I could see Bank of America on the
back and like Murdoch signature
and everyone that came out.
Was just put out a little bit
more in the grave for me.
All right, well,
that was testimony that we heard about
Alec Murdoch's alleged financial crime,
but it was not in front of a jury just yet.
And this is because Judge Clifton
Newman is still deciding if that
testimony about Alex alleged financial
crimes will be admissible in court.
And we can now give you the update that
court has adjourned for the day they
have recessed until 11:30 on Monday,
and the judge did not make a decision
like many expected him to today.
Darcy, he didn't decide.
Rachel Ripp joins us in the
studio now to give us an overview
of this financial testimony.
Rachel.
Darcy, Andrea.
The witnesses we heard from
Thursday include Jeannie seconder,
Chief Financial Officer of Alex,
former law firm called PMP Ed,
Chris Wilson, a longtime friend,
college roommate and work colleague of Alex,
and Michael Gunn, a business associate
of Alex who works for forge consulting.
Some of these witnesses even got emotional.
Financial related testimony began
Thursday morning solely for Judge
Newman to hear Jeannie Seckinger,
the financial records keeper at Alex
Law firm, started by testifying.
Alec asked her in late May of
2021 about structuring fees
and how that worked, she said.
Shortly after that,
she became concerned hearing that Alec
wanted to put money under Maggie's name
as a result of the boat case lawsuit.
Seconder then testified that
when someone paid a settlement,
attorney fees would go into the PMP.
Ed income account,
but says when she started doing
some digging after not seeing
documentation of a fee check for
the firm regarding a case Alec and
Chris Wilson worked together on,
she found more and more possible
signs of misappropriation.
As I started printing
the canceled checks off,
I could see Bank of America on
the back in LA Murdoch signature
and everyone that came out.
Was just put out a little bit
more in the grave for me.
Michael Gunn confirmed that
they had not banked up Bank of
America in a number of years.
Second, you're testifies.
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. He testifies.
He's a business associate of Alex
and works for Forge Consulting, LLC.
I found out on Tuesday after Labor Day.
What did you find out?
I spoke with Lee Cope and he
told me that Alex had been
using a account called Forge.
To process the checks.
Is that account that he had been using?
Is that legitimate, forged,
insulting account?
Absolutely not.
The last witness testifying about
missing money was Chris Wilson,
a law school roommate, longtime
friend and business associate of Alec.
Murdoch's Wilson testified he usually
handled money on cases he worked with
Alec on through his trust account.
But for a case they both
tried in January of 2021,
known as the Mack Truck Case,
Alec asked Wilson to do something different.
Instead of issuing the
checks to Alex law firm,
Alec asked Wilson to issue the checks
directly to him so Alec could put them
into an annuity by the name forge.
Wilson testified that Alec then
told him the annuity wouldn't work,
so Alec would send the money back to
Wilson for him to send to Alex law firm.
This $792,000 from the case is
money Wilson testified he never
received back into full money.
Wilson eventually confronted Alec in
person about in September of 2020.
One money he came to learn Alex stole.
I was so mad. I'd love the guy for so long.
And I've probably still loved him
a little bit, but I was so mad.
And. I don't remember how it ended. I left.
Now, Judge Clifton Newman decided earlier
this afternoon that some of the financial
testimony will be allowed in this trial.
So we're waiting to hear on those specifics.
And that means jurors will hear this
testimony we showed you in the coming days
reporting in Studio Rachel Rip News 19 WLTX.