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You're watching CNBC On Demand.

In this American Greed special.

This is such a wild story. The unsolved double murder of a prominent attorney's

wife and son is making new headlines.

An unprecedented tale of small town power.

If you had a problem, they can make it go away. But then you owe them.

And big -time greed.

Alex preyed on his victims who were his clients. They're right in front of him.

For a century, the Murdochs, a powerful family of lawyers and prosecutors, hold

a tight grip over a large swath of South Carolina.

You didn't want to be on the other end of what they were working on.

But behind the aura of respectability...

Prosecutors say Alec Murdoch is hiding a trove of devious schemes worth nearly

$20 million.

Have you ever heard of a case where the defendant and the plaintiff's lawyer get

together and say, we're going to take all the money?

Prosecutors say his crimes extended to an eight -year money laundering and

painkiller rate.

For years, Murdoch seems untouchable.

But when tragedy strikes...

His alleged crimes come out of the dark.

He never looked like the type of person that would do something of this nature.

And into the light.

It's yet another twist in a stunning series of events devastating the well

-known family.

And the once powerful attorney finds himself linked to death.

After death.

After death.

Now Murdoch's victims and those who face off with him in court take American

Greed inside the story that's almost impossible to believe.

This is a John Grisham work of nonfiction. You cannot make any of this

because it's all true.

In the early morning hours, in the misty winter dark, security cameras roll as

19 -year -old Paul Murdock emerges from a boat, saddles up to a bar, and quickly

downs two shots.

The son of Alec Murdock, a prominent attorney from a powerful legal dynasty

based in Hampton, South Carolina, Paul is used to getting and doing whatever he

wants.

Well, the Murdoch family is just a legendary name in that part of the world

100 years. And essentially, we're the power brokers, not just in Hampton, but

the region for a very, very, very long time.

After swaggering out of the bar, Paul is seen arguing with some of the five

friends who've joined him for this night out on the water in his father's boat.

To other members of the party, the gravity of the moment seems unclear.

You see Mallory and Anthony, her boyfriend, you know, laughing, holding

It's very poignant. It almost gives me chills to think about because you know

you're watching the last moments of this young woman's life.

It's tough to watch, honestly.

When authorities arrive, the missing girl's boyfriend, Anthony Cook, lets

know how unlikely it is that Paul, or any Murdoch, will ever face justice in

this deadly incident.

You all know Alec Murdoch?

That's his son.

Good luck.

Alec Murdoch may seem above the law to people who know him.

But the death on his boat begins to shine a light on his family that could

him down.

You can see him sitting there and the walls start closing in because now he

his entire family was under a level of scrutiny that they had never, never

experienced in the life of that family.

In the months that follow his son's boat crash, An unprecedented tale of power

and greed will be revealed.

It's got family drama. It's biblical. It's Shakespearean. It's just

Even the setting of the Murdoch's real -life southern Gothic tale feels like

something out of a novel.

Well, Hampton County is in what we call the low country. It is a different world

in a very real sense.

It's almost a trip back in time to Mayberry.

The biggest building is Alec Murdoch's old law firm.

Everyone knows what the firm is. For many years, there was never a sign out

front, and guess what? There's still not.

It's not necessary.

For almost nine decades, three generations of Murdoch served as

also known as solicitors, over Hampton and four surrounding counties.

The job makes them the main power brokers in the area.

Justin Bamberg is an attorney who will represent many of Alec Murdoch's alleged

victims.

You didn't want to be on the other end of what they were working on or what

wanted. You know, I mean, they've run the 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office for

100 years.

Tapped in, tied in, that's law enforcement, that's EMS, that's all the

who could make your life difficult.

It's a type of power that comes in handy at the personal injury law firm the

Murdochs run in tandem with the Solicitor's Office.

Valerie Borlein is a Wall Street Journal reporter now writing a book about the

Murdoch family.

The solicitor gets to decide who gets prosecuted for a case.

If you had a problem or run in with the law and you went to the Murdoch firm,

they can make it go away sometimes, but then you owed them.

According to attorney Justin Bamberg, the ability to decide how and when the

is enforced as solicitors

gives the Murdochs a leg up at their private law firm when they try a case

before a local jury.

What do you think people are going to do? You go to pick your jury and there's

the mother of this boy who the solicitor's office could have dropped

on and didn't because solicitor Murdoch looked out.

Well, people are going to pay it forward.

The case that came to the Murdoch law firm because...

if you had a personal injury lawsuit, you were going to win.

And you were probably going to win more money than you would anywhere else.

A case in Richland County that would settle for $500 ,000 could just as

settle here for $5 to $10 million.

Alec Murdoch is born into this dynasty of wealth and influence in 1968.

When he becomes a lawyer in 1994,

Murdoch uses his gift of gab and his powerful name to build his own book of

clients.

Joe McCullough will later file suit against Alec Murdoch.

He was a lawyer who, based on his reputation and the family's strength of

reputation, probably enabled him to settle many, many cases without ever the

fear of having to try the case.

According to an archived version of his firm's website, Murdoch's practice

focuses on personal injury law, where he purports to help clients injured or

killed in accidents or by defective products.

All of these clients are in terrible need of an experienced advocate to fight

for them.

It's absolutely the lowest point for most of these folks' lives.

And he's just that regular run -of -the -mill country white guy from around

here. Hey, Bo.

I'm going to take care of you. You don't have anything to worry about. I promise

you. I got you.

Among the clients who turn to Alec Murdoch for help is the family of Hakeem

Pinckney. A young deaf man, Pinckney's life is upended in a horrific car

accident in 2009 that also involves his mother, Pamela.

Hakeem had got thrown out on his head, so he ended up having a spinal cord

injury from that. They operated on him. He became a quadriplegic.

He ended up in a facility in Augusta, Georgia, on a ventilator.

Pamela Pinkney says a friend refers her to a lawyer who kindly meets her at the

hospital where she, too, is recovering.

It's Alec Murdoch.

He looked all of us dead in our eyes and our face and told us that we don't have

anything to worry about.

He's our attorney and that he has our best interest.

He would never do anything to hurt us, and he's like family to us.

I just took his word as his bond. That's what I did.

Like many in the Hampton area, Pinckney thinks the Murdoch name is one that can

be trusted.

And who could blame her?

After all, the family has been the law here for nearly a century.

But as the saying goes, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Alec's clients were never his best interest.

His best interest was always his pocket.

Up next, the depths of Alec Murdoch's alleged fraud revealed.

If you have a criminal mind, That's the bag sitting right in front of you. And

later, the tragic crash that threatens to topple the Murdoch dynasty forever.

In the low country of South Carolina, attorney Alec Murdoch has all the

trappings of wealth and success that his well -known last name implies.

It's all on display on his wife Maggie's Facebook page.

There, pictures show her husband standing outside a private plane,

black -tie affairs in New York.

sitting courtside at University of South Carolina basketball games, and

vacationing with his whole happy family.

There are also shots of the Murdoch clan riding around in a variety of boats and

other toys at the family's home and hunting property, Moselle.

Moselle is 1 ,700 acres. That's 20 minutes from town, practically. A lot of

hunting, really good hunting property out there.

Murdoch is an avid hunter, and it's here in the sprawling woods that he

entertains friends and associates.

But behind his lordly existence, prosecutors say Murdoch is using his

powerful legal legacy to lure in trusting clients so he can rob them

After the Pinckney family's horrific car crash in 2009,

They turn to Murdoch, believing he will work to get them what they deserve.

Then, in October 2011, Hakeem Pinckney, just 21, dies in a

nursing home.

That was, it was like someone just ripping my heart out of my body.

While Pinckney is left to bury her son, prosecutors say Murdoch senses

opportunity.

helping the family sue a tire company whose faulty product allegedly caused

crash.

The tread separated from around the tire, and that was the nature of us

the accident.

Prosecutors say in an indictment that the Pickneys received a multimillion

-dollar settlement from the tire manufacturer.

It progressed very fast.

It settled out of court. We didn't even go to court.

The Pickneys get some of their money, and Murdoch collects hefty fees for

representing them.

But prosecutors say he wants more.

Two months after Hakeem Pickney's death, prosecutors say he begins working with

Russell Lafitte, an executive at a local bank, to skim from the family.

These two old friends then allegedly use a large chunk of the Pickneys'

settlement,

as their own personal slush fund.

The bank has not been implicated in any criminal wrongdoing, and neither its

legal representative nor Lafitte, who has pled not guilty to state and federal

charges, responded to American Greed's request for comment.

But Bamberg says he knows exactly what Murdoch and the banker were up to.

This is money that was intended to compensate

people who had lived through one of the most traumatic experiences, if not the

most traumatic experience most people can imagine.

And their money got taken.

And the people involved didn't care one way about a

broken -hearted mother or the memory of a deaf, quadriplegic young man.

Indictments say Murdoch is just getting started in a years -long scheme to steal

from his suffering clients.

Alec Murdoch was strategic.

He picked people who wouldn't question him.

He picked people who were trusting. And he picked minorities.

One was a longtime friend of the family.

he had a state trooper that came to him for help that he allegedly took

money from.

Murdoch allegedly hides his theft by telling clients that their settlement

amount is less than it actually is, that he can't disperse their money until

their litigation is completed, and that their money is being used to pay for

medical bills, private investigators, and accident reconstructions.

No one seems to question him.

Alex preyed on his victims who were his clients. They're right in front of him.

And there's millions of dollars that come his way every year.

And if you have a criminal mind, that's the bank sitting right in front of you.

According to the South Carolina Supreme Court, Murdoch has admitted to stealing

millions from clients and his own law firm.

With no one keeping tabs on the lawyer, whose last name stands for the law in

the Lowcountry, prosecutors say Murdoch's crimes go on for years.

It's hard to believe that this guy had the arrogance to think that he wasn't

going to get caught, that he just continued to do it over and over again,

then you're like, how could he not think he was going to get away with it?

Up next.

A sudden death at Murdoch's house.

And the lawyer gets away with his biggest score yet.

You know, oftentimes somebody steals with a pen. It's just as dangerous as

somebody steals with a gun.

For years, Alec Murdoch has been living high on the hog thanks to his alleged

theft from suffering clients, who turn to him at the lowest points in their

lives.

Like plenty of people of wealth and privilege, Murdoch is too busy for some

jobs.

Out at Moselle, the family's 1 ,700 -acre hunting estate, he employs a woman

named Gloria Satterfield to work for his family as a nanny and housekeeper.

Her sons, Tony Satterfield and Brian Harriet, say taking care of others is

she does best.

Loving, kind, you know, comforting, protective mother.

The love she shows her own children is said to extend to Murdoch, his wife

Maggie, and their two boys, Paul on the left and Buster on the right.

You know, she took pride in what she'd done, and she wasn't just a housekeeper.

She was more than that. She was family.

She did it for Alex's son and Buster and Paul. Like, they were hers.

But after years on the job, on February 2, 2018, at the brick steps

leading into the house at the Murdoch's rural estate, tragedy strikes.

My housekeeper has fallen and her head is bleeding. I cannot get her up.

Hello?

Yeah, can you ask the patient what kind of pain she's having?

Ma 'am, she can't talk.

She's cracked her head and there's blood on the concrete and she's bleeding out

of her left ear. Do you know what her name is?

Gloria Satterfield.

Three weeks after her accident at the Murdoch home, Satterfield's life comes

an end.

That day...

When I went to leave her, I told her I love her and I'll see you tomorrow.

And that's when she said, I love you too, and that was it.

That's the last words we had.

For the family, it's an unimaginable tragedy.

But prosecutors and others allege that Murdoch knows how to find the silver

lining.

Eric Bland will later represent Satterfield's sons.

That Alex is such a devious person, such an evil -minded person, that he

thinks in ways that normal people don't think. And so from the start, I believe

that he saw this as a financial avenue for him to be able to recover money.

Murdoch's devious scheme to steal from the Satterfields begins when he does

something most lawyers would never do.

He openly accepts blame for his employee's death by saying his dogs

her fall.

He just said that the dogs tripped her up, and that's all we knew. And if

questioned us, just to tell them that they could talk to him.

The Satterfield family says that after admitting fault, Murdoch tells them he

wants to make things right financially.

The lawyer has a big insurance policy, and he tells the family he wants to help

them file a claim against him so they can collect whatever settlement might

come.

He's like, hey, you know, I know she's going to have some medical bills and

stuff, you know, so let me try to, you know, help you out with that.

But prosecutors say Murdoch is more interested in helping himself to the

insurance proceeds.

To do so, he knows he can't represent the boys and go after his own insurer.

He needs to set them up with a lawyer, one who he can trust.

He was like, you know, I can't represent you through myself because it would be

like a conflict of interest. So, you know, I'm going to send you to my buddy

be for, you know, Corey Fleming.

Corey Fleming's LinkedIn profile says he once worked for Murdoch's father.

And there's plenty Murdoch doesn't reveal about the depth of their

He didn't tell them that he grew up with Corey, that they went to college

together, that Corey was the godfather of Paul, his son.

According to a lawsuit, once Fleming begins to represent the Satterfields, he

asks Murdoch's insurer to pay up.

And Murdoch leans on the company to make sure they do.

Alex said to his insurance company, if you don't settle within the policy

limits, this case is going to go to trial.

I'm going to be before my jurors, and I'm going to stand up and tell them it's

my fault, my responsibility for Gloria's death.

As the insurer gets closer to writing a big check, Murdoch knows he can only

pocket the money if the boys never learn that there's been a payout.

Tony is then serving as personal representative, or PR, for his mother's

The job means he'll approve any settlement that Murdoch's insurer

As the insurance payment gets closer, Murdoch asks a local banker named Chad

Westendorf to take over the position.

Today is February 22nd, 2022.

The time is approximately... As Westendorf will later make clear in a

deposition, his only qualification seems to be his friendship with Murdoch. What

made you more qualified to be PR than Tony?

I don't know.

Okay. What was your job?

As PR, tell me what you were supposed to do.

I don't know.

Westendorf has not been charged with any criminal wrongdoing and did not respond

to American Greed's request for comment.

But once he's been put in place, the Satterfield boys are left completely in

dark. How many times did you meet with Tony Satterfield or Brian Harriot?

I didn't. How many times did you ever speak to Tony or Brian?

I didn't.

how many documents did you send to Tony and Brian in connection with the work

that you did as personal representative of the estate of Gloria Satterfield?

None.

Now Murdoch can really get to work.

According to Eric Bland, the day after Westendorf is appointed as the new PR,

The banker asks a judge to approve a settlement from Murdoch's insurer to

and Brian for a half million dollars.

But prosecutors say Murdoch and Fleming keep the money for themselves.

You know, you have serial gunslingers, you have serial killers. He's just a

serial pen slinger. And, you know, oftentimes somebody steals with a pen,

just as dangerous as somebody steals with a gun.

Up next, the devious scheme prosecutors say Alec Murdoch concocts to hide his

thefts and the client who's allegedly left to suffer. And Alex watched Brian

Harriot get pushed out on the street while he's sitting on this money.

To get his hands on a half -million -dollar settlement belonging to the

Satterfield boys, attorney Alec Murdoch can't just write himself checks.

That would be too obvious.

He needs a way to move their funds to himself that looks legit.

In personal injury cases with payouts, lawyers sometimes help their clients set

up what's called a structured settlement.

A fund that will pay out chunks of money over time instead of delivering it all

at once.

And the leading provider of that service in this part of the world is Forge

Consulting. And they have a big office in Columbia, the capital.

Forge Consulting, the real Ford, is a 150 ,000 % valid company.

Alec figured out a way to take advantage of the good name of Forge Consulting by

creating his own.

personal accounts in the name of Forge, which then allowed him to steal people's

money.

To do this, prosecutors say in multiple criminal indictments, Murdoch simply

opened accounts at Bank of America claiming he's doing business as Forge.

The prosecutors say that he created this entity, this bogus Forge, to hide money

and to...

make it look like he was sending the settlement dollars to the place it was

supposed to go.

There's a brilliance in its simplicity.

It's like he spent more time thinking about being a criminal than just being a

lawyer for his clients.

In 2018, the Satterfields lawyer, Murdoch's friend Corey Fleming, receives

a $505 ,000 check from Murdoch's insurer for a settlement that's kept secret

from Gloria's sons.

Fleming did not respond to American Greed's request for comment and has pled

guilty to charges related to the theft from the Satterfields.

But prosecutors allege that he passes most of the settlement money he gets

Murdoch's insurer right back to Murdoch.

He wrote a check for $403 ,500 to Forge, not the

real Forge Consulting, but to Forge.

And that money was sent to a P .O. box in an envelope without a cover letter.

Alex got that money, and then he would endorse the check or put for deposit

and deposit that forged check in a personal bank account. And it never got

clients. That's the crime.

And the boys, what did they get?

Zero dollars. Have you ever heard of a case where the defendant And the

plaintiff's lawyer get together and say, we're going to take all the money.

And none of it is going to go to the clients.

Prosecutors say Murdoch concocts the Forge scheme in 2015.

He allegedly uses it to disguise his thefts from an injured state trooper, a

family friend, and others who have been hurt or killed in tragic circumstances.

In all, prosecutors allege in separate indictments Murdoch steals more than $7

million from more than a dozen clients between 2011 and 2020.

Meanwhile, Eric Bland says Murdoch shows no remorse about the way his alleged

thefts affect his suffering victims.

Just so you know, just the darkness of Alex.

Brian Harriot.

His mother and him lived in a mobile home that was financed by a bank.

After Gloria died, there was no money to pay the mobile home, and the bank

foreclosed on it. And Brian was pushed out on the street.

When my mom died, the trailer wasn't finished.

My mom wasn't finished buying it.

Other than my uncle's an ass, I had nowhere to go. Nothing to drive.

I mean, no job.

Alex was aware of that, and Alex watched Brian Harriot get pushed out on the

street while he's sitting on his money.

That seems of little concern to Murdoch, who keeps living the good life.

For now.

Coming up, tragedy strikes.

And Murdoch has every reason to fear.

He's savvy. He knows that. And he knows he's got a lot to hide.

Want more greed?

Follow us on Instagram, connect on Facebook, and listen to the American

podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

We'll be right back.

For a century, the Murdoch clan has ruled a section of South Carolina's low

country. In recent years, Alec Murdoch has allegedly been using the

respectability that comes with his last name to steal from clients who turn to

him during the darkest chapters of their lives.

But an event occurs in 2019 that will eventually lead to Murdoch's total

unraveling.

On a chilly evening, Murdoch's son Paul and five of his friends take to the

water in his father's boat.

Joe McCullough represents Connor Cook, one of the young men on the boat with

Paul that night.

The plan, I think, was to enjoy an afternoon and evening on the Murdoch

which was not an unusual occurrence.

At the helm is Paul Murdoch, who is just 19.

Patrick Carr represents Anthony Cook, who was also on the boat with his

girlfriend, Mallory Beach.

Paul, because of his family's generational wealth and success, you

access to a lot of toys and things that perhaps other youth in Hampton

County did not have.

According to multiple lawsuits, that night Paul has access not only to the

family boat.

but to his older brother Buster's ID and to his mother's credit card, which he

uses to purchase alcohol.

After attending an oyster roast on an island, the night continues with more

drinking for Paul and his best friend Connor Cook.

So they docked the boat, and then Connor and Paul went to a bar.

And the bartender had said, you know, they had two shots each, Jagerbombs and

lemon drops.

and we're in and out of the bar in a matter of minutes.

After they leave, security camera footage shows them as they meet up with

girlfriend, Morgan Dowdy, Connor's girlfriend, Miley Altman, and another

Anthony Cook and Mallory Beach.

According to depositions back on the boat, things take a dark turn.

I don't think that a group of 19 -year -olds Going out on a boat and drinking

that unusual, unfortunately.

It became ugly, though, when Paul crossed over to this other kind of crazy

drunk, mean drunk that he was known to be at times.

Depositions and statements to police say that on that chilly February night, the

young Murdoch strips down to his boxer shorts, does 360s in the boat.

and gets into a fight with his girlfriend over his erratic driving.

His girlfriend at the time, Morgan, has said in court that he, you know, he got

in her face, he spit on her, he slapped her.

He was very, all the kids said he was very drunk and very obnoxious.

And the hospital records show that his blood alcohol level was three times the

legal limit here.

In no fit state, the ill -fated boat ride continues.

Well, you know, the waterways down there are, it's a complicated place to boat.

You really need to know what you're doing to avoid going aground or striking

something. Just after 2 a .m., disaster strike.

With Mallory Beach missing, police, search and rescue teams, EMS, and

firefighters rush to the scene.

When police arrive, Mallory's boyfriend, Anthony, makes it clear who he believes

is to blame.

He's very distraught and he sees Paul being attended to by other law

enforcement officers.

As angry as he sounds, Cook goes on to tell officers he thinks a Murdoch will

face few consequences.

He

knew

that Paul, because of his family name and family connections,

perhaps would get a different treatment under the law in terms of criminal

prosecution than you or I would.

When Paul and three other boat crash survivors are taken to a hospital,

records say Alec Murdoch shows up with his father, former solicitor Randolph

Murdoch III.

According to a witness statement, Randolph Murdoch tells his grandson Paul

shut the fuck up.

And witnesses at the hospital later tell investigators that Alec Murdoch appears

to be on a clear mission to orchestrate everyone getting on the same page.

He knows the implications of if Mallory Beach is not found and the worst comes

to pass. And he knows the kids were on his boat.

And then you layer on, oh, my gosh, this is going to bring a huge amount of

scrutiny to our family. He's savvy. He knows that.

And he knows he's got a lot to hide.

Coming up, the walls close in on Alec Murdoch.

It had to cross his mind that, man, this case is not going to resolve and people

are going to dig into my finances.

For nearly a decade, Alec Murdoch has allegedly been ripping off clients

unchecked. But in 2019, a tragedy involving his son Paul threatens to

upend the scheme prosecutors say he's been running for years.

A week after the Murdoch boat slams into a bridge, Mallory Beach's body is found

in a marsh a few miles from the crash site.

The coroner's office has scheduled an autopsy to confirm and identify the

of death.

It's not long before the young woman's family files a lawsuit against Alec

Murdoch, claiming he should have known Paul was purchasing alcohol illegally.

With plenty to hide, the revered attorney has a lifetime of legal

letting him know This could spell trouble. It had to cross his mind that,

man, this case is not going to resolve.

These people are out for everything that they should get.

And people are going to dig into my finances.

According to prosecutors.

Inside Murdoch's financial records are a series of transactions revealing a

decade of alleged theft from clients.

But this is not the only pressure he faces.

In April 2019, the South Carolina Attorney General indicts Paul Murdoch on

count of boating under the influence, or BUI, causing death, and two counts of

BUI causing great bodily injury.

People are beginning to ask questions about Murdoch and how his family uses

their power to protect their own.

20 -year -old Paul Murdoch will be in court on May 6th to face three charges,

all connected with the boating crash that killed Mallory Beach back on

24th. But the controversy for many isn't just about the crash itself, but why

Murdoch hasn't been booked into jail.

Walking free despite the felony charges he faces, Paul pleads not guilty.

And the Murdochs hired two of the best defense lawyers in South Carolina to

represent their son.

They don't come cheap.

On top of this expense, Alec Murdoch's insurer, Philadelphia Indemnity, also

filed suit in federal court saying they don't have to cover him for his alleged

liability in the boat crash.

It's around this time that prosecutors allege Murdoch kicks his thefts into

gear, stealing money, they say, from both his clients and the firm that bears

his family name.

But due to the Mallory Beach lawsuit, he can't stave off the inevitable.

There was a key hearing in the boat crash case on June the 10th.

And it was a really come -to -Jesus type hearing.

Ellick was under enormous pressure to release his financials, something that

he'd been avoiding and avoiding for many months.

But the June 10th hearing will not occur.

On the next episode of this American Greed special, with Alec Murdoch's

fraud in danger of being revealed, his hunting estate becomes the site of a

gruesome double murder.

It makes everybody wonder what's next, what's going on here. His life in

tatters, Murdoch admits to a greedy new scheme involving his own bizarre

roadside shooting.

And when I turned my back, they tried to shoot me.

As scrutiny builds, investigators link the Murdochs to new cases.

I believe he was killed somewhere else. And his body was planted there.

And take a closer look at past frauds.

They said that Gloria died of natural causes. And I'm just telling you, a fall

down the stairs is not a natural cause. And attempt to bring Alec Murdoch to

justice.

What say you, Richard Ellick Murdoch? Are you guilty or not guilty of a felony

for ending a stand in a diaper?

Not guilty.