Convicted Murderer Alex Murdaugh Reaches Plea Deal in Financial Crimes Case, Avoids Trial

Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh avoided what may have turned into another sensational trial by pleading guilty to more than 100 financial-related charges, including money laundering and breach of trust.

As part of the plea deal he reached, RadarOnline.com can confirm that Murdaugh agreed to pay back the $9 million he admitted to stealing from clients at his law firm to "each and every identifiable victim."

"I am happy to be pleading guilty to these charges for a number of reasons," Murdaugh, 55, said while clad in his orange jumpsuit and shackled.

Chief prosecutor Creighton Waters recommended a 27-year prison sentence, but the judge will make a final determination during a November 28 sentencing hearing. His trial was previously set to kick off a day before, on November 27.

Murdaugh appeared in Beaufort County Court before Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman and accepted fault for a number of crimes including stealing millions from his late housekeeper's estate and insurance carriers, siphoning settlement money from the 2018 death of his longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield.

Federal prosecutors accused him of engaging in a "pattern of criminal activity" going back more than a decade.

Murdaugh told Judge Newman that he "disagreed with some of the narrative" after being painted as money-hungry by Waters, however "not the central facts."

The disgraced legal scion is currently serving life in prison for murdering his wife and son in June 2021.

Prosecutors speculated he killed Maggie and Paul because his massive theft was about to be discovered and he thought their tragic deaths would garner sympathy.

"He feels very comfortable doing prison time for crimes he committed," Jim Griffin, one of Murdaugh's lawyers, shared in a statement. "He does not feel comfortable doing prison time for crimes he did not do — the murders of his wife and son."

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Following his conviction, RadarOnline.com exclusively learned that Murdaugh would begin his sentence in a single cell at the Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia.

"Alex's financial crimes are nothing more than a Ponzi scheme, and all Ponzi schemes work in the same way — I have to continue to steal from new people to replace the money I've stolen from old people," an attorney representing victims of his financial crimes said. "Sooner or later it's like musical chairs: the music stops and someone is without a chair. And that's exactly what happened with Alex. The music stopped, he ran out of places to get money and all of his financial crimes were exposed."