Todd and Julie Chrisley have found out what will happen to them.
According to a news release acquired by E! News from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia, an Atlanta federal jury found the reality stars guilty of tax evasion and bank fraud after nearly three weeks of testimony from prosecutors and witnesses.
According to a court document obtained by NBC News, the Chrisley Knows Best performers were federally indicted in August 2019 on 12 counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
According to the Associated Press, the couple pled not guilty to the allegations but were convicted guilty on all counts on June 7.
The Chrisleys allegedly colluded to defraud banks out of more than $30 million in personal loans by falsifying bank statements and other means, according to the US attorney’s office.
In a statement received by E! News, Keri Farley, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Atlanta, said, “When you lie, cheat, and steal, justice is blind as to your reputation, riches, and position.” “In the end, the judgement of guilty on all counts for these three defendants illustrates once again that financial crimes do not pay when motivated by greed.”
According to Insider, the couple could face up to 30 years in prison. At a later date, they will be sentenced.
Todd’s lawyer, Bruce Morris, told E! News that he was “disappointed in the result” and that an appeal would be filed.
Julie Chrisley, Todd Chrisley
Todd responded to the indictment with a message denying any misconduct. “We have nothing to hide and nothing to be embarrassed of,” he wrote with a photo of his family on Instagram. “Not only do we know we didn’t do anything illegal, but we have a ton of concrete evidence and a slew of corroborating witnesses to back it up.”
Todd attributed the legal wrangling to a former employee who was fired in 2012 after the Chrisleys discovered he had been “stealing from us big time.” According to him, the worker retaliated against the family by sending “forged documents” to the US attorney’s office and told federal prosecutors that “we had done all kinds of financial crimes.”
According to Insider, who cited court documents, federal prosecutors claimed Todd, his wife Julie, and their accountant, Peter Tarantino, filed phony bank documents and lied about their wealth when seeking for loans from 2007 through 2012.
Todd, Julie, and Peter were charged with five charges of bank fraud, one count of bank fraud conspiracy, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, and one count of tax fraud, respectively. Julie was also charged with one count of obstruction of justice and one count of wire fraud, as well as two counts of wilfully filing false tax forms by the accountant.
Todd and Julie were exonerated of a state tax evasion allegation in Georgia in October 2019, according to E! News. The Georgia Department of Revenue accused the pair of avoiding nearly $2 million in state taxes between 2008 and 2016, but the office eventually disclosed that the couple had actually overpaid the state and had a net debt of less than $77,000 in delinquent taxes for only one year of wrong reporting.
“Julie and I knew all along that we had done nothing illegal and that once the facts were all out, we would be fine,” Todd said at the time in an interview with E! News. “All we can say is that we’re grateful that the Department of Revenue was prepared to keep an open mind and consider all of the information.”