Alex Murdaugh accused by his firm of misusing funds a day before reporting being shot

[herding cats]

Alex Murdaugh, the prominent South Carolina lawyer whose wife and son were shot to death months ago in an unsolved murder mystery that has captivated the state and confounded the police, was pushed out of his powerful law firm over claims that he had misused funds the day before he called 911 from a rural road to say that he had been shot in the head, the firm disclosed on Monday.

Leaders of the Hampton, S.C., firm said they had discovered that Mr. Murdaugh had misappropriated money from the law office and that he had resigned on Friday. The next day, Mr. Murdaugh told the police he had been changing a tire at the side of a road in Hampton County — where members of his family have established a powerful legal dynasty over three generations — when someone in a truck pulled up and shot him in the head.

Tommy Crosby, a spokesman for state law enforcement, confirmed that Mr. Murdaugh had suffered “a superficial gunshot wound to the head” but declined to comment on the law firm’s statement about Mr. Murdaugh’s departure.

Mr. Murdaugh, 53, was a partner at the law firm P.M.P.E.D. — known by the initials of its partners — which was founded by Mr. Murdaugh’s great-grandfather more than a century ago and is well-known in South Carolina’s Lowcountry. In a statement to The New York Times, the firm said that it had hired a forensic accounting firm to investigate the suspected misappropriation of funds and that it had also notified the police and the South Carolina Bar.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/06/us/alex-murdaugh-murders-law-firm.html

There's going to be a lot more layers to this onion to fall away before it's all done.

[Historic NY]

1. Interesting, very interesting..

its sounding more like this was staged

[herding cats]

2. This one is definitely one to follow.

I'm just hoping it leads back to the death of Stephen Smith. The family needs justice and I've always held suspicions.

[ZZenith]

8. Amen to that.

Justice for Stephen and Gloria and Mallory.

It’s possible his wife was innocent in all this as well. I hope all the corruption that has allowed this fiasco to get this far is shoved out into the light of day and thoroughly disinfected.

Shit like this is why I never trust rich people.

[Ferryboat]

3. In 10 years or so

This tragic story will be told in some film (?) adaptation.

[OneBro]

4. P.M.P.E.D.? As in PiMPED?

Is this the team that named the Teabaggers?

[NBachers]

5. A plot twist for sure . . . Stay tuned

I'd say a forensic examination of the "flat tire" is in order, to start.

[dalton99a]

6. "The amount was in the millions"

The law office did not say how much money was missing, but a member of the firm, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose company information, said the amount was in the millions.

The killing of Mr. Murdaugh’s wife and son brought national attention to what is normally a quiet, rural community 65 miles west of Charleston. It was there that the Murdaughs’ legal legacy began, when residents elected Randolph Murdaugh, Mr. Murdaugh’s great-grandfather, as the region’s top prosecutor 101 years ago. For more than eight decades, until 2006, three generations of the Murdaugh family served in the position, prosecuting cases across five counties.

Mr. Murdaugh’s son, Paul Murdaugh, who had been a junior at the University of South Carolina, was killed while he was awaiting trial on felony charges that accused him of driving a boat while drunk in 2019, crashing it and killing a 19-year-old woman, Mallory Beach. Paul Murdaugh’s death brought renewed attention to that case, and local news outlets and documents released by the police have raised questions about errors or favorable treatment toward him in the investigation.

The killings also led the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to open a new inquiry into the unsolved death of Stephen Smith, a 19-year-old whose body was found on a rural road in the area in 2015. The police have not accused the Murdaughs of wrongdoing in that case.

[Demovictory9]

7. so he's desparate for money. Someone check if wife and son had insurance policy payable to him

[Ex Lurker]

10. He's retained criminal defense super lawyer Dick Harpootlian

There are a couple of other suspicious deaths that preceded the boat incident. One, the family housekeeper and two, a man who was alleged to have a gay relationship with one of the sons.