Cythina Hicks/USA Network(LOS ANGELES) — Todd and Julie Chrisley, stars of the USA Network reality series Chrisley Knows Best, have been indicted by a federal grand jury on a litany of financial crimes including tax evasion, bank fraud, wire fraud and multiple counts of conspiracy, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Georgia.
“Todd and Julie Chrisley are charged not only with defrauding a number of banks by fraudulently obtaining millions of dollars in loans, but also with allegedly cheating taxpayers by actively evading paying federal taxes on the money they earned,” U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak said of the criminal indictment, which was filed on Tuesday.
The government claims that the Chrisleys didn’t file on time or pay federal income taxes for four years and that they “also sought to evade payment of their taxes by hiding their income from the IRS.”
The indictment also alleges that at least as early as 2007, the couple provided false information to banks and fabricated bank statements when applying for and receiving millions of dollars in loans, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Additionally, in 2014, two years after the alleged bank fraud scheme ended, the couple allegedly fabricated bank statements and a credit report when applying for and obtaining a lease for a home in California, according to the statement.
Todd Chrisley denied the charges in a lengthy Instagram post, insisting that in 2012, a “trusted employee of ours had been stealing from us big time,” while allegedly creating phony documents and forging signatures.
After firing the employee and taking him to court, wrote Chrisley, the employee “took a bunch of his phony documents to the U.S. Attorney’s office and told them we had committed all kinds of financial crimes, like tax evasion and bank fraud.”
After explaining to the U.S. Attorney’s Office what this former employee had done to them, the government sent the man packing, said Chrisley, but “the former employee didn’t give up” and persuaded a different set of investigators at the U.S. Attorney’s office to reopen the case, while granting him immunity from prosecution for his own crimes.”
“We have nothing to hide and have done nothing to be ashamed of,” Chrisley declared, insisting they have “a ton of hard evidence” and “corroborating witnesses that proves it.”
Chrisley Knows Best, which premiered in March 2014 on USA, follows the lavish lifestyle of Todd, a wealthy real estate developer, and his family. It also spun off a series, Growing Up Chrisley, starring two of his children.
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