A grand jury returned a 22-count indictment against the disgraced lawyer.
A grand jury has indicted convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced South Carolina attorney, on federal fraud charges, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Murdaugh, 54, is currently serving life in prison after being convicted in March of murdering his wife and their youngest son.
The federal grand jury returned a 22-count indictment against Murdaugh for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud; bank fraud; wire fraud; and money laundering, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Carolina said.
The indictment alleges that Murdaugh "engaged in three different schemes to obtain money and property from his personal injury clients" between 2005 and 2021 while working as a personal injury attorney at his Hampton law firm.
It further alleges that Murdaugh conspired with another personal injury attorney to defraud the estate of his former housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who died after a fall at Murdaugh's home in February 2018, and funnel nearly $3.5 million into a fake bank account and "used the funds for his own personal enrichment," prosecutors said.
Alex Murdaugh stands next to the witness booth during a break in his murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in South Carolina, Feb. 23, 2023.
Tribune News Service via Getty Images, FILE
Murdaugh resigned from his firm, Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth, & Detrick, in September 2021. The firm has also sued him for allegedly funneling stolen money from clients and the law firm into a fake bank account for years.
Murdaugh's attorneys said in a statement that he is cooperating with federal prosecutors.
"We anticipate that the charges brought today will be quickly resolved without a trial," his attorneys, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, said in a statement to ABC News.
Murdaugh also faces about 100 other state charges for allegations ranging from money laundering to staging his own death so his surviving son could cash in on his $10 million life insurance policy to misappropriating settlement funds in the death of his housekeeper.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News' Eva Pilgrim contributed to this report.
