Alex Murdaugh is sentenced to another 40 years in prison for federal financial crimes

Disgraced legal scion Alex Murdaugh has been hit with an additional 40 years in prison after he was sentenced over a slew of federal financial fraud crimes.

The 55-year-old convicted killer and fraudster appeared in federal court in Charleston on Monday morning, where US District Judge Richard Gergel determined what penalty he should face for a sprawling decade-long scheme where he stole millions of dollars from vulnerable legal clients. The new sentence, which exceeds the 30 years prosecutors asked for, will run concurrently with the state sentences Murdaugh is already serving.

From at least 2008 through 2021, Murdaugh swindled several clients at his law firm PMPED out of over $10m in funds. In addition to his additional 40 years, Murdaugh has also been ordered to pay $8.7m. The money will be divided among several victims, ThePost and Courier reports, as well as his former law firm and the bank Murdaugh used to funnel stolen funds.

Among the victims was the family of Gloria Satterfield – the Murdaugh’s longtime housekeeper who helped raise his two sons Paul and Buster.

Satterfield died in February 2018 following a mysterious trip and fall accident down the steps of the affluent family’s Moselle home – the same estate where Murdaugh murdered his wife Maggie and son Paul just three years later.

Murdaugh urged Satterfield’s two sons to file a wrongful death lawsuit then stole the $4m in settlement money from them. The insurance company that covered the family will receive $3.8m from Murdaugh, the court also ordered Monday.

Just minutes before Mr Gergel handed down his sentence, Murdaugh addressed the court and apologised to his victims.“I want you to know and I want the victims to know, I am filled with sorrow, I am filled with remorse, I am filled with guilt,” Murdaugh said, per T he Herald. “I am very committed to trying to be a better person.”

“Judge, I know there’s not enough time and I don’t possess sufficient vocabulary to express to you in words the magnitude of what I feel about what I did — as you pointed out for a long period of time…. I literally am filled with sorrow and I am filled with guilt,” he continued.

In September, Murdaugh finally pleaded guilty to 22 federal charges over the multi-million-dollar scheme including wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud after reaching a plea deal with Justice Department (DOJ) prosecutors.

Under the terms of the deal, he was to face up to 30 years in federal prison to be served concurrently with his state conviction on the same charges. In November, he was handed a 27-year prison term in state court at a highly-emotive sentencing hearing where he was confronted by several of his victims.

The federal plea deal required Murdaugh to cooperate with prosecutors and be truthful about the details of his sprawling fraud.

But just days before his sentencing, DOJ prosecutors posted a new court filing saying that the double murderer had broken his end of the bargain and asking the judge to break the plea deal.

In the filing, Assistant US Attorney Emily Limehouse argued that Murdaugh had lied on a polygraph test. The filing also stated that an additional $1.3m in stolen money and a further 11 victims of Murdaugh’s financial crimes had been discovered since the deal was reached.

However, at the sentencing, both parties reached an agreement to preserve the plea deal.