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Russell Laffitte was an accused fraudster. Then a convicted fraudster. Then an accused fraudster once again. Inside a federal courtroom in Charleston, South Carolina on Friday morning (April 18, 2025), Laffitte entered a guilty plea which confirmed what those following the ‘Murdaugh Murders’ crime and corruption saga knew all along: He’s a fraudster.
The disgraced banker from Estill, S.C. – a key cog in the financial misdeeds of convicted killer and disbarred attorney Alex Murdaugh – appeared before U.S. district court judge Richard Gergel and pleaded guilty to conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud and misapplying bank funds (three counts).
Per the terms of the negotiated deal, he will serve five years in prison (with credit for the time he has already served) if he makes good on paying restitution in the amount of $3.55 million. Gergel did not sentence Laffitte on Friday, but accepted the terms of the agreement.
News of Laffitte’s plea deal was exclusively reported by our Dylan Nolan earlier this week.
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“Russell Laffitte and Alex Murdaugh abused their positions of power to victimize people who trusted them,” said Ben Garner, chief of the criminal division of the U.S. attorney’s office noted. “As of today, both have pleaded guilty and accepted responsibility for their crimes in federal court.”
Laffitte was found guilty in November of 2022 of the aforementioned six charges related to his role in Murdaugh’s financial crimes. However, the U.S. fourth circuit court of appeals vacated those verdicts last November based on judicial error related to a questionable eleventh hour jury reshuffling initiated by Gergel.
According to the court, this reshuffling “violated Laffitte’s right to an impartial jury.”
FITSNews addressed the Laffitte jury drama extensively in our coverage of the verdicts – raising questions about Gergel’s action at the time. Days after the trial, the court issued a transcript (.pdf) from the chaotic proceedings which raised additional questions.
While the jury drama wound up getting Laffitte off the hook for his first convictions, the case against him – led by prosecutor Emily Limehouse – remained rock solid.
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“Laffitte admitted that he agreed to serve as conservator and personal representative for several of Murdaugh’s clients, knowing that he would personally profit from doing so,” prosecutors noted in a statement issued Friday. “Beginning in 2011, Laffitte began extending himself and Murdaugh loans from conservator accounts Laffitte was charged with managing. Laffitte did not disclose the loans to the conservatees, despite owing them a fiduciary duty.”
“Around that time, Murdaugh devised a scheme to obtain money belonging to his clients,” the federal narrative continued. “In furtherance of the scheme, Murdaugh directed law firm employees to make clients’ checks payable to Palmetto State Bank. The checks were drawn on the law firm’s client trust account, identified the clients on the memo lines, and corresponded to amounts set forth in the clients’ disbursement sheets.”
Murdaugh signed a plea deal with prosecutors related to his federal financial offenses in September of 2023, but this agreement nearly collapsed when they accused him of failing to fully disclose “hidden assets” while under polygraph examination. This alleged failure resulted in a prosecutorial motion to revoke Murdaugh’s plea deal.
Last April, Gergel sentenced Murdaugh to forty years in prison for nearly two dozen financial crimes – and ordered him to pay restitution in the amount of $8.8 million to victims.
This federal sentence is running concurrent with the life imprisonment Murdaugh received in March 2023 for the murders of his wife, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh, and their younger son, 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh. Additionally, Murdaugh is serving a negotiated sentence of 27 years in the S.C. Department of Corrections (SCDC) as part of a plea agreement with state prosecutors for his myriad financial crimes.
As of this writing, he remains in the protective custody of SCDC.
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Murdaugh attempted to appeal his federal sentence, but a three-judge panel of the U.S. fourth circuit shot him down.
“As to two of Murdaugh’s clients, Laffitte—their conservator—saw their disbursement sheets and knew that the bank was supposed to receive their settlement funds,” prosecutors noted. “Murdaugh presented the clients’ checks to Laffitte and directed that they be used for Murdaugh’s personal benefit, including to pay off loans Laffitte had extended from conservator accounts. Laffitte negotiated nine separate transactions for Murdaugh’s benefit, knowing that the funds belonged to the clients.”
Additionally, Laffitte “aided and abetted the structuring of transactions from a second check belonging to one of the clients, disbursing the funds at Murdaugh’s direction and for Murdaugh’s personal benefit.”
“As to a third client of Murdaugh’s, Laffitte negotiated 12 separate transactions, disbursing $1,325,000 in client settlement funds for Murdaugh’s benefit,” prosecutors continued. “Despite knowing they were client funds, Laffitte allowed Murdaugh to use the funds to repay Murdaugh’s personal loans, repay loans Laffitte extended from a conservator account, purchase vehicles and equipment, and receive cash back. Laffitte also deposited some of the funds into Murdaugh’s personal account.”
Ultimately, Laffitte received $75,000 in conservator fees and $35,000 in personal representative fees in these three cases.
The 54-year-old bank executive also repeatedly misapplied institutional funds in furtherance of Murdaugh’s interests, extending a $750,000 loan “for the stated purpose of beach house renovations” in July 2021 which Murdaugh used to pay back an attorney he swindled and a previous overdraft with the bank.
Laffitte knew “that these funds had nothing to do with beach house renovations.”
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Limehouse and her fellow prosecutors on this case – Winston Holliday and Kathleen Stoughton – meticulously detailed each of the charges against Laffitte during the original trial in the fall of 2022. It was, as we noted at the time, a “tour de force.”
Attorneys for Laffitte’s victims seemed pleased by the news – which spares them from having to spend several weeks of their lives on another trial and lengthy appeals process.
“Today the sun will shine a little bit higher in our state because people like Russell Laffitte, who seek to victimize the vulnerable and the weak, must pay for their crimes,” attorney Eric Blandwrote on X when news of Laffitte’s plea deal first broke. “Perhaps some more prison time (around five more years) will impress upon not only Russell Laffitte, but the entire hierarchy at Palmetto State Bank that the customer only comes first. A bank is a steward of other people’s money, and that sacred trust must be protected.”
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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2 comments
Nice article. Very well done.
They both plead guilty because it was best for them ultimately. Neither ever “ took responsibility for their crimes”