Judge upholds ex-SC banker, Murdaugh accomplice Russell Laffitte’s fraud conviction
A federal judge has upheld former South Carolina banker Russell Laffitte’s November 2022 conviction on six counts of bank-related fraud.
The rejection of Laffitte’s appeal by trial Judge Richard Gergel Monday clears the way for Laffitte’s sentencing at a later date. Laffitte, a former friend of convicted double-murderer Alex Murdaugh who helped the ex-attorney misappropriate large amounts of money, is subject to up to 30 years in prison. As a first-time offender he would likely get much less.
In rejecting Laffitte’s appeal, Gergel wrote there was sufficient evidence to uphold each of the six counts of fraud against Laffitte. The ex-banker had “acted with reckless disregard for Palmetto State Bank’s interest,” made various false representations to hide fraud, the judge wrote.
Laffitte’s attorneys also lost their bid in contending that Gergel acted wrongly when he made a last-minute decision to replace two sitting members of the jury with two alternate jurors after the panel had deliberated some nine hours without coming to a decision. At that point, at about 8 p.m. on Nov. 22, 2022, a flurry of notes were sent to the judge, indicating some jurors were having various issues, including one juror who needed to be excused to go home and take medicine.
In his ruling, Gergel acknowledged the substitution of two alternate jurors was unusual but “fair and reasonable under the circumstances.” Following the verdict, Laffitte hired a new defense team that criticized his first defense team for purportedly not handling the jury substitution matter better.
Gergel wrote, “the claims of Defense Team No. 2 that Defendant’s trial counsel was ineffective in addressing the replacement of jurors and that Defendant was prejudiced by these alleged errors are wholly without merit.”
Prosecutors had no comment Monday about Gergel’s decision.
Mark Moore, a Columbia attorney on “Defense Team No. 2,” who represents Laffitte, said he was disappointed with the ruling.
“While we respectfully disagree with the court’s ultimate decision, we will now proceed to the next phase of this litigation and continue our efforts to protect Mr. Laffitte’s constitutional rights..”
‘None of this would have happened without’ Murdaugh
Laffitte’s trial in November 2022played out over nine days.
The jury heard from 15 prosecution witnesses and nine defense witnesses, who included members of Murdaugh’s former law firm and Laffitte’s former bank, Palmetto State Bank.
Murdaugh was fired from his law firm in September 2021; Laffitte was fired from his bank in January, 2022.
An indictment in the case charged that over a period roughly from 2011 to 2021, Laffitte helped Murdaugh misuse and misappropriate several million dollars, mostly in money from legal settlements that Murdaugh steered to Palmetto State Bank. Laffitte would then place the money in conservatorships that he and Murdaugh could dip into.
During the trial, Laffitte took the stand, denied that he had stolen or misused any money and told the jury he had been misled by Murdaugh, whom he trusted as a longtime friend and bank customer.
Testimony at the trial showed how some officials at the bank and the firm worked at times to cover up the self-dealing, money-making behavior by Murdaugh and Laffitte.
The bank and the law firm, now called the Parker Law Group, are the two most prominent and powerful institutions in Hampton County, witnesses testified.
“None of this would have happened without Alex Murdaugh, but none of it could have happened without the defendant (Laffitte),” lead federal prosecutor Emily Limehouse told the jury in her 70-minute closing argument.
Murdaugh was convicted late last week of murdering his wife and son at the 1,770-acre family estate, called Moselle, on June 7, 2021, as investigations into his financial dealings were heating up. He was sentenced to life in prison on both counts.
