A complete timeline of Todd and Julie Chrisley’s rise and fall, from reality TV fame to 19-year sentence for bank fraud and tax evasion
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, a real estate mogul, self-made millionaire, and father with dreams of opening a department store with his real estate company, Chrisley & Company.
While the department store never panned out, Vice reported that at the time of the show’s launch, Todd Chrisley felt “fashion was his calling.”
The focus of the reality series then shifted focus to Todd’s life at home with his God-loving, straight-talking wife, Julie, and their large brood, comprised of children Lindsie, Kyle, Chase, Savannah, Grayson, and granddaughter, Chloe.
“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.
For the first half of the series, the family lived in a 30,000-square-foot mansion north of Atlanta and then relocated to a $3.4 million home in Nashville, Bravo reported in 2019.
Before the series was canceled in light of Todd and Julie’s convictions, it spawned several spinoffs, including “Growing Up Chrisley,” which followed kids Chase and Savannah; “According to Chrisley,” an after-show hosted by Todd; and “What’s Cooking With Julie Chrisley,” a cooking web series hosted by Julie.
The show did not mention Todd’s financial struggles but showcased the family’s immense wealth and extravagant spending habits.
“In a year, we sometimes spend $300,000 or more, just on clothing,” Todd boasted to cameras in 2014.
However, in a court document from August 2012, the businessman said he had just $55 in a checking account and $100 in cash, after filing a petition for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection for almost $50 million.
One of his lawyers at the time, Robert Furr, told People that while Todd had $4.2 million in assets, he had racked up nearly $50 million in debt, partly due to poor real estate investments.
According to People, along with the business debt, Todd had several mortgages totaling $12 million, a $4.4 million loan from his wife, and a delinquent IRS bill for almost $600,000.
Per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a judge in the case granted Todd’s request for relief and erased $20 million of the debt in 2012.
At the Chrisleys’ November 2022 sentencing, the US Attorney’s Office said the couple neither filed tax returns nor paid any taxes for the 2013, 2014, 2015, or 2016 tax years.
As Business Insider’s Haven Orecchio-Egresitz reported from the courtroom, from 2013 to 2016, the couple made $6 million from “Chrisley Knows Best.” The money from the show was paid to the Chrisleys’ company, 7C’s Productions, but was not declared as income in federal tax returns.
“It’s clear that Mr. and Mrs. Chrisley were starring in a TV show and they were compensated handsomely as a result,” US Attorney Byung J. BJay Pak said in a press conference when the couple was indicted in 2019. “That money was hidden from the IRS.”
The day after the Chrisleys discovered that they were being investigated and the 7C’s Productions account had been provided to the IRS, Julie took her name off the account and replaced it with her mother-in-law’s, a Bank of America employee testified at the couple’s federal trial.
Prosecutors said at their indictment that the switch was made to keep the IRS from taking money from the account.
The couple was cleared of a state tax evasion charge in Georgia after they were charged with evading over $2 million in state taxes between 2008 and 2016.
The settlement indicated that the couple had overpaid several of those years and received a refund of more than $66,000, according to WXIA of Atlanta. They did owe the state money for one year ($214,118 in 2009) and agreed to pay just under $150,000 to settle the case.
In a press release, Todd said he and Julie “knew all along that we had done nothing wrong and that when the facts all came out, we would be fine.”
However, the couple was not out of the woods completely — while this was going on, a federal grand jury in Atlanta had indicted the couple on charges of conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion.
The Chrisleys were indicted by a federal grand jury in 2019 and accused by prosecutors of evading taxes and operating a conspiracy to defraud banks by making it appear that they were wealthier than they were.
They were indicted on 12 counts of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and tax evasion. The Chrisleys’ accountant, Peter Tarantino, was indicted on tax-related offenses.
Todd and Julie denied the crimes but turned themselves in.
During the trial, prosecutors alleged that the Chrisleys and their accountant submitted fake documents that fabricated their wealth to banks when applying for loans between 2007 and 2012, and hid the income from their reality TV show from the IRS.
The Chrisleys’ main defense was that the man who turned them into the FBI was a fraudster.
In opening statements, their lawyer blamed all bank fraud and tax evasion on Mark Braddock — a former business partner who testified at the trial that he and Todd had a “relationship of an intimate nature” in the early 2000s.
Braddock admitted to committing bank and tax fraud on the Chrisleys’ behalf.
He was given immunity from his crimes for testifying.
After less than three days of deliberations, the jury in the Atlanta federal trial found Todd, Julie, and their accountant guilty on all charges relating to running a yearslong conspiracy to defraud banks and hiding their money from the IRS.
The prosecutors successfully proved that the couple went to great lengths to manipulate financial records and inflate their apparent wealth so they could live a flashy lifestyle they couldn’t afford.
Todd was convicted of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the US, and tax fraud.
Julie was convicted of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the US, tax fraud, and wire fraud.
Tarantino was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the US and willfully filing false tax returns.
As Business Insider reported at the time, under the terms of release, Todd and Julie were ordered to stay home at all times unless they were at work, school, religious service, or seeking medical care.
Per the order, they also needed to alert their probation officers any time they spent over $1,000.
During this period, Todd and Julie used their podcast, “Chrisley Confessions,” as their main way to communicate with fans.
In the eight months between their trial and the eventual commencement of their sentences, they continued to release weekly episodes.
Their sentences were announced almost five months after they were found guilty.
Todd, 54, who prosecutors called the “mastermind” of the couple’s yearslong tax and bank fraud scheme, was sentenced to 12 years.
Julie, 50, who prosecutors believed played a lesser role, was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Tarantino was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in committing fraud on his clients’ behalf.
Following their jail time, all three were also sentenced to 16 months of probation.
Both Todd and Julie were sentenced below what the federal sentencing guidelines laid out — and less than what prosecutors in the case asked for — due to their age, health, and the fact that they care for Todd’s mother, Elizabeth “Nanny Faye” Chrisley, who has bladder cancer, and other relatives.
After being sentenced, Todd choked up over what he described as an “enormously sad day” for his family and asked the court to give his wife less prison time, Business Insider’s Azmi Haroun and Haven Orecchio-Egresitz reported.
“My wife, Julie, should not be punished,” he said in his statement as he stressed that his wife was the caregiver for their children, Grayson and Chloe, who were both minors at the time.
“I’m most concerned for Chloe and Grayson,” Julie said through sobs at the sentencing. “To hear your 10-year-old say she doesn’t want to live if their mom goes away, no child should feel that way.”
Julie’s request to stay in home confinement until their adopted daughter is an adult was ultimately denied by the court.
Following their sentencing, the couple’s eldest daughter together, Savannah, said she had taken custody of the couple’s then 16-year-old son and 10-year-old adopted daughter, Chloe.
