ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge was expected to re-sentence reality TV star Julie Chrisley on Wednesday after an appeals court ordered a new sentence for her conviction on bank fraud and tax evasion charges.
Chrisley and her husband Todd Chrisley rose to fame through their show “Chrisley Knows Best,” which followed their close-knit family and extravagant lifestyle. A jury found them guilty in 2022 of conspiring to defraud community banks of more than $30 million in fraudulent loans. The Chrisleys were also found guilty of tax evasion by concealing their income.
The couple’s accountant, Peter Tarantino, stood trial with them and was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the United States and willfully filing false tax returns.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in June upheld the convictions of the Chrisleys and Tarantinos, but found a legal error in calculating Julie Chrisley’s sentence by holding her responsible for the entire bank fraud. So the panel sent her case back to the lower court for re-sentencing.
In a court filing this month, federal prosecutors argued that the judge should give Julie Chrisley the same seven-year sentence she originally imposed. Chrisley’s lawyers asked for a total sentence of no more than five years, writing that her two youngest children struggled with “day-to-day life” while she was away.
Before the Chrisleys became reality TV stars, they and a former business partner filed false documents with Atlanta-area banks to obtain fraudulent loans, prosecutors said during the trial. They accused the couple of spending lavishly on luxury cars, designer clothes, real estate and travel, and using new fraudulent loans to pay off old ones. Todd Chrisley then filed for bankruptcy, according to prosecutors, leaving behind more than $20 million in unpaid loans.
Julie Chrisley was sentenced to seven years in a federal prison and Todd Chrisley was sentenced to 12 years behind bars. The couple was also ordered to pay $17.8 million in restitution.
On appeal, the Chrisleys challenged aspects of their convictions and sentences, and Tarantino sought to have his conviction overturned and a retrial.
The appeals judges found only one error in the case. They ruled that the judge in sentencing held Julie Chrisley responsible for the entire bank fraud that began in 2006. The panel ruled that neither the prosecution nor the judge “presented concrete evidence that she was involved in the fraud in 2006.”
The panel found sufficient evidence to implicate them in a fraud that lasted several years, beginning in 2007.
Todd Chrisley, 56, is being held at a minimum-security federal prison in Pensacola, Florida. His release date is September 2032, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website. Julie Chrisley, 51, had been held at a facility in Lexington, Kentucky.
Tarantino, 62, is in a halfway house near Atlanta and is scheduled to be released in March, according to the prison department’s website.
