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Speaker 1: Crime Alart hourly update Breaking crime News Now. I'm Nicole Parton.

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Speaker 1: A banker from South Carolina identified by prosecutors as having

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Speaker 1: aided Alec Murdau in transferring millions to mask his theft

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Speaker 1: in return for a cut of the money, has been

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Speaker 1: sentenced to a minimum of five years behind bars. Russell

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Speaker 1: Lafitt entered a guilty plea on Thursday to eight charges

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Speaker 1: in state court. His plea agreement is part of the

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Speaker 1: complicated arraignment with federal prosecutors, which aims to conclude his

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Speaker 1: criminal proceedings by late October and will likely see him

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Speaker 1: in federal custody approximately May twenty twenty seven. Lafitte is

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Speaker 1: among several individuals implicated by investigators for their involvement with Murdoch,

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Speaker 1: who unlawfully siphoned millions from his law firm, and clients

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Speaker 1: involved in wrongful death and serious injury cases. Murda is

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Speaker 1: currently serving a life sentence for the murders of his

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Speaker 1: wife and son in twenty twenty one. While he has

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Speaker 1: confessed to the financial crimes, he denies the murders and

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Speaker 1: is in the process of appealing his convictions. The plea

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Speaker 1: deal Lafitte struck in state court mandates that he serve

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Speaker 1: eight years in prison concurrently with his five year federal sentence.

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Speaker 1: With good behavior, he may fulfill the conditions of his

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Speaker 1: state term before completing his federal time. The fifty four

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Speaker 1: year old will also receive credit for the duration of

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Speaker 1: his house arrest that he began in May twenty twenty two.

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Speaker 1: Prior to this hearing, it was announced that he liquidated

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Speaker 1: a bank stock to cover the three point five million

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Speaker 1: dollars he was required to pay in restitution. During the proceedings,

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Speaker 1: Lafitte refrained from making any statements aside from responding to

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Speaker 1: the judges questions. Prosecutors detailed the nature of his fraudulent

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Speaker 1: activity and says, at least this brings some closure for

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Speaker 1: the victims today. Really just affirms on the jury's verdicts

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Speaker 1: almost three years ago that he's guilty on all counts

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Speaker 1: of charged in the indictment. So the bank and the

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Speaker 1: law firm have already made the individual victim toll many

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Speaker 1: years ago, and so this is just paying them back

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Speaker 1: for having made those individual victims home. Earlier this spring,

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Speaker 1: he pleaded guilty to federal charges of bank and wirefraud

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Speaker 1: after an appellate court overturned his previous jury convictions. His

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Speaker 1: sentencing for this case is expected to happen on Monday

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Speaker 1: in Charleston. After the initial federal trial, Lafitte received a

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Speaker 1: seven year prison sentence, but began serving that term only

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Speaker 1: after his conviction was reversed. Investigators noted that he was

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Speaker 1: appointed to manage settlement funds for some of Murdau's most

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Speaker 1: vulnerable clients, including children who had lost their parents. Prosecutors

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Speaker 1: alleged the man received up to four hundred and fifty

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars in untaxed fees for facilitating these transactions and

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Speaker 1: issued substantial checks from the supplement accounts to Murdaw, who

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Speaker 1: was struggling with the escalating debts he attributed to opioid

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Speaker 1: ad diction. More crime and justice news after this and

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Speaker 1: now to Texas where a Liberty County mother tried to

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Speaker 1: kill her children. According to police, a woman and her

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Speaker 1: three children were put in the hospital after she allegedly

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Speaker 1: tried to drown the family. The situation happened on Monday

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Speaker 1: at a pond on the family's property. Investigators say it

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Speaker 1: was the children's father who called nine to one one.

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Speaker 1: He said his wife had given their children niquil before

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Speaker 1: trying to drown them in a pond. When police arrived

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Speaker 1: at the pond, they found the victims along with their

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Speaker 1: father near the water. The mother was still in the pond.

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Speaker 1: Two of the children were conscious and alert, a six

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Speaker 1: year old and a fifteen year old. The mother and

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Speaker 1: an eleven year old child were both unconscious. They were

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Speaker 1: taken to a hospital where they remain in critical condition.

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Speaker 1: Police say the investigation is certainly ongoing, and in North Carolina,

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Speaker 1: a man has been arrested in Fayetteville after a missing

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Speaker 1: teenager from Columbus County was located and safely recovered. The

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Speaker 1: Sheriff's office said its Special Victims Unit started an investigation

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Speaker 1: on Monday after receiving a report of a missing juvenile

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Speaker 1: from the Mount Olive community. According to the police department,

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Speaker 1: the fifteen year old female was reported missing around five

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Speaker 1: thirty am on Monday. According to the police release, investigators

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Speaker 1: followed leeds that took them more than ninety miles to Fayetteville,

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Speaker 1: where they worked with the Faydeville Police Department. Investigators say

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Speaker 1: after a search warrant was obtained for an apartment complex,

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Speaker 1: they found the missing teen. The teen was removed from

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Speaker 1: the suspect's custody and taken to a medical facility. At

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Speaker 1: the scene, deputies arrested Brian Keith Riley, a sixty four

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Speaker 1: year old man who was wanted on kidnapping warrants in

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Speaker 1: Columbus County. Riley was booked into the Cumberland County Detention Center.

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Speaker 1: He's being held without bond. The sheriff office said the

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Speaker 1: Fayetteville Police Department had filed additional charges against the man,

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Speaker 1: including felony, crimes against nature, in decent liberties with a child,

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Speaker 1: and statutory sex offenses with a child fifteen years or younger.

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Speaker 1: Our children are our most valuable gift and no one

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Speaker 1: should ever threaten their safety or their innocence, said Sheriff

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Speaker 1: Bill Rogers. I am thankful and deeply proud of our

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Speaker 1: investigators and teams that brought the team safely home. According

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Speaker 1: to court records, Riley is due to appear in the

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Speaker 1: Historic Columbus County Courthouse for his kidnapping charge on October thirteen.

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Speaker 1: For the latest crime injustice news, follow Crime Alert hourly

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Speaker 1: update on your favorite podcasting app with this crime Alert.

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Speaker 1: I'm Nicole Parton