he perceives to be better than what was likely to happen at the retrial,” Tinsley said.

Overall, the guilty plea is a good thing, Tinsley said. “I’m happy the government won’t have to go to the expense and the victims won’t have to relive what happened to them as a part of convicting Russell Laffitte for a second time.”

Mark Moore, Laffitte’s attorney, said he would decline comment until the plea hearing.

The 10-page plea agreement Laffitte signed on April 11 is what is called a negotiated plea agreement.

Laffitte can still back out of it at the hearing in Charleston federal court Friday morning. But if Judge Gergel accepts the agreement, he must also not give Laffitte any more prison time than the five years agreed to by the prosecution, Laffitte and Moore.

This story was originally published April 17, 2025 at 5:30 AM.