Murdaugh friend Fleming gets nearly 4-year sentence in theft of insurance proceeds

Despite a torrent of letters from friends and family saying what a fine father, husband and man ex-lawyer Cory Fleming is, U.S. Judge Richard Gergel on Tuesday sentenced him to nearly four years in federal prison for his role in a $4.3 million theft of insurance proceeds resulting from the 2018 slip-and-fall death of Alex Murdaugh’s family housekeeper.

Fleming was sentenced to 46 months in prison and ordered to pay $102,000 in restitution and a $20,000 fine. Fleming was immediately taken into custody by U.S. marshals.

Gergel called Fleming’s actions “egregious,” and said the sentence was intended to send a message to the public.

Fleming, 54, of Beaufort, had pleaded guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of five years. Guidelines in his case said he should serve at least 46 months — nearly four years — in prison.

The $4.3 million of liability insurance was supposed to go to the two sons of longtime Murdaugh housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, but Murdaugh — helped by Fleming — hatched a scheme whereby nearly all of that money was diverted to him and Fleming. Murdaugh wound up with most of it.

Fleming and his former law firm received $676,255.59 from the theft, with the rest of the $4.3 million going to Murdaugh, according to evidence in the case. That money has since been “disgorged” and given to the Satterfield sons, Tony Satterfield and Brian Harriott.

Tuesday’s sentence closed another chapter in the sordid, shocking saga of convicted murderer Murdaugh, a once-prominent lawyer whose alleged white collar thefts of millions of dollars from law partners, clients, friends and others attracted national publicity as they were slowly exposed by law enforcement, lawyers and journalists over the last two years.

Fleming’s sentence also marked yet another South Carolina lawyer being sent to prison after getting caught in a high profile white collar crime. The list includes Richard Breibart of Lexington, who stole from clients; former 5th Circuit Solicitor Dan Johnson, who stole from public funds; and former Rep. Jim Harrison, R-Richland, who accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments while in the Legislature. .

The list also includes Murdaugh, the fourth-generation scion of a Lowcountry legal dynasty who stands accused by state and federal officials of stealing millions. Although Murdaugh admitted, during his sworn testimony in a trial earlier this year, to stealing millions, he has yet to stand trial or formally plead guilty to any of the white collar charges against him. Murdaugh was convicted in March of murdering his wife, Maggie, and son Paul; he is now serving two consecutive life sentences in state prison.

Gloria Satterfield died of injuries received during a fall, reportedly caused by Murdaugh’s dogs, on the front steps of the Murdaugh family house, a two-story abode on the 1,770-acre family estate north of the town Hampton in southeastern South Carolina.

Fleming, who practiced law in Beaufort, was one of Murdaugh’s closest friends. The two met in the early 1990s at the University of South Carolina School of Law in Columbia and stayed friends after their 1994 graduation. Fleming gave up his law license in June, sparing him the indignity of being disbarred.

The embezzlement of $4.3 million of Satterfield’s estate was first revealed in early fall 2021 in a lawsuit brought by attorneys Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter, who represented Satterfield’s sons. The lawsuit alleged Murdaugh, Fleming and others had schemed to steal insurance proceeds from her death.

Fleming had no knowledge of Murdaugh’s numerous other criminal schemes to defraud others, prosecutors have said.

Attorney Debbie Barbier, who represents Fleming, portrayed him in her sentencing memo as being fooled by Murdaugh. “Like many people, Mr. Fleming was under the impression that Mr. Murdaugh was a successful attorney from a wealthy and influential family who was happily married and a loving father.”

Fleming also faces charges in the Satterfield case from the state grand jury. In March 2022, Fleming was indicted on 30 counts including charges for money laundering, computer crime and breach of trust with fraudulent intent. In April of this year, he was also charged with various frauds stemming from a case involving former Murdaugh client Hakeem Pinckney.

Fleming is scheduled to go on trial Sept. 11 in Beaufort on the state charges.

Earlier in August, another longtime Murdaugh friend — former Palmetto State Bank CEO Russell Laffitte — was sentenced by Gergel to seven years in federal prison for Laffitte’s role in helping Murdaugh steal millions from Murdaugh’s former clients by manipulating their money in accounts over which Laffitte exercised stewardship.

A jury in Charleston had convicted Laffitte last November of six counts of bank and wire fraud after a trial that ran three weeks. Laffitte has filed notice he will appeal the verdict and the sentence. Like Murdaugh, Laffitte was the son of a prominent, well-to-do Lowcountry family.

Of all the more than 50 letters written to Gyergel on Fleming’s behalf, and filed on the public docket, one of the most poignant was a three-page letter from Fleming’s wife, Eve.

“I ask that you please extend mercy and grace to my husband your honor,” wrote Eve Fleming, a Beaufort lawyer who works as a public defender.

“I have told Cory, and have repeated to others, that I will not define him by his worst moments. I can dislike and disapprove of some things he’s done, but I can still respect him for everything else. And there are so many good things.”

This story will be updated.