Alex Murdaugh will plead GUILTY to stealing millions of dollars from clients in first time he admits to a crime as he serves two consecutive life sentences for killing wife Maggie and son Paul

Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh will plead guilty in court for the first time to federal charges that he stole millions of dollars from clients.

Murdaugh, 55, is serving two consecutive life sentences for the 2021 murder of his wife Maggie and son Paul on their Moselle hunting estate.

The controversial former lawyer emphasized from the witness stand during his trial that he did not kill them and is appealing against his conviction for double murder.

Prosecutors argued he did it because his multimillion-dollar theft was about to be discovered and he hoped their deaths would buy him sympathy and time to cover up the other crimes.

This will be the first time the former South Carolina lawyer has pleaded guilty to a felony in court if he doesn’t change his mind before going to trial.

The federal plea would almost certainly result in jail time, leaving Murdaugh behind bars even if his murder appeal was successful.

Murdaugh murdered his 22-year-old son Paul and 52-year-old wife Maggie (together center) at their Colleton County hunting lodge. The surviving son Buster is seen on the left

Murdaugh is currently on remand in an undisclosed state prison after being convicted in March of the shooting of his 22-year-old son Paul and 52-year-old wife Maggie.

Before the murders, state and federal investigators said Murdaugh stole millions from clients who suffered debilitating injuries and needed money for medical care.

Murdaugh, 55, is serving a life sentence for murdering his wife and son in their home two years ago. But he insisted at trial that he didn’t kill them and is appealing his double murder conviction

He is charged with stealing his family’s law firm and helping run a drug ring to launder money.

Authorities said he asked a friend to kill him along a lonely highway so that his son would get a $10 million life insurance policy. The shot only grazed Murdaugh’s head.

In federal court, Murdaugh faces fourteen counts of money laundering, five counts of bank fraud, one count of bank fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

Court records do not indicate whether there is an agreement to drop the charges in exchange for an admission of guilt.

Each charge carries a minimum of 20 years in prison. Some face up to 30 years in prison.

Murdaugh’s attorneys declined to comment on Thursday’s lawsuit.

But they said after his indictment on 22 federal charges in May that Murdaugh was helping federal investigators and that the charges would be “soon resolved without trial.”

Prosecutors say he decided to kill them because his multimillion-dollar theft was about to be discovered and he hoped their deaths would buy him sympathy and time to devise a cover-up.

Before the murders, state and federal investigators said Murdaugh stole millions from clients who suffered debilitating injuries and needed money for medical care.

The federal charges are similar to those Murdaugh continues to face in state court.

They included stealing about $4 million in insurance payments meant for the family of Gloria Satterfield, a longtime housekeeper who died when she fell in Murdaugh’s home, according to the indictments.

Longtime friend and now ex-lawyer Cory Fleming helped Murdaugh steal the money, investigators said.

Fleming was sentenced to nearly four years in prison earlier this month after pleading guilty.

Other charges said Murdaugh and a banker friend, Russell Laffitte, conspired to take settlement money from clients’ accounts, prosecutors said.

Laffitte was convicted in November on six counts of bank fraud and bank fraud. He was sentenced to seven years in prison and is appealing.

Murdaugh is also accused of creating a bank account with a name that resembles a legitimate company that handled settlements to steal money from customers.

He is currently awaiting trial on about a hundred other charges. In addition to the thefts, they also include insurance fraud, a drug and money laundering operation, tax evasion and theft.

Alex Murdaugh’s college friend Cory Fleming (pictured) was sentenced to 46 months in prison for helping a former lawyer steal millions from his late housekeeper

Fleming admitted to helping Murdaugh defraud more than $4.3 million from Gloria Satterfield’s family (pictured) in wrongful death settlement

A hearing on these charges is likely to take place the week before the federal plea and would mark Murdaugh’s first appearance outside of prison since he was escorted from the Colleton County courtroom in handcuffs, shackles and a prison suit on March 3.

Murdaugh has since been seen in public only once in a series of photos taken by the camera of his prison-issued tablet computer as the system confirmed his identity so he could use the device to conduct controlled conversations, receive approved entertainment view, read books or take pictures. video lessons.

The photos showed Murdaugh shirtless and wearing reading glasses in his cell at times.

Prison officials initially released the photos under state law, but after a brief wave of publicity, they decided that since the photos were taken for security reasons and not as an official measure, they should not have been released under the Freedom of Information Act.