COLUMBIA, S.C. — After four years of criminal charges, guilty pleas and humiliation, ex-banker Russell Laffitte had nothing to say.

“Your honor, I don’t think Mr. Laffitte wants to address the court,” Laffitte’s lawyer Mark Moore told South Carolina Judge Heath Taylor on Monday at Laffitte’s sentencing hearing — the final act for one of South Carolina’s most high-profile white collar criminals before reporting to prison.

But a few others in the second-story courtroom at the Richland County courthouse in Columbia had plenty to say about Laffitte, who with Alex Murdaugh brought unprecedented scandal and disgrace to South Carolina’s supposedly honorable professions of banking and the law.

During the brief hearing, Laffitte, 54, former CEO of Palmetto State Bank, a small but profitable Lowcountry financial institution, sat at the defense table whispering now and then to his lawyers. He had pleaded guilty to breach of trust, computer crime and conspiracy.

Judge Taylor sentenced Laffitte to eight years in prison, the sentence to run simultaneously with a sentence handed down by a federal court earlier this year for federal banking crimes involving roughly the same victims, people with large monetary settlements won by Murdaugh, a former lawyer and convicted swindler.

The exact times for Laffitte to report to prison and when he gets out have not yet been calculated. Neither is it known where Laffitte will serve his time.

Using Laffitte, Murdaugh laundered millions of his former clients’ money through Laffitte’s bank, evidence showed. Both men profited, but Murdaugh far more so than Laffitte.

Creighton Waters, the dogged state attorney general prosecutor who won murder convictions for Murdaugh for killing his wife, Maggie, and son Paul, told the judge that Laffitte deserved far more than eight years in prison for helping Murdaugh carry out financial crimes.

“This man is an admitted liar and thief. And frankly, he doesn’t deserve the deal he’s getting today, but there’s a lot of fatigue out there,” Waters said. “There’s a lot of people who came to me and said, ‘We just want this to be over’.”

“He deserves every bit of the sentence he’s getting,” Waters continued, adding the state had to “fight like hell” — presumably a reference to Laffitte’s high-dollar aggressive lawyers including Moore, Michael Parente and Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland — “to add additional components to this to ensure there would be a level of accountability for this man.”

At least, the public knows that Laffitte has paid some $3.5 million in restitution, and he’s going to prison, Waters said.

As part of a global settlement involving the dual state and federal prosecutions into Laffitte’s banking crimes, Laffitte has paid $3.5 million in restitution. To raise the money, Laffitte had to sell his entire stock holdings — some 17,000 shares — in Palmetto State Bank.

“And when he gets out, if he so much as flinches the wrong way, he’s going to state prison,” said Waters, referring to the five years’ probation Laffitte will be under once he leaves prison.

Once out, Laffitte will also have to perform 350 hours of community service, Waters said. “We’re going to ensure that actually happens.”

Waters also called attention to Laffitte’s attitude over the four years it took to get him to plead guilty.

“This man, despite every opportunity to do so, expressly refused to cooperate, and that says a lot about who he is,” Waters said.

Although Laffitte plead guilty and admitted his crimes, Waters said, “This is a man who still has a long way to go before he realizes the things that he’s done and he’s not entitled to them just because he had the senior position in a bank that he and his family owned.”

In that way, Laffitte was like “his buddy Alex Murdaugh,” who also had a position of trust in his 100-year-old family law firm because both men believed they were entitled, Waters said.

Both Murdaugh’s law firm and Laffitte’s bank were located in Hampton County in the southeastern part of the state. Laffitte and Murdaugh had been childhood friends, and Murdaugh’s law firm was one of the bank’s largest customers.

Laffitte “is a fraudster. And he will be for the rest of his life,” Waters told the judge.

Failed ‘Guardian at the Gate’

Monday’s most impassioned plea to the judge came from Eric Bland, a private attorney who represented the Plyler sisters, Alania Player Spohn and Hannah Plyler, who were young girls when they lost their mother and brother in a horrific car crash caused by faulty tires. Murdaugh won hefty settlements for the two girls, deposited them in Laffitte’s bank, where he and the banker proceeded to use it for all manner of loans and personal expenses.

“Am I pleased with the sentence he’s getting today? No,” said Bland. “Do I think he should get more because he’s the fiduciary? Yes. It’s the highest position in law.”

His clients had their lives ruined by Laffitte, Bland said, because they trusted him only to learn what a crook he was. Now, he said, “They don’t trust anybody.”

A fiduciary must work for the benefit of their client and adhere to the highest ethical standards when, like Laffitte, he manages money for others and he abused it, Bland said.

“Laffitte was the ‘guardian at the gate’ ” and he failed at that job, Bland said. “There’s always going to be an Alex Murdaugh, that person who is corrupt. But they need the services of someone like Russell Laffitte. It was a perfect storm.”

Evidence showed that when the time came for the Plyler girls to receive the money held in trust for them, Laffitte and Murdaugh began to plunder other accounts that Murdaugh had brought to Laffitte’s bank. They used the money to replenish the Plyler accounts

“He will be incarcerated, he will be disgraced, and he hurt many people,” Bland told the judge.

Laffitte had sat almost immobile, looking straight ahead and sometimes down at papers on the table in front of him as Bland and Waters spoke.

Then, toward the end of the hearing and speaking on Laffitte’s behalf, Moore reminded the judge that his client had in fact paid $3.5 million in restitution.

And, Moore said, Laffitte had apologized to victims in an earlier federal financial crimes hearing, naming each one.

Moore also said that throughout his ordeal, Laffitte has had the “strong support” of family and friends, coming to every court proceeding. Laffitte’s mother, father and wife were at Monday’s hearing, along with various friends.

‘Justice was done’

After Monday’s hearing, Waters answered reporters’ questions. He stood with State Law Enforcement Division agents Lt. Charles Ghent and Peter Rudofski, and attorney general’s state grand jury forensic accountant Carson Burney.

“This has obviously been the culmination of a long ordeal,” Waters said. “Justice was done today.”

Convicting both Murdaugh and Laffitte took many people, including prosecutors from the attorney general’s office, SLED agents and private attorneys who pressed civil lawsuits, Waters said. “These things are a marathon. Justice takes time.”

Especially satisfying was showing everyday folks that wrongs can be righted, Waters said. “There was a belief that nothing would ever happen to these powerful people.”

Laffitte was fired from his bank in January 2022, several months after Murdaugh’s thefts involving client money began coming to light. Murdaugh was fired from his law firm in September 2021.

Besides Bland, attorney Mark Tinsley was in the audience Monday. Bland and Tinsley, who represented one of Laffitte’s victims, are given substantial credit for unearthing the legal and banking scandals involving Murduagh and Laffitte. Also in the audience was Columbia attorney Greg Harris, who represented Palmetto State Bank.

Much of the $3.5 million restitution went to Murdaugh’s law firm and Laffitte’s former bank, who had reimbursed the victims, Waters said. “They were entitled to have that money paid back as well.”

Laffitte should not get a cushy job when he does community service, Waters said, adding he will be monitoring what Laffitte does.

Laffitte and Murdaugh victims included:

•Arthur Badger, whom Laffitte and Murdaugh stole $1.3 million from. Murdaugh had gotten the money for Badger from a settlement in a car crash case in which his wife had died, leaving six children.

•Alania Plyler Spohn and Hannah Plyler were 12 and 8 years old when their mother and older brother died when a faulty tire caused the car they were riding in to crash into a thicket of trees. Murdaugh arranged a settlement worth millions for the sisters, including annuities and nearly $1 million in Palmetto State Bank accounts for the girls. Murdaugh and Laffitte then proceeded to raid those accounts for loans, paying back the original sums from other settlements Murdaugh secured.

•Natarsha Thomas, who Murdaugh won a $408,000 settlement for after a car crash. Murdaugh gave her $83,000 but didn’t tell her she had another $325,000 coming to her. Murdaugh and Laffitte used the $325,000 to replenish accounts from which they had taken money out of.

• Hakeem Pinckney, a quadriplegic injured in a car crash. Laffitte and Murdaugh stole $309,000 from his settlement proceeds and Laffitte paid himself $60,000 in conservatorship fees.

Laffitte’s journey through the state and federal criminal legal systems was complicated.

In November 2022, Laffitte was found guilty of federal bank fraud crimes by a Charleston jury. Sentenced to seven years in prison in 2023 by U.S. Judge Richard Gergel, Laffitte served 14 months in prison but an appeals court overturned his conviction and sentence for a judicial error in November 2024. Earlier this year, as federal prosecutors prepared to put Laffitte on trial again, he decided to plead guilty to the same federal charges he was convicted on in return for a reduced sentence of five years, instead of seven.

Since Laffitte has already served 14 months, he has basically 3 years and change to serve on his federal sentence. However, when you are in federal prison, every year you serve you get some time off for good behavior. So Laffitte will likely be finished his federal sentence in about two years.

As for state sentences for non-violent crimes, inmates can often be released early for good behavior.

But on Monday, no one could give an exact timetable of when Laffitte will serve his state and federal sentences and whether they will exactly overlap.

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