Julie and Todd Chrisley are on trial for bank fraud and tax evasion in Atlanta.Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
Todd and Julie Chrisley have been on trial on federal bank and tax fraud charges for two weeks.
They are accused of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and tax evasion.
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Todd and Julie Chrisley, reality TV stars from Atlanta, Georgia, have been on trial accused of federal bank and tax fraud since mid-May.
But before their names were making national headlines because of the trial, the couple rose to reality TV fame in 2014 with the premiere of their reality TV show, "Chrisley Knows Best."
The show centered around Todd Chrisley, a real estate mogul, self-made millionaire, and father who set off to open a department store with his real estate company, Chrisley & Company. While the department store never panned out, Vice News reported that at the time of the show's launch, Todd Chrisley felt "fashion was his calling."
"While their lifestyle is over-the-top and their personalities are larger-than-life, the Chrisleys are a very close-knit family who are refreshingly honest and genuinely funny," a spokesman for USA Network said ahead of the show's premiere, the New York Daily News reported.
Todd Chrisley even boasted of spending upwards of $300,000 on clothing and accessories in a year for his seven-person family.
A history of legal troubles
In 2012, Todd Chrisley filed for bankruptcy protection for nearly $50 million. People reported at the time of the filing that Todd Chrisley had claimed $4.2 million in assets but had racked up nearly $50 million in debt.
A later investigation from Channel 2 Action News showed that Todd Chrisley had filed the bankruptcy protection in Florida, despite the family admitting they had never lived there. Todd Chrisley eventually moved the filings to Georgia.
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In 2017, WSB-TV in Atlanta first reported the Chrisleys had filed no tax returns in Georgia in all of the years they had lived there and, at the time, owed the state nearly $800,000.
Though Todd Chrisley had declared himself a resident of Georgia on several court filings, as well as made the information widely public, he never filed income in the state.
The Chrisleys were indicted by a Georgia grand jury in 2019 on charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and tax evasion.
Prosecutors have alleged that the Chrisleys and their accountant submitted fake documents and fabricated their wealth to banks when applying for loans between 2007 and 2012.
In an example prosecutors showcased in court documents, an unnamed "co-conspirator" sent an email to a bank that copied Todd Chrisley. Prosecutors said the email contained an attachment showing a false financial statement that made it appear as though Todd Chrisley had $4 million in a Merrill Lynch account.
"As a result of false representations like these, a number of banks issued the conspirators millions of dollars in loans, much of which Todd and Julie Chrisley used for their own personal benefit," the indictment read.
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