Alex Murdaugh found guilty of financial crimes: what is his sentence?

Alex Murdaugh’s six-week murder ended in May of last year, and today, further jail time for the former lawyer was made public. A court found that he committed major financial crimes, tacking on an additional forty years of prison to the double life sentence he received last year.

The judge in the case regarding Murdaugh’s financial crimes, U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel, has ruled that he can serve his state and federal sentences concurrently. However, no grace has been given for the monies he has been mandated by the court to pay to his victims. He will be required to pay $8 million in restitution after defrauding his clients for years.

Background on the murder case that landed Murdaugh with two life sentences

The jury, composed of twelve people, took less than three hours to find the South Carolina lawyer guilty of two counts of murder following the deaths of his wife and son. “The evidence of guilt is overwhelming,” said South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman, who refused the defense’s request for a mistrial. 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh and 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh were shot dead at close range on the family’s estate on 7 June 2021. Incredibly, their murders came as a result of father Alex’s attempt to draw attention away from years of financial corruption, which had seen the former personal injury attorney steal money from both partners and clients as he battled a painkiller addiction and a desire to live ‘the good life’.

During the trial, Murdaugh had pleaded not guilty to the murder charges and for almost two years had said that he had been at home napping during the time of the murders. He claimed that his son’s death could have been connected to a fatal boating accident Paul had been involved in two years earlier. Murdaugh did, however, admit his financial misconduct.

Alex Murdaugh’s family had been high-profile prosecutors in South Caroline up until 2006, with the complexities of the case attracting the attention of the media, as well Netflix and HBO, who both made documentaries about it (Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal and Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty respectively).