Lawyer for Elite SC Firm Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering
- SCCLR Newsletter
- Mar 20
- 3 min read
By: John Monk
A lawyer for an elite South Carolina law firm has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering involving some $1.5 million he stole from his firm and diverted from clients.
William “Chris” Swett, 42, of Johns Island, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in downtown Charleston before U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel. He was released on $50,000 unsecured bond and on his promise to appear at future court proceedings.
He will be sentenced at a later, as yet unscheduled, date.
At that future hearing, it is possible that two unanswered questions about Swett’s thefts will be addressed — what did he do with the money he stole, and how was his double-dealing discovered?
At Swett’s Thursday hearing, several attorneys from the top-tier Motley Rice law firm of Mount Pleasant were in the courtroom audience. They did not speak.
For years, Swett was a lawyer with Motley Rice. There, he oversaw the handling of funds associated with various lawsuits involving injuries and deaths from asbestos and mesothelioma, according to a charging document in his case.
Motley Rice is known for handling those kinds of lawsuits, and successful settlements or jury verdicts in those cases can be sizable.
Swett’s unlawful scheme to siphon money from his law firm ran from at least 2018 to March 2024, the charging document — called an information — said.
The information said Swett created two shell companies that appeared to be “legitimate legal service companies,” the information said. Then he used them to charge the law firm “for services not performed,” creating fake billing invoices and reimbursement expenses for airplane flights, meals, hotels, depositions as well as client and expert meetings.
Swett used his wife, a paralegal in the firm to further his frauds, the information said. She was neither identified by name nor charged. The information left open the possibility she was an unwitting player in the lawyer’s fraud.
The name Motley Rice was not mentioned in the government’s information. But The State newspaper confirmed it through court documents and the firm has also acknowledged Swett’s connection. It has not responded to a request Friday for comment. Motley Rice’s internet site says, “Since 1979, our attorneys have had a strong record of taking landmark actions for consumers and workers, we began with asbestos and tobacco cases and today represent hurt people and entities in a wide variety of cases.”
Swett is exposed to a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for the offenses, according to his plea agreement and has also agreed to pay full restitution in an amount to be determined at a later date. However, it is rare for white collar criminals to get anywhere near the maximum punishment. In May 2024, Swett was placed on interim suspension and his law license was suspended by the S.C. Supreme Court.
No reason was given for the sanction. Swett’s embezzlements and money laundering were similar to, although on a smaller scale, the notorious siphoning of money from his firm and clients by legal fraudster Alex Murdaugh, the Hampton County ex-lawyer who is now disbarred and in prison. Like Murdaugh, Swett’s judge is Gergel, a serious jurist known for his rectitude and who has shown he can take a hard line against lawyers who betray their clients and their profession.
In April 2024, Gergel gave Murdaugh 40 years in prison for stealing some $10 million from his firm and clients over a 15-year period. Murdaugh’s crimes included money laundering and wire fraud, the same charges Swett pleaded guilty to.
Lawyers should use their law license to do good for their clients and not go to the law’s “dark side,” Gergel said at Murdaugh’s hearing. Nate Williams, Swett’s attorney, said that Thursday’s hearing was “something he’d been aware of for some time. He surrendered his law license two years ago when things started to come to the surface.
He’s been trying to do what’s best and what’s right to make amends for some of the decisions he made. Obviously, pleading guilty is part of that.” Williams, a former federal prosecutor, predicted “more will come out at sentencing.” Bryan Stirling, the U.S. Attorney for South Carolina, was at Swett’s hearing. “We are going to hold people responsible, no matter what their station in life is,” he said.
