WALTERBORO, S.C. — Thursday we heard testimony about Alex Murdaugh's alleged financial crimes, but it was not in front of a jury. This is because it's testimony Judge Clifton Newman has been listening to both Thursday and Friday to ultimately decide whether or not it will be allowed in this murder trial.
This financial related testimony was for Judge Newman's ears, without the jury present.
Jeannie Seckinger, the chief financial officer at Alex's law firm started by testifying Alex asked her in late May of 2021 about structuring fees and how that worked.
She said shortly after that she became concerned hearing that Alex wanted to put money under Maggie's name as a result of the boat case lawsuit.
Seckinger then testified that when someone paid a settlement, attorney fees would go into the PMPED income account. But she explains when she started doing some digging after not seeing documentation of a fee check for the firm regarding a case Alex and Chris Wilson worked on together, she found more and more possible signs of misappropriation.
"As I started printing the cancelled checks off, I could see Bank of America on the back and Alex Murdaugh's signature and every one that came out just put it a little more in the grave for me. Michael Gunn confirmed that they had not banked at Bank of America in a number of years," Seckinger said.
Seckinger testified the checks coming from several client trust accounts were made out to an account called Forge.
That brings witness Michael Gunn into the picture, and to the stand. Gunn testified he's a business associate of Alex's and works for Forge Consulting LLC.
"I found out on the Tuesday after labor day. And what did you find out? I spoke with Lee Cope and he told me that Alex had been using an account called Forge to process the checks. Is that account that he had been using, is that a legitimate Forge Consulting account? Absolutely not," Gunn said.
The last witness who testified about missing money was Chris Wilson, a law school roommate, long time friend and business associate of Alex Murdaugh's.
Wilson testified he usually handled money on cases he worked with Alex on through his trust account. But for a case they both tried in January of 2021, known as the Mack truck case, Alex asked Wilson to do something different, and instead of issuing the checks to Alex's law firm, Alex asked Wilson to issue the checks directly to him so Alex could put them into an annuity by the name Forge.
Wilson testified that Alex then told him the annuity wouldn't work, so Alex would send the money back to Wilson for him to send to Alex's law firm.
This $792,000 from the case is money Wilson testified he never received back in full, money Wilson eventually confronted Alex in person about in September of 2021, and money he came to learn Alex stole.
"I was so mad. I had loved the guy for so long and I probably still loved him a little bit, but I was so mad. And I don't remember how it ended, I left," Wilson said.
Judge Newman decided this afternoon that some of the financial testimony will be allowed in this trial, but as for the specifics, we're still waiting to hear from Judge Newman. That means jurors will hear bits and pieces of this testimony in the coming days.