Murdaugh banker Russell Laffitte pleads guilty to state charges
The long and sad saga of once prominent S.C. banker Russell Laffitte, whose fate intertwined with convicted killer Alex Murdaugh, closed a chapter Thursday.
Standing before a state judge at the Richland County courthouse, Laffitte, 54, pleaded guilty to eight of 21 banking fraud-related state charges against him as part of a negotiated plea agreement with the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office.
The crimes to which Laffitte — a tall man in a blue blazer who looked like he should be at a country club — pleaded guilty Thursday to charges including plundering bank accounts at his own bank, committing multiple counts of computer crimes, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy. In the process, Laffitte assisted infamous ex-lawyer and convicted murderer Murdaugh to steal from his own clients while using Laffitte’s bank as a place to launder stolen money.
At the time, from 2011 to 2021, Laffitte, the heir to a prominent Lowcountry banking family, held a variety of high-level positions at Palmetto State Bank, the financial institution where Murdaugh and his law firm did business.
The next act in the state saga comes Oct. 13, when Laffitte will be sentenced by state Judge Heath Taylor, who presided over Thursday’s hearing. At that hearing, Laffitte’s victims or their lawyers will be given a chance to speak.
The state plea deal calls for Laffitte to get eight years in state prison. That sentence will run roughly at the same amount of time as he will get when he is sentenced in federal court next week for federally bank fraud-related crimes. He could finally finish serving all his time by 2027 by some estimations.
On Monday, Sept. 29, Laffitte will be formally sentenced to federal banking crimes in Charleston federal court by U.S. Judge Richard Gergel. Gergel will give Laffitte a previously-agreed upon sentence of five years, part of which he has already served. The federal crimes cover roughly the same offenses against the same sets of victims as in the state banking crimes.
Although the final exact amount of time Laffitte will serve in federal prison has yet to be worked out, it is possible that when he gets out of federal prison, he will not have to serve any time in state prison.
Laffitte sold some $3.4 million worth of his stock shares in Palmetto Bank recently, and he will pay that amount in restitution for his and Murdaugh’s crimes, lead attorney general prosecutor Creighton Waters told the judge.
Under the plea deal, Laffitte will also serve 350 hours of community service, presumably after he leaves prison. The deal also ensures he likely will never work in the banking industry again.
What Laffitte Did
Over a period of 11 years, Laffitte not only assisted Murdaugh in channeling millions in stolen money from Murdaugh clients to Murdaugh, he also managed to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to himself, according to evidence in the case.
“It is a complex story,” prosecutor Waters told Judge Taylor on Thursday, explaining that Laffitte and Murdaugh had a symbiotic relationship where both men benefitted financially by converting funds to their own use using accounts at Laffitte’s bank to which he directed large sums of money at Murdaugh’s bidding.
Meanwhile, Laffitte kept on approving large loans to Murdaugh and using some of the stolen money to pay of the loans, Waters said. “Laffitte gave loan after loan to Alex.”
Laffitte profited because on some of the large amounts of money he was moving, he became the conservator of the money and was able to pay himself large fees and use the money for personal loans, Waters told the judge.
“To some extent, they got too big to fail,” explained Waters, chief attorney for the State Grand Jury. “Alex was in hock to Russell Laffitte, and Russell was in hock to Alex.”
An early windfall for Murdaugh and Laffitte came with Murdaugh’s diversion of a large amount from a wrongful death lawsuit settlement for the Plyler sisters, Alania and Hannah. Both were underage and without a guardian, so they needed to have their money held in trust, Waters said. Murdaugh funnelled the money to Laffitte’s bank, where Laffitte made sure it went into accounts that both Murdaugh and Laffitte were able to use.
Laffitte has been under house arrest since May 2022.
The money for restitution was received this week, said Waters, who in 2023 received national recognition as the prosecutor who won a double murder conviction for Murdaugh for the slaying of his wife, Maggie, and son Paul.
Had Laffitte not pleaded guilty as part of the negotiated settlement, he was facing up to 60 years in state prison, Judge Taylor said.
Many of Murdaugh’s clients were vulnerable and placed their trust in the two men who appeared to be pillars of their community in the small town of Hampton, South Carolina. Murdaugh was a fourth-generation lawyer from a prominent legal and political family, while Laffitte’s banking family had been in the Hampton County area for about 100 years.
After his arrest, Laffitte was fired from the bank that his family has run for generations. Asked in court Thursday by the judge what his occupation was , he said, “I work on my family farm.”
Laffitte is just one of several people, including people alleged to have sold drugs to Murdaugh, whose association with Murdaugh have brought them criminal charges or prison terms. The most prominent, besides Laffitte, was Cory Fleming, one of Murdaugh’s best friends and law school roommate, who Murdaugh enlisted in a scheme to steal $4 million in insurance proceeds from an inheritance. Fleming lost his law license and is now in federal prison.
As for Murdaugh, the cause of so much misfortune, he was more than 100 miles away from Columbia on Thursday, at a prison in the western part of the state, serving two consecutive life sentences. He claims he is innocent of killing his wife and son and is appealing his conviction.
Attorney Eric Bland, who represented the Plyler sisters, said after Thursday’s hearing that he plans to speak at Laffitte’s Oct. 13 sentencing hearing.
Laffitte had the opportunity on multiple occasions to stop Murdaugh from accessing the Plyler sisters’ money, but never did, Bland said.
“Rather than exercise his supervisory and fiduciary obligations, he had larceny in his heart and became an accomplice with and co-conspirator with Alex,” Bland said.
Laffitte was represented in court Thursday by Columbia attorneys Mark Moore and state Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland.
This story was originally published September 26, 2025 at 5:30 AM.