The CFO of Alex Murdaugh’s law firm says the disgraced legal descendant is gifted in the ‘art of foolishness’

The financial director of Alex Murdaugh’s law firm said the disgraced legal descendant was gifted in the “art of foolishness” and was capable of manipulating people.

Jeanne Seckinger told jurors in her double murder trial that she confronted Murdaugh, 54, the day Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, were killed for $792,000 in stolen fees.

She said Murdaugh was trying to “hide assets” in Maggie’s account to protect money from the lawsuit he was facing over a fatal drunk-driving boating accident.

Seckinger, who has known Murdaugh since high school, said Murdaugh had the “gift of eloquence” and the “art of ****ing bulls,” which made him a successful personal injury lawyer, but later saw who displayed these skills to be the mastermind. massive fraud.

“I think Alec was a successful lawyer more because of his ability to build rapport and manipulate people into making deals,” he told the jury. “He did it through bull art, basically.”

Murdaugh chewed gum and took notes as Seckinger delivered his withering testimony about how he stole from the company.

Seckinger described how he would “use the emotions of his case and the emotions of his clients” to secure higher settlements.

“Things were rigged and staged and I think he did it with his clients as well,” he told the court.

The CFO went on to describe how, with hindsight, she realized that Murdaugh, who she would say had trouble remembering things, was embezzling millions from the firm, Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth and Detrick (PMPED).

“I think he actually had a photographic memory to keep all the balls in the air that we see now,” Seckinger said.

In May 2021, he said Murdaugh became “careless” and noticed that payments intended for PMPED were going to an account set up with Forge Consulting.

Although Forge is a legitimate entity, Murdaugh was fraudulently using the account to divert funds to his personal accounts.

“I was getting money on Maggie’s behalf for the boat case,” he told the jury.

At the time of Paul’s death, Murdaugh and his son were defendants in a civil case over the shipwreck that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach. Paul had used Buster’s ID to buy alcohol and was driving his father’s boat drunk in February 2019.

On June 7, 2021, the day of the murders, Seckinger said he confronted Murdaugh at the Hampton, South Carolina, office about the $792,000 in missing fees.

“He was leaning against a filing cabinet outside his office,” Seckinger told the court. ‘He looked at me and said ‘what do you want now?’ and he gave me a very dirty look, a look I’ve never gotten from him before.’

Seckinger said she told him they better go into her office and proceeded to tell him that she had reason to believe that she had received the funds owed to the law firm in the case.

Alex Murdaugh pictured with his wife Maggie and their two sons Paul (left) and Buster

The CFO explained that in his line of work all fees went directly to the law firm; if not, ‘that would be theft’.

Seckinger said that Murdaugh assured him that the money was there and that he could get it; then he went on to talk about his ailing father, the patriarch of the Randolph III family.

Later that day, prosecutors allege that Murdaugh killed his wife and son.

As a result, Seckinger said the search for the missing money was disrupted.

“He was erratic, we knew he was taking pills, we were worried about his sanity, so we weren’t going to harass him for money when we knew his family had been murdered,” he told the jury.

“Nothing happened that week at work, everyone spent time with Alec trying to support him…we were worried about Alec,” Seckinger added.