Richard “Alex” Murdaugh, a convicted murderer and alleged serial fraudster, has admitted to bilking an insurance company out of millions of dollars after the death of his family’s maid and lying about dogs causing her to slip and fall before she died.
The confessions were made in a Monday filing in a case filed by Nautilus Insurance Company against Murdaugh and others, claiming fraud and conspiracy to conduct fraud. Murdaugh received a $5 million umbrella coverage from the Scottsdale, Arizona-based insurance company, which paid out claims after Gloria Satterfield’s death in 2018.
Murdaugh’s attorneys claim in the petition that when he discovered Satterfield had fallen down stairs at his Moselle home in South Carolina, he “rushed to the scene, arriving before EMS,” and then made up a narrative about what caused the incident, which led to her death weeks later.
Initially, Murdaugh informed insurance adjusters that Satterfield stumbled over his dogs.
“No dogs were involved in the fall of Gloria Satterfield on February 2, 2018,” according to the petition. “After Ms. Satterfield’s death, Defendant invented Ms. Satterfield’s purported statement that dogs caused her fall in order to force his insurers to make a settlement payment…”
After her death, he met her heirs, staged a bogus insurance claim, and then forced Nautilus to settle so he could take the money. Murdaugh had the insurance reimbursement placed into a bogus account, although he denied any involvement in the criminal activity in a court declaration.
Murdaugh, a former attorney who was convicted in March of murdering his wife and children, was described in the petition as “reprehensible in that he exploited vulnerable people who trusted him.”
Who is responsible for reimbursing stolen insurance funds?
Who should be held accountable for Nautilus’s stolen funds? Murdaugh’s court petition tries to blame his victims, despite the fact that he acknowledges stealing the money.
According to the complaint, Nautilus “failed to join necessary parties” under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, notably Satterfield’s sons, Brian Harriott and Tony Satterfield, the Satterfield Estate’s personal agent, and their legal firm.
Murdaugh and his attorneys claim to have recovered the money that was allegedly taken from Nautilus.
They gained more than $7.5 million in settlements when the Satterfield case was disclosed and Murdaugh faced criminal charges, and Murdaugh personally signed a $4.3 million confession of judgment in Satterfield’s favor.
If the Satterfields are not included in the complaint, the court will be unable to provide “complete relief,” and Murdaugh would face a “substantial risk of incurring double, multiple, or otherwise inconsistent obligations,” according to the petition.
However, one of the Satterfield family’s attorneys, Eric Bland, turned to social media to refute the idea that the victims should be required to pay back any losses.
“This is nothing but noise,” Bland tweeted on May 2. “Just gutless people trying to continue to victimize Gloria’s siblings and children.”
Ronnie Richter, another Satterfield lawyer, termed the Murdaugh petition “bizarre,” and stated the settlement cash originated from other parties involved.
“Neither myself, my law firm, nor my clients have ever possessed even a single dollar of the stolen Nautilus money,” he said.