Lawyer arrested for ‘paying hitman to kill him so surviving son could get $10million insurance’
South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh, whose son and wife were killed, has been arrested and charged in a fraud scheme allegedly aimed at allowing his surviving son to collect his $10million life insurance payout.
Murdaugh, 53, surrendering to authorities on Thursday morning and was driven to Hampton County jail.
He is charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and filing a false police report, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) said in a statement, according to CNN.
Murdaugh has denied responsibility for the June 7 killings of his younger son and college student Paul and his wife Maggie, and the cases remain unsolved.
The prominent, scandal-ridden lawyer survived a gunshot wound to his head on a road on September 4. A spokesperson for his family initially blamed an unidentified man in a blue truck for Murdaugh’s shooting.
However, Murdaugh on Monday told authorities that he arranged for the man, his former client Curtis Edward Smith, to kill him in the botched scheme, an affidavit against Smith states.
Murdaugh wanted to end his life but believed his insurance policy excluded suicide, another one of his attorneys, Dick Harpootlian, told NBC’s Today Show. The hitman scheme ‘was an attempt on his part to do something to protect’ his older and only living child, Harpootlian said.
Smith, 61, was charged on Wednesday with assisted suicide, insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature and pointing and presenting a firearm, according to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
The Murdaughs have also been under scrutiny due to three other deaths that occurred in proximity to them in recent years.
‘I can assure you that SLED agents will continue working to bring justice to anyone involved with any criminal act associated with these ongoing investigation,’ division Chief Mark Keel stated. ‘The arrests in this case are only the first step in that process.’
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