True Sunlight: True Sunlight #1 - Another Twist? Alex Murdaugh and Cory Fleming Federally Indicted

I don't know how many more twists and turns Ellick Murdock can throw at us, but when

Ellick Murdock and Cory Fleming were federally indicted this week, we were reminded of just

how far we have come in the past 100 weeks, and yet, just how far we still have to go

to get answers to the biggest questions in this case.

My name is Manny Matney, and this is True Sunlight, a podcast exposing crime and corruption

previously known as the Murdock Murders podcast.

True Sunlight is written with journalist Liz Farrell and produced by David Moses.

So, 100 weeks ago, we created the Murdock Murders podcast with a simple mission, to

get the story straight, to expose the truth wherever it leads, and to give voice to the

voiceless.

We did this at a time when the mission was so crucial.

Ellick Murdock had an entire PR machine behind him, and the narrative surrounding

the double homicide was spinning so far out of control, blaming all of the wrong people

and hurting the real victims.

MMP was created because we wanted people to understand the complexity of this story.

We wanted them to understand the power that the Murdock family held at the time in the

widespread corruption that exists right here in our home state of South Carolina.

We didn't know if our little podcast could go up against the system and big media, but

we knew that we had to try because it was the right thing to do.

Quickly, we found out that there is a lot more crime and corruption connected to this

case than we could have ever possibly imagined.

And we learned the only way to fight it was with sunlight.

And as our audience grew from mostly local to all over the country and the world, we

have noticed that the Ellick Murdock story isn't entirely unique.

There are cases where crime meets corruption and the real victims are desperate for true

sunlight all over the world.

True sunlight is the antithesis of true crime.

True sunlight values accuracy over access journalism.

True sunlight is shed with empathy, not exploitation.

True sunlight was created as a matter of public service, not just entertainment.

We are expanding at Luna Shark Media and will soon unveil a fleet of new member benefits,

new contributors, new articles, a new case file delivery system, and more.

And we want to again thank all of those listeners for following and supporting MMP, COJ, and

this new show, True Sunlight.

You are the reason we continue this mission, and the reason so many have real hope that

we can change these systems near and far.

While the name of the podcast has changed, our mission, our values, and our team have

not, we are simply expanding our horizons while continuing to shine a much needed bright

light on Ellick Murdock and his web misdeeds.

And speaking of old Ellick Murdock, big news on that front this week.

Ellick was finally charged federally with a 22 count indictment and his BFF Corey Fleming

was also charged, but he plans to plead guilty to his one federal charge.

That said, we have a lot to unpack on that front.

Told ya, we weren't changing that much.

So hot Corey's summer is upon us once again, you guys.

The man did things right, apparently.

He has just entered the Holy Land for white-collar criminals, a place where Ellick Murdock and

Russell Feed wish they could be.

Corey Fleming has a federal plea deal on the table for a single charge, one charge,

which, according to a federal sentencing calculator, could get him as little as 12 to 18 months

in prison.

Somewhere out there, Corey is relaxing in a cold plunge bath and toasting himself with

a champagne flute of athletic greens as we speak.

We always knew Corey would emerge from all of this, looking better than those two buffoons.

Not that that's a hard thing to do, but it's still a little annoying.

So, okay.

You know how Dick Harpoolian and Jim Griffin have allegedly been playing legal chess this

entire time, which LOL to that.

Really, they're more like those giant word search puzzles your Nana likes to buy in

the checkout aisles.

I mean, good for Nana and all, but we can see the hidden words from across the room.

The strategy is there is no strategy, Dick and Jim.

Anyway, this whole time Corey Fleming and his attorney, who is also his and Ellick's

former classmate in law school, Debbie Barbier, have been playing Boston Marathon.

They trained.

They hydrated.

They had a big spaghetti dinner.

They paced themselves.

And now they're ready to take on Heartbreak Hill while barely breaking a sweat.

Or so it seems from where we're sitting.

Maybe this outcome is a testament to the nature of the accusations that have been made against

Corey when compared to those that have been made against Ellick and Russell.

But we're not about to overlook the fact that Debbie is different from most of the

other lawyers in this case so far.

As we've said before, she is not a foot stomping toddler in need of a hundred diaper

changes.

Also, she's a woman attorney in South Carolina.

She has no choice but to be impeccable and quietly strategic.

She can't afford to be bombastic and outrageous and waste the court's time by waving assault

rifles at the prosecution and communicating with the judge through sputtering red-faced

tantrums.

Nonetheless, she was able to pull this thing off.

Even if, as some sources have speculated, she got help from attorney Mark Moore, Russell's

pinch-hitter of an attorney who entered the game in extra innings.

The guy who had his diaper changed by Judge Newman at the April scheduling hearing while

Representative Todd Rutherford, Russell's other pinch-hitter of an attorney, name dropped

himself and demanded more time to read Russell's file.

Rutherford, whom Russell seemed to have hired moments after it came out that he had helped

orchestrate the secret early release of a convicted murderer and gang leader.

Okay, before we talk about Corey's federal indictment, let's talk about what kind of

best friend he was to Ellick.

First, you'll remember that he's the guy Ellick seemed to call when he needed a stand-in

attorney to keep an eye on things.

Obviously, Corey was involved in the Satterfield case, representing glorious Satterfield's

estate upon Ellick's recommendation to her family.

He was also Connor Cook's first attorney.

You know, Connor Cook, Paul's friend who was on the boat the night Mallory Beach was

killed, the guy the Murdochs and others in law enforcement allegedly conspired to frame

as the driver of the boat.

Corey was who Ellick recommended to the Cook family to represent Connor.

Then there was the Pinkney case.

Corey represented Pamela Pinkney, Hakim Pinkney's mother who was sued by Ellick on behalf of

Hakim, the young deaf man who became a quadriplegic in a 2009 car wreck.

It was Pamela's money that was used to fund a private flight for Ellick, Corey, Chris

Wilson and their families to fly to Nebraska for the College World Series in 2012.

Corey also represented Patrick Wilson, the young man who came forward with information

about Steven Smith's death after the newspaper in Hampton ran a story that all but accused

the community of covering up Steven's death on behalf of the Murdoch family.

Patrick came forward to say that Sean Connolly, a friend who had provided law enforcement with

information in an unrelated case that led them to charge Patrick with three counts of

attempted murder in 2015, had killed Steven by hitting him with his side view mirror.

Those are just some of the cases where both Ellick's and Corey's names pop up together

and where Ellick's interests seemed to be better represented than perhaps the interests

of Corey's clients.

You'll also remember that Ellick had reached out to Corey with a drippy and contrite love

letter after Ellick was arrested in October 2021 and that Ellick had tried to publicly

absolve Corey of all sins by mentioning him in an eight minute monologue to judge Alice

and Lee at a December 2021 bond hearing.

The two were very, very close friends before all this.

Corey, as we've told you before, even looks a lot like Ellick.

If Ellick ate vegetables and used a treadmill.

After the murders in August 2021, right when Ellick was learning that law enforcement wasn't

buying his story, when he was trying to get Blanca to corroborate his version of the facts

when it came to what he was wearing that evening, Corey is who Ellick brought with him to sled

for an interview.

And Corey, who is a defense attorney, came in big.

He was actually the first of the attorneys who sat in on Ellick's interviews with law

enforcement who actually acted like an attorney.

Also, because this is a podcast, you can't see what Corey wore to this meeting, but if

you close your eyes and listen real carefully, you might hear the sounds of a garish plaid

jacket and a woman saying, you really want me to alter your chinos to be more smug.

We should also know that Corey sounds a lot like Ellick too.

So, at first Corey came in and was like, we're the number one guys here, not you.

We've got some more questions.

I need your clarification.

Shoot it, okay.

So we'll start with that.

Wait a minute.

Yes, sir.

Maybe I'm mistaken.

I thought we were coming here so you can update him on what's going on.

And I intend to do that.

Okay, let's do that first.

Well, the update is I'm doing the investigation and I have some questions that I need.

I would like some answers to.

And I mean, certainly, if you know what I asked the question, if you don't want to answer,

you don't have to answer.

No, I'm fine with that, sir.

It's more clarifications of the two interviews you've already given me.

Totally understand.

So, one second.

One second.

All right.

I need for you to tell me, are you going to give us information?

You know, we just hear you get these questions.

No, I'm going to give you some information.

Right.

Why can't you give us information first?

Some of the information that you're asking about are in my questions.

And as we go through, you'll see.

Okay.

I don't mind that.

I can't.

I mean, I'm a friend, but I'm also a lawyer and I like to know what we do.

I like to understand what we're talking about.

Yeah.

I need you to answer this question.

Are you asking him questions to further your investigation,

or are you asking him questions because you think that he's a suspect?

I need a straight answer.

I am asking these questions to further my investigation.

Does that mean that you're not asking him these questions as a suspect?

Because it.

Good.

Because I'm not comfortable with you asking him questions as a suspect.

And when I came here with the thought that you were going to be telling him where you

were in the investigation, what it is, what it is you've done, seen, uncovered, whatever.

That's why we came here.

Well, let me, let me respond to your question.

It may not be a direct answer that you're looking for.

And I told Alec this when we first met.

Any homicide investigation, you start with the closest person,

and or the person who found the deceased.

In both cases, that's Alec.

Everybody stays in that investigation until we can get them out.

And right now, because of the questions that I have that I need explanations for,

I cannot get Alec out.

Okay.

That's a reasonable statement.

I don't have a problem with that statement.

That's fine.

I don't read it, but everybody in the United States of America has an opinion on this case.

And because I know everybody, I know it's a bunch of bullshit.

I can't imagine that y'all are going to be asking about the nonsense in the internet.

No, no.

I mean, just like you, I'm aware of what's out there.

I have not read every article.

I don't care if you read every article because they're not doing the investigation.

That's right.

All right, well, you know, Alec, if you're comfortable, you're okay.

That's fine.

You hear that?

That undeserved confidence and demanding presence Corey Fleming has in that interview.

As I watch this again, I said to myself, the audacity of this man.

At that moment, Corey Fleming's name was in the media as Alec Murdoch's best friend

who was involved in the suspicious Satterfield settlement of $500,000.

Really should have been distancing himself from Alec at that time.

And I don't know, maybe checking his files to make sure everything was right in the Satterfield case.

Like, hmm, question one.

Why is the media saying that it was a $500,000 settlement when it was really over $4 million?

And question two, hmm, did my clients get any of that money?

Maybe I should check on that.

But no, Corey was spending his time fishing for Alec Murdoch to see what Sled had on him.

You don't get any current friends involved in anything?

Just the rain, you know.

I mean, we got plenty of DNA from the scene, but it's no one since Rogan, since Alex, it's Paul, it's Maggie, it's Buster.

Then Corey did a little PR work for the family.

By portraying them as on the hunt for the real killer.

And suddenly, reminding Sled agents David Owen and Jeff Croft of the family's power locally.

Let me ask you this question.

It comes from Randy.

I look at these people.

You know, they got a lot of friends in the community.

You know, from the upper echelon to the lowest socioeconomic level.

They think that they can ask people to keep ears out, you know, loose lips, talking, that kind of stuff.

But they don't want to reach out to anybody.

I'm not talking about paying people to do stuff or investing ears.

Well, I was talking to Randy about this as well. He posed that question to me.

I'm not going to ask anybody in the law firm or anybody in the family, hey, go out and see what you can find and report back to me.

Because then it can be construed as they're working as an agent of the state.

Sure.

And you don't need to explain that to me.

Oh man, these good old boys tell on themselves all of the time.

Corey saying that little comment about the upper echelon.

He's making sure those Sled agents know just how much power the family has.

He still really believes he has that card to play.

I don't think we've ever played these clips before.

And apologies if we had because honestly that whole trial was a blur.

But this is a good reminder of the person we are dealing with here.

This is important because Corey has been quiet since he was charged last year.

Likely because his lawyer is smart and not a good old boy.

But as we talk about Corey Fleming and his role in all of this,

we have to remember who this man was in August 2021 as he was defending his friend who is now a convicted murderer.

So after Alec told Sled about a hundred lies about what happened the night Maggie and Paul were murdered,

best friend Corey goes back to trying to suss out what evidence Sled has.

And y'all now y'all have to send the because his vehicle is new you have to send that off.

Yes sir.

So it's not like when we hire experts we come in and just download it.

It's 2021 and they don't have the systems for you.

But they're working here creating a system from what I understand.

I don't know exactly how the onslaught thing works.

I don't know how the control module works.

But this is something different right?

Or is it all contained in the same thing?

There are two different systems that we took out.

One is on-star and the other one is the telemetry system.

Yeah.

And the FBI says there is information there.

They just have to be able to extract it and report it.

So you just wait for that.

I'm waiting on the search warrant from on-star.

Let's see what kind of information they can give me.

You need a bus sign and something that expedites that.

I told you I don't own a car but whoever you need to will sign whatever authorization you need.

So you had said that or maybe Jim told me something about

y'all were able to get a pulse phone just for the search warrant.

We have a what they call a partial download.

Yeah.

Because we don't have the passcode.

Sure.

We can't do a full extraction.

Do you think?

So my thought was that I don't know who's required to authorize Apple to open it.

I know that there was that big thing where they weren't going to do it for whatever case.

But I thought that if we, I think Maggie in the phone, I think it was in her name, it counts in her name.

Well if you, I mean you have to have your own separate iCloud account for each phone.

And we've done that for Maggie's, Paul's, and Alex's iCloud accounts.

Yeah.

To see if there's anything in there.

Yeah.

There was nothing in Paul's.

I'm still waiting on Maggie's.

Maggie did back her stuff.

Yeah.

I know that.

Does that mean Paul did back his stuff?

Probably.

But what I was, what my thought was, and I don't know if this is even possible, but if we get, if we get the estate and we get the personal representative who's now the authorized person, to authorize it to be open.

And I'm, I mean, surrounded by 100 lawyers.

We've done, probably done like that.

And I can have the powers appointment done in two days.

We can authorize whatever it is you need to open.

And that might be beneficial.

So.

I know I think Randy and I, or somebody and I talked about that before.

Yeah.

Well, I, you know, I said I'd do it anyway.

Yeah.

Who would be the representative to somebody at law firm?

Probably.

And your brothers?

I don't think.

No, for Maggie and Paul to say, you know, that's probably me or my brothers.

But whoever it is, it doesn't matter.

Whoever it is, we'll do whatever we all need to do to, you know, it won't be united out of being uncooperative.

Well, I mean, if y'all would go ahead and start working on that.

And then we'll reach out to Apple and figure out how we did that accomplished.

Right.

Because.

Got to be something.

I mean, have y'all had to track down.

All the black is on the internet.

Just only the ones that you think seem a little more.

Not the opportunity and the inclination, you know.

There's been a few, there's been a few that I'm looking at.

Yeah.

But some of the information is just so far-fetched.

Re-listening to this now, I have to ask, how much did Corey know in August 2021 exactly?

It's telling to me that Corey asked about the cell phone and car data.

Two of the most damning pieces of evidence against Alec Murdoch in the double homicide.

On one hand, Corey was a seasoned defense attorney at the time,

and it would be natural for him to poke around and see if there is anything that could exonerate his friend, Alec.

But on the other hand, I got to wonder if Corey was fishing for information

more for himself.

Did Corey know at the time that if Alec falls, he falls too?

Was he acting so defensive, not as a defense attorney, but as someone who was ultimately protecting himself?

It was also very telling when Corey tried to show Sled that they're on Sled's side.

This is another classic good old boy move.

Well, I mean, y'all been taking a lick and impress about not disclosing stuff, but Jesus Christ now, I don't have anything to disclose.

Well, and, you know, why are you going to tell a bad guy what you got?

Thank you.

You know? I mean, I still understand it. I mean, look.

Wow. He said, why tell the bad guy what you got while the bad guy or guys are sitting right there?

And you know what else?

Corey didn't want Alec answering questions about the bow crash lawsuit, which ultimately played a big role in the state's theory on Alec's motive at trial.

I'm still trying to figure this out.

I cannot exclude the bogeys in those bars.

I know that you're currently going through the civil portion.

How far has that progressed?

I mean, were you only in the talks or was it breaking down?

Can I say something real quick?

I know nothing about any of that stuff.

And he's represented about lawyers in that case.

I don't think he, I personally shouldn't be talking about that unless the lawyers he's represented by participate.

I don't think it's, I mean, I'm sure that they're happy to do that.

But I don't think that, I don't think the person should be talking about pending action like that.

And what, because I just don't, I know nothing about it. I just completely separated from it.

Completely separated from it.

Corey, you represented Connor Cook, remember?

It's interesting that Corey doesn't want Alec to talk about the bow crash.

On one hand, is that just good legal advice?

Or is it because of the pending obstruction of justice investigation that Alec was under at the time of the murders?

Now, remember how aggressive Corey was at the beginning of this interview?

About what kind of interview this was and what kind of interview it wasn't?

Listen to him hear.

Do you have more questions?

Okay.

Did you kill Maggie?

No. Did I kill my wife?

Yes.

No, David.

Do you know who did?

No, I do not know who did.

Did you kill Paul?

No, I did not kill Paul.

Do you know who did?

No, sir, I do not know who did.

Do you think I killed Maggie?

I have to go with the evidence and the fact that...

I understand that.

Who do you think I killed Paul?

I have to go with the evidence and the fact that he killed me.

And I don't have anything that points to anybody else at this time.

So does that mean that I am a suspect?

You were still in, like I told Corey earlier, you were still in this.

With everything that we talked about, with the family guns, the ammunition.

Nobody else's DNA.

I have to put my beliefs aside and go with the facts.

Crickets.

No, Corey.

When the question was asked, he barely seemed to move.

Is this when Corey understood that Elick wasn't telling the truth?

Or did he already know?

Did he find out later?

Or does he still think that Elick is innocent?

Obviously we don't know the answers to that.

But we believe that Elick needs Corey to stay silent more than Corey needs Elick.

Which is why this federal indictment could get really spicy.

We'll be right back.

Okay, the federal indictment.

There are a few interesting things in there.

The first is that it refers to Corey as a former personal injury and criminal defense attorney.

That is interesting because Corey has not been disbarred.

And from what we've seen, lawyers are very specific and very deferential when it comes to how they refer to their fallen comrades.

For instance, Elick was a, quote, suspended attorney until he was disbarred.

Even though the writing was on the wall for him.

The writing is on the wall for Corey too, but it's not clear if this is just an oversight on the government's part

or if they know something that we don't about what the Supreme Court is planning for Corey.

We checked the latest disciplinary orders issued by the court and there are no new ones for Corey.

A few weeks ago, we also checked in on the status of Corey's suspended license to practice law in Georgia

and it seems like they may be waiting for South Carolina to make its first move.

The next interesting thing is that the government makes the point of saying that Corey had no knowledge of the fake forged accounts

or Elick's scheme to steal his client's money through the accounts.

So we all know the bigger picture of the Satterfield caper.

It's interesting to see how the government breaks down Corey's role in it though.

Corey, according to the indictment, submitted a fraudulent disbursement sheet to the circuit court, i.e. Judge Carmen Mullen.

In January 2019, outlining 11,500, in quote, prosecution expenses.

However, there were no legitimate prosecution expenses attached to the case.

Remember back in the day when Eric Bland would come on MMP and rant and rave about these fake expenses

and how the rounded off dollar figures alone should have been a red flag to Judge Mullen?

I want to quote Eric from our group text thread on Wednesday after these indictments came out.

I am absolutely loving this.

Now is a good time to remind you that Judge Mullen also graduated law school with Elick and Corey

and, according to testimony from Chad Westendorf, readily agreed to allow Elick and Corey to hold off on filing the disbursement sheets

in this case until after the Boat Crash case was over.

Reminder, the Boat Crash case still isn't over.

So, wonder what Corey had to say about her to the feds?

Hmm, back to the indictment.

It also noted that in May 2019, Corey submitted another fraudulent disbursement sheet to the circuit court,

i.e. Judge Carmen Mullen.

This time, he fraudulently outlined the disbursement of $1.435 million in attorney's fees,

when he only collected around $673,000 in fees, less than half of what he told Judge Mullen he would receive.

This disbursement sheet also outlined illegitimate prosecution expenses,

this time for $105,000.

The indictment says that Corey and Elick, quote, intended to use this money for their own personal enrichment.

The indictment also notes that Corey, in three separate transactions of $26,200,

took money belonging to Gloria Satterfield's estate and fraudulently transferred it to his personal account.

Fraudulently claiming the money was for valid expenses related to the case.

Corey is also admitting to holding back another $150,000 in fake prosecution expenses for him and Elick to have at their disposal.

For all of that, Corey is charged with one single count of wire fraud, one single count,

his ticket into the federal system and perhaps out of the state system.

Corey is admitting to knowingly conspiring with Elick to commit wire fraud,

meaning he's admitting that they work together to steal some money, which means Elick lied again by saying Corey didn't know.

To us, this seems like Corey was aware that he was committing crime B, but unknowingly helped Elick commit crime A.

And we think that could be true of a lot of people, including ol' Russell Lafitte.

As part of the plea, Corey will be agreeing to making full restitution to the victims.

Okay, now for the part that has everyone talking.

Corey is co-operating.

And this is serious. This isn't a, yeah, yeah, I'll tell you some things scenario.

And Corey can't be like, so there's this guy, Elick Murdock, and I know for a fact he killed his wife and son.

No, he has to give the government information it did not have before.

That's why we keep saying the first to come forward is so important in the Stephen Smith case.

The first person to tell law enforcement the truth about what happened to him is the one who gets the deal.

Corey has to be honest and tell the government everything he knows about all criminal activities about which he has knowledge.

And he has to testify to that knowledge if called upon.

If Corey keeps something to himself and it comes out later that he knew about it, well, then he's in big trouble.

In fact, the federal government showed us how serious they are about proffers when it came to Russell Lafitte, who they said lied to him.

Lying didn't work out well for ol' Ankle's Lafitte, did it?

The question on everyone's mind is who might go down next as a result of Corey's information?

It's not clear whether Corey's cooperation has already netted the government information it has already used.

It's also not clear what will happen at the hearing scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday in Charleston.

It doesn't appear that Corey has waived his pre-sentence investigation report, so it could be a while before he is sentenced,

giving the government time to lean on him hard.

Considering the wording of the plea agreement, it seems like Corey's cooperation is future tense, which brings us to this.

As part of the plea deal, Corey will agree to future polygraph exams, which, hey, Emily Limehouse, let us know if you want any help brainstorming those questions.

For instance, ask him if he knows what happened to the Calvert's, since he was Dennis Gerwing's attorney.

If you don't know what the Calvert case is, google it for now. We'll cover it in future episodes.

It's just another case that makes South Carolina's low country a crazy, crazy place to live.

So, for its part, the government is agreeing to advocate for a sentence reduction.

The wire fraud charge usually carries up to 5 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.

The online calculator for estimating federal sentences puts Corey's sentence at around a year to a year and a half

when factoring in his cooperation and other merits, and it puts his fine at between $3,000 and $30,000.

Now, for the humdinger, the thing that makes this the holy land for white collar criminals.

Corey faces almost two dozen state charges in this case. His trial is set for September.

We reached out to the Attorney General's office on Wednesday to ask whether the state plans to follow through with Corey's case.

Why? Because, if Corey cooperates, the federal government is going to recommend that Corey not serve any time in the South Carolina prison system.

The AG's office did not get back to us, but that's a tough question, because is it fair?

Is it fair that people who steal money from others can afford high priced, powerful attorneys to elevate their prison experience?

Again, we're always pro-upgrade, but just not at the expense of justice. That's the question here.

If Corey gets a tidy little sentence, then we hope to God it's because he delivered the goods on some bad guys.

We hope he doesn't hold back. There's no doubt in our minds that Corey wants this softer outcome,

not only because who wants to go to prison, but because of his family, his wife, and his two kids.

Because of his family, his wife, and his two kids, the cost of that alone should be the absolute most, and Corey should be held to it.

Because unlike Ellick, we think Corey might have a soul.

And speaking of Ellick, even from McCormick prison, he's adding to his collection of charges.

Like Corey, he is now a federally indicted man.

On Wednesday, May 24th, the government indicted Ellick on 22 counts.

Most of the counts were for money laundering, and much of the indictment is familiar to anyone who has been following the case.

However, there were a few new fun facts.

One is that we now know the reason why Ellick had two fake forge accounts.

The first was opened in 2015, around when Palmetto State Bank was taking over the Allendale Bank and had federal regulators looking at their books.

The second forge account was opened in 2018.

The second account was always curious to us.

Turns out, Bank of America closed his first account because, get this, of how much he had been overdrawing his account.

Obviously, Bank of America is not run by a bunch of Russell's cousins.

Ellick opened the second account after the first one was closed, right in time to use Gloria Satterfield's death as a way to steal money from an insurance company.

The other new element contained in this indictment is that it's finally on the record that Ellick had been stealing from PMPD since at least 2005.

2005, when his father was still the solicitor.

Several attorneys connected to this case have always said that Ellick has been stealing for his entire career.

Ellick became an attorney in 1994.

He started working for PMPD in December 1998 after he worked with Corey Fleming and Moss and Coon in Beaufort for a few years.

Now we really gotta ask, did he spend those first dozen or so years on the straight and narrow?

Or is this when he was learning to steal?

Regardless, from at least 2005, he was, without proper disclosure or approval,

taking money from client trust accounts to satisfy fake liens on client settlements,

taking attorney's fees on fake or non-existing annuities, creating fraudulent expenses that were never incurred

and taking money for fake medical expenses, fake construction expenses, fake airline expenses,

intercepting insurance proceeds and depositing them into his own account and directing other.

Note the plural on this one guys.

Attorneys to disperse attorney's fees directly to him instead of to the law firm.

Remember what he did to Chris Wilson?

The $792,000 that he had Chris give him instead of to the firm.

The thing that represented the final straw for him with PMPD.

Well, Chris Wilson isn't two people, right?

Unless we're missing something.

If that plural is to be believed, sounds like Ellic did that same thing to one or more other attorneys.

So for 16 years, Ellic Murdock was stealing from clients in the law firm through fake fees and expenses.

I know that we've talked about PMPD being asleep at the wheel,

but this, this is like being asleep at the helm of the Titanic.

It will be very telling to see who survives this one.

And we'll be right back.

Now, Dick and Jim put out a statement on Wednesday that WCPD News 2 recorder Riley Benson posted on Twitter.

And here is David with that Dick and Jim statement.

Ellic has been cooperating with the United States Attorney's Office and federal agencies in their investigation of a broad range of activities.

We anticipate that the charges brought today will be quickly resolved without trial.

Okay, so first, who among us believes that Ellic is now cooperating?

I mean, come on, does the government actually want his cooperation at this point?

In what exactly would that cooperation look like?

This is a man who allowed a sketch artist to come to a hospital so that they could draw a picture of a very fake,

but according to Ellic, handsome and nice fellow who allegedly shot him in the head.

Unless he's ready to sit under a bare light bulb and tell the government what all of this has been about,

let's just call that line in Dick and Jim's statement what it is.

More nonsense from Teen Murdoch.

Now, second, and this is serious.

They actually anticipate that this will be resolved quickly and without a trial.

Okay, so plea deal?

Right?

Wait, plea deal?

Could this mean that Ellic might end up transferring to federal prison?

The short answer is, um, yeah, he could, according to a bunch of lawyers that we asked today.

Depending on what information he has to offer and what hot nonsense the government agrees to.

And here we are again.

The big questions right now are why and why now?

What are Dick and Jim really up to?

The federal indictment is largely an exercise in redundancy to state charges.

Is the state going to hand over the financial element of this case to the federal government?

We don't know the answer to that right now because we didn't hear back from the AG's office today.

But something is up.

And if it is what it looks like, that Ellic and team are gearing up for a kinder, gentler prison stay on the federal level,

then God help those who make that deal.

Because unless the information he trades is absolutely epic,

then it's just another example of him using and abusing the system for his own gain and people helping him do it.

But the good news is that if anyone decides to cut Ellic Murdoch any slack in the federal system,

we will be right here to drag those vampires into the sunlight where they belong.

Truthfully, we had another episode planned out today related to the Jirad price case and a whole lot of other nonsense.

But we felt that it was important to cover the latest developments in this case as a reminder that we might have changed our name.

But we are still here, still watching and still armed with information and sources to sort through all of team Murdoch's shenanigans.

If Corey and Ellic truly cooperate with the feds and the feds don't play along with their good old boy games,

then maybe, just maybe, we will start getting answers to the questions that we have been asking for the past 100 weeks.

Like, where did the money go? How many people helped Ellic with his crimes? And how many people will go down for this?

We will be back with new episodes every Thursday. Stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay in the sunlight.

Truth Sunlight is created by me, Mandy Matney, co-hosted by journalist Liz Farrell and produced by my husband, David Moses.

Truth Sunlight is a Luna shark production, right Luna?

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.