Lawsuit accuses Alex Murdaugh, Bank of America of damaging financial firm’s reputation

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Attorneys representing a consulting company say they are taking legal action against former Lowcountry attorney Alex Murdaugh and Bank of America.

In a statement from Strom Law Firm, attorneys for Forge Consulting say the financial firm suffered serious harm to its business reputation and credibility because of Murdaugh and the bank.

“This is one of the worst case of defamation and character assassination I’ve seen,” attorney Pete Strom said. “Forge Consulting did nothing wrong. But their reputation is under attack all because Alex Murdaugh stole their name and Bank of America let him do it.”

The attorneys say Murdaugh set up a fake bank account using the Forge brand in order to take millions of dollars from his clients and colleagues.

The suit claims Murdaugh’s plan could have been caught if Bank of America had done due diligence to confirm that the account was real.

“All Bank of America had to do was make a phone call and they would have realized the truth,” attorney Bakari Sellers, who is also representing Forge Consulting, said. “That negligence not only contributed to this massive fraud, it allowed Forge Consulting to be painted with the Murdaugh brush.”

“We have been in business since 2003 building our reputation on professionalism, experience and integrity and we refuse to let anyone steal that from us,” Forge Consulting CEO Spooner Phillips said. “We provide trust and fiduciary services and ‘trust’ is the key word.”

Murdaugh’s legal team has not responded to a request for comment.

Bank of America declined to comment on the lawsuit.

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