This is large:
A man accused of helping suspended lawyer Alex Murdaugh set up a botched suicide attempt was given $155,970 from Murdaugh in 17 cashier’s checks from October 2020 through May 2021, according to copies of those checks and other bank documents.
The $155,970 in cashier’s checks went to Curtis “Eddie” Smith, of Walterboro, and were cashed at various banks around Hampton and Beaufort counties, according to notations on checks viewed by The State and Island Packet newspapers. All but one of the cashier’s checks were endorsed with the signature, “Curtis E. Smith.”
Smith, 61, is the man arrested in September on charges of helping Murdaugh stage a suicide so Murdaugh’s son, Buster, could collect $10 million on a life insurance company. The alleged plot failed, and Murdaugh — in addition to Smith — now faces criminal charges in that Sept. 4 incident.
The cashier’s checks are significant because they appear to show a financial relationship between the two men that began months before the botched suicide attempt. The checks alone do not explain why Murdaugh gave them to Smith nor what Smith did with the money.
The cashier’s checks
represent only eight months’ worth of payments from one account. Murdaugh had more than one checking account, according to sources familiar with his financial situation.
A cashier’s check is a check bought from a bank by one person made out to another person in an amount to be redeemed to cash. It is different from a personal check in that the money in a cashier’s check is guaranteed by the bank.
previous interviews with the media, Smith’s lawyers denied he got any money from Murdaugh but acknowledged Smith was a longstanding friend and associate of Murdaugh’s.
In
an Oct. 14 television interview with NBC’s Craig Melvin, Jonny McCoy, a Smith attorney, denied that Smith ever received any significant money from Murdaugh.
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A $9,085 Bank of America cashier’s check from Alex Murdaugh to Curtis Smith and endorsed by Smith’s signature, dated as Oct. 22, 2020. This check is one of 17 obtained by the State and Island Packet newspapers totaling to $155,970 between October 2020 to May 2021 and is the first indication of a financial relationship between the two men that began months before the alleged staged murder attempt. NOTE: The yellow arrows were added to the check by reporters and were not part of the original copies. JOHN MONK
“Nobody has questioned us or asked us about any checks from Mr. Murdaugh,” Bouchette said. “This is the first we’re hearing about it. Given the background of this case, I really find any check or other financial instrument or legal instrument that comes from Mr. Murdaugh to be highly suspect.”
A reporter emailed questions to Smith’s lawyers Wednesday morning asking why Smith received these checks and what he did with the money. On a call Wednesday evening, the lawyers said they had not yet spoken with Smith about the checks.
Bouchette said law enforcement has not questioned them about the referenced checks.
Dick Harpootlian, one of Murdaugh’s lawyers, declined comment Thursday on any cashier’s checks that Murdaugh may have given Smith.
FRAUDULENT “FORGE” ACCOUNT CHECKS
The last cashier’s check written by Murdaugh to Smith, for $22,109, was the largest of all 17 checks in the October 2020-May 2021 time period that The State and Island Packet viewed. That check was purchased on May 28, just 10 days before Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, and their son Paul were found shot to death on the grounds of the Murdaugh family home.
The cashier’s checks were:
▪ Four checks totaling $35,686 in October 2020.
▪ One check of $9,049 in November 2020.
▪ Four checks totaling $29,784 in December 2020.
▪ Four checks totaling $39,236 in January of this year.
▪ Three checks totaling $20,106 in February of this year.
▪ One check of $22,109 in May of this year.
All but two of the checks were written in amounts of $8,000 and $9,000. Checks over $10,000 can attract scrutiny by bank officials and law enforcement.
It’s not known what the money was used for. In recent months, Murdaugh’s lawyers have said their client’s financial actions have been largely to support a serious opioid addiction Murdaugh has faced for 20 years.
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The $160,000-plus in cashier’s checks to Smith were all bought with checks written on Murdaugh’s Bank of America “Forge” account — an account that has been described in legal actions against Murdaugh as being
a Bank of America checking account.
https://amp.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article255735281.html
