Alex Murdaugh Accomplice Pleads Guilty to Multiple Charges

• Russell Laffitte, the former CEO of Palmetto State Bank in South Carolina, admitted to helping convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh steal millions from clients who had won sizable settlements
• Laffiite used his position at the bank to help Murdaugh profit from others’ misfortune, a judge said
• Prosecutors will recommend Laffiite be given a 5-year-prison sentence and that he pay $3.5 million in restitution

A once-prominent South Carolina banker has admitted to helping convicted murderer and fraudster Alex Murdaugh steal millions in legal settlements from clients a federal judge called “vulnerable.”

On Monday, April 14, Russell Laffitte, the former CEO of Palmetto State Bank in Hampton, pleaded guilty to six federal counts of bank and wire fraud in connection to Murdaugh’s sprawling financial scheme to bilk clients out of millions of dollars, online court records show.

In the signed guilty plea agreement filed with prosecutors in federal district court in South Carolina, Laffitte pleaded guilty to bank fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud and misapplication of funds, WCSC reports.

Under the terms of the agreement, Laffitte would be sentenced to five years in federal prison and pay back more than $3.6 million in restitution, the Greenville News reports.

He entered the guilty pleas several weeks before his federal trial was set to begin, WCSC reports.

Laffitte was previously convicted of the same charges in 2022 and was sentenced to seven years in prison. But the original conviction was overturned by an appeals court, which ruled Laffitte had not gotten a fair trial because a judge allowed the dismissal of “anxious” jurors and their replacement with alternates, the Post and Courier reports.

When Laffitte was sentenced in 2023, U.S. Judge Richard Gergel said he was part of “an elaborate criminal scheme in which there wasn’t just bad judgment, there was complicity, for which he was richly compensated,” The State reports. 

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Laffitte and Murdaugh’s victims were “extremely vulnerable people,” Gergel said. “Their family members were victims of horrible, tragic events in their lives; death, people widowed, lost their parents…And he treated them like they were players on a chessboard, moving that money around.”

In Laffitte’s 2022 trial, prosecutors laid out how Laffitte used his role as bank head to help Murdaugh steal millions from his clients, The State reports.

The now-disbarred Murdaugh sent settlements meant to be paid out or held in trust for relatives and survivors in wrongful death or personal injury cases to Laffitte, who set up accounts at his bank to house the money, which they used for themselves, prosecutors said, The State reports.

Two sisters testified how Murdaugh and Laffitte mismanaged the $1 million settlement they received when their mother was killed in a car crash when they were 12 and 8, The State reports. An FBI accountant testified that Laffitte used $20,000 from one of the sister’s accounts for a swimming pool.

Besides that, Laffitte, who served as conservator for Murdaugh’s personal injury clients, extended $355,000 in personal loans for himself and $990,000 in personal loans to Murdaugh from the clients’ funds held at his bank, prosecutors said.

Laffitte still faces state charges in South Carolina, with a trial date set for October.

In 2023, Murdaugh was convicted for the 2021 murder of his wife Maggie and his son Paul and sentenced to two life terms.