Nearly half of Alex Murdaugh’s $1.8M assets going to victims of son Paul’s deadly boat crash
Nearly half of convicted killer Alex Murdaugh’s remaining assets will go to the victims of his slain son’s deadly 2019 boat crash, a court order issued Monday decreed.
The family of 19-year-old Mallory Beach, who died when Paul Murdaugh, then also 19, drove his boat into a bridge while supposedly intoxicated, will receive a 29% cut of the assets, court-appointed special referee Walt Tollinson ruled, according to the court document seen by The Post.
An additional 16% of Alex Murdaugh’s last assets will go to the others who survived the accident — including Morgan Doughty, Paul’s then-girlfriend.
The assets that court-appointed lawyers drummed up by selling Alex Murdaugh’s land and farm equipment and liquidating his 401(k) totaled just under $1.8 million, the Post and Courier reported.
Some of that amount will also be paid out to Tollinson for his services, the outlet explained.
Murdaugh, 55, was convicted of the June 2021 shooting deaths of his wife, Maggie, and Paul last year.
The once-powerful attorney was recently denied a new trial.
The Beach family’s initial March 2019 lawsuit — which sought to hold Paul Murdaugh and other members of the family accountable for the boating accident — ultimately set in motion a chain of events that revealed Alex Murdaugh’s years-long corporate fraud.
During Murdaugh’s trial last winter, prosecutors suggested that the ongoing unraveling of his once-charmed life — including the theft and supposed drug use — was what pushed Murdaugh to slaughter his wife and younger son.
A court order seized the Hampton County legal scion’s finances in November 2021, when the Beach family’s attorney argued that he could no longer be trusted with his money, the Post and Courier explained.
The second-largest share of the assets, 24%, will go to Arthur Badger, one of the clients from whom Murdaugh stole, Tollinson’s decision revealed.
Murdaugh’s former law firm will get 14% to compensate for damages it claimed after repaying some former clients the money Murdaugh took from them, the Post and Courier noted.
Some of the firm’s cut will also be passed through to some of the other financial victims, it added.
The law firm’s new eponym, Johnny Parkey, will receive a 15 percent cut.
Parker previously claimed he lent Murdaugh $477,000 in 2021, but was never repaid.
The claims against Murdaugh’s assets total over $100 million.
In his final order, Tollinson said he was “mindful of the amount and degree of hurt and devastation” caused by Murdaugh when weighing the claims from the boat crash victims as well as those who were financially and legally taken advantage of.
“In a perfect world, there would be unlimited funds,” he wrote.
The Beaches welcomed the development in the case.
“The family is pleased to be one step closer to not being connected to Alex Murdaugh,” the Beaches’ attorney, Mark Tinsley, told The Post Tuesday morning.
“It’s unfortunate that all of Alex’s stolen money has not been recovered and paid back to all the people he hurt. The Beach family has never viewed this endeavor as anything other than a fight for accountability and change. We hope that in the future, someone will take stock in what has happened here and do the right thing to not enable and even prevent underaged drinking,” he concluded.
In addition to his murder conviction, Murdaugh has pleaded guilty to a slew of state and federal financial crimes, the Post and Courier said.
He is looking at a 27-year term in state prison for those offenses, in addition to his two life sentences for murder and an undetermined federal sentence.
Murdaugh is also still named in at least eight lawsuits related to the 2019 boat crash and his financial misdeeds.
