Hampton bank CEO fired as investigators examine Alex Murdaugh’s financial misconduct

A Hampton bank CEO, under scrutiny and named in a subpoena by the disciplinary arm of the state Supreme Court investigating Alex Murdaugh’s financial misconduct, was fired on Friday.

Palmetto State Bank’s board of directors fired its CEO, Russell Laffitte, as allegations came to light that the executive was involved in cases in which Murdaugh, a suspended lawyer, is accused of financial impropriety.

“Palmetto State Bank has this afternoon permanently severed the employment of Russell Laffitte, effective immediately. The bank and its board of directors remain fully committed to their customers, employees, shareholders, and the communities Palmetto State Bank serves,” said board president Jan Malinowski, in a Friday statement.

The storied financial institution was founded in 1907, three years before Alex Murdaugh’s great-grandfather founded PMPED, Murdaugh’s former law firm.

News of the firing came after The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette asked the bank about Laffitte’s employment status following legal documents that mentioned him in an investigation connected to Murdaugh.

The newspapers had obtained a copy of a subpoena sent by the S.C. Supreme Court’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel that named Laffitte and another bank official, Chad Westendorf.

The agency investigates alleged lawyer misconduct and has no advisory power over Laffitte and Westerdorf, two bankers. It sent the subpoena to the Hampton County Probate Court in November, seeking records from cases that involved Laffitte, Westendorf and Murdaugh.

The subpoena, sent prior to two rounds of indictments that alleged Murdaugh defrauded dozens of clients out of millions, requested previously unreported cases in which Murdaugh allegedly stole from victims.

The subpoena indicated that the two men, especially Laffitte, could be a new focus of law enforcement.

Among the cases requested in the subpoena was one in which Laffitte and Murdaugh obtained a settlement for a deaf Hampton man named Hakeem Pinckney who became quadriplegic after a car wreck.

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel requested to see cases involving members of Pinckney’s family, who were also in the wreck and represented by Murdaugh and Laffitte.

The family, according to their lawyer, did not receive any of the settlement money.

Additionally, the disciplinary body asked for any cases and records in which Westendorf served as the personal representative of an estate.

A state grand jury indicted Murdaugh last month for financial crimes related to two other cases sought in the subpoena — the estates of Sandra Taylor and Blondell Gary. Murdaugh is accused of stealing more than $260,000 in death settlement money from both estates.

Attorney Justin Bamberg, reached by phone Friday, said he was representing Pinckney’s estate, two other victims referred to in the subpoena, and their mother. He is in total representing eight alleged financial victims of Alex Murdaugh, he said.

Bamberg said he believes Murdaugh will be indicted for stealing from the Pinckney family.

“He should,” he said. “He stole their money.”

Neither Laffitte nor Westendorf has been charged with crimes.

2009 car wreck settlement

Laffitte, as the former bank CEO, served as conservator and personal representative for Hakeem Pinckney, the deaf man who became disabled after a car wreck in August 2009, said Bamberg, who is also a state representative.

As an attorney, Murdaugh represented Pinckney and two other passengers: Pinckney’s cousin Natasha Thomas and Pinckney’s sister Shaquarah Pinckney. They sued the tire company because their tire burst and caused the wreck. Pinckney’s mother, Pamela Pinckney, was driving the car when it crashed, Bamberg said.

Murdaugh convinced Pamela Pinckney that she needed Laffitte to watch over her son’s finances, Bamberg said.

“If the president of the bank is in charge of my money, I should be able to trust my money was accounted for,” he said.

It wasn’t, he said.

Two checks were made out in settlement funds meant for Hakeem Pinckney: a Dec. 20, 2011, check for $309,581.45, and a Jan. 3, 2012, check for $60,000, according to copies of the checks obtained by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.

The checks originated from Murdaugh’s law firm account in Palmetto State Bank. They were made out to Palmetto State Bank and cashed there, Bamberg said.

Pinckney’s family, he said, did not know what happened to the money.

“Not only did they breach their fiduciary duty they owed to everybody, not only did they fail at doing their job,” Bamberg said. “It looked like they were involved in screwing these people.”

Hakeem Pinckney died two months before the checks were written.

Laffitte was “the only person authorized to make any decision with that money. So he needs to tell us where it went,” said Bamberg. “It was his job to make sure it went where it was supposed to go.”

Laffitte also served as conservator for Natasha Thomas and Shaquarah Pinckney, who was a minor at the time of the crash.

According to Bamberg, two checks totaling at least $375,000 meant for Thomas were disbursed from the Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth, Detrick, P.A. (PMPED) account at Palmetto State Bank. That money is unaccounted for, he said.

Additionally, Bamberg accused Murdaugh of directing Pamela Pinckney to hire now-suspended Beaufort lawyer Cory Fleming.

Fleming was named in a recent lawsuit brought by the estate of Murdaugh’s former housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. She died after a fall at the Murdaugh family home in 2018, and Murdaugh told her two sons he’d arrange for them to have legal representation from Fleming.

Fleming was Murdaugh’s college roommate and friend.

The men participated in a scheme to siphon millions meant for the Satterfield sons, the lawsuit alleged. Later, Fleming denied knowledge of the alleged scheme.

“What happened to [the Pinckney family] is Satterfield before Satterfield,” Bamberg said.

He pointed to a 2017 check showing $89,133.44 disbursed from Fleming’s law firm, Moss, Kuhn, and Fleming, made out to Murdaugh’s law firm — money that Pamela Pinckney never saw, Bamberg said.

The check, Bamberg said, later ended up in a fraudulently named Bank of America account that Murdaugh is alleged to have used to steal money from dozens of other clients.

Records subpoenaed

The records sought in the November subpoena raise serious questions for Laffitte and Westendorf, including whether they were involved in Murdaugh’s alleged schemes to steal from his clients.

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel had nine requests:

▪ Records from matters where Laffitte served as a conservator for Natasha Thomas;

▪ Records from cases where Laffitte served as a conservator for Shaquarah Pinckney;

▪ All records from any case where Laffitte served as the personal representative of an estate;

▪ All records from any case where Chad Westendorf served as a conservator or personal representative of an estate;

▪ Proceedings from the estate of Hakeem Pinckney;

▪ Proceedings from the estate of Robert Williams;

▪ Proceedings from the estate of Blondell Gary. Murdaugh was indicted in December, accused of taking $112,500 in death settlement money from Gary’s estate in 2019.

▪ Proceedings from the estate of Sandra Taylor. Murdaugh was indicted in December, accused of taking $152,866 in settlement money from Taylor’s estate in 2020. Taylor, 35, died after the car she was in crashed in Colleton County, according to court records.

▪ All communications (including text messages and emails) between Hampton County Probate Court employees and anyone involved in the above cases.

Who are Laffitte and Westendorf?

Laffitte had worked for Palmetto State Bank since 1997, according to his Linkedin profile.

Until recently, he was vice chairman of Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), a national advocacy organization that represents community banks.

A spokesperson for that organization, reached by phone Friday, said he was no longer vice chair.

Laffitte’s biography, which was removed from the ICBA website, described him as the vice chairman of the Hampton County Disabilities and Special Needs board.

Westendorf, who is still an employee at Palmetto State Bank, was thrust into the national spotlight last fall when he was sued for his alleged role in Murdaugh’s scheme to steal millions in death settlement money from the sons of Murdaugh’s deceased former housekeeper.

Westendorf served as the personal representative of Satterfield’s estate and was supposed to make sure that the settlement money went to the two boys, the lawsuit said. However, the sons got nothing.

Westendorf was removed from the lawsuit on Oct. 12. He and Palmetto State Bank later reached a confidential settlement with Satterfield’s sons.