Alex Murdaugh pleads guilty to money laundering and fraud charges

Murdaugh on Thursday pleaded guilty to 22 financial charges in federal court. Those charges include stealing millions of dollars in funds from at least five clients of his old law firm, wire fraud, and bank fraud. It was the first time the disbarred South Carolina lawyer had pleaded guilty to a crime. Jurors in the state convicted Murdaugh earlier this year for the murder of his wife and one of his sons, but Murdaugh maintained his innocence throughout the entire trial. A judge sentenced Murdaugh to life without parole for those murders.

Why would he plead guilty to fraud? Murdaugh said he wanted his surviving son to see him take responsibility. Murdaugh still faces more than 100 state charges in South Carolina. Those charges include attempting to commit insurance fraud and running a drug and money laundering ring. The plea agreement allows Murdaugh to serve his sentence for the federal charges concurrently with “any state sentence served for the same conduct.”

Dig deeper: Read Kim Henderson’s story in WORLD Magazine about the national struggle to contain violent crime.