Chrisley Knows Best stars Todd and Julie Chrisley were indicted on tax evasion charges this week, and now the plea they entered in their case has been revealed. The news of the charges broke on Tuesday, then — according to TMZ — on Thursday the couple entered a plea of “not guilty.” They were subsequently released on $100,000 unsecured appearance bonds, each, and told that their travel is limited to the to Atlanta and some surrounding areas, as well as parts of Tennessee. They will also be allowed to travel to California for Chrisley Knows Best filming, as long as they notify their probation officers ahead of time.
The couple had vehemently denied the charged against them, with their attorneys issuing a statement via Deadline which read: “For quite some time now, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia has been conducting an investigation of Todd and Julie Chrisley based for the most part on the demonstrably false allegations of a former officer of a company they owned jointly.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
“We saw the results of this effort yesterday—an indictment against Todd, Julie, and their accountant that relies largely if not entirely on emails that we know Todd never sent but rather were fabricated by this former employee,” the statement added.
“This individual, identified in the indictment only as ‘Co-conspirator A,’ first approached federal authorities in 2012, claiming he had evidence that Todd had been trying to avoid paying his taxes,” the statement went on to read.
“What the authorities didn’t know, at least initially, was that he had been fired by the Chrisleys after they discovered he had been falsifying documents, forging their signatures, bugging their home, and intimidating other employees into covering up what amounted to a multi-million-dollar embezzlement scheme,” the Chrisley’s lawyers continued.
“These and many other criminal misdeeds were detailed in a federal RICO suit that the Chrisleys filed against him in 2012. Ironically, it was this lawsuit that sent him to the U.S. Attorney’s office. He wasn’t looking for justice but for revenge and his ‘evidence’ against Todd consisted mainly of falsified documents,” the statement also read.
“Now, seven years later, the government has granted this individual immunity from prosecution for his own crimes and used his false allegations to bring an indictment against the Chrisley,” the attorney’s added.
“We have no doubt that if this case ever reaches a courtroom, Todd and Julie will be completely exonerated. But in the meantime, their reputation will be sullied by a shamefully unjustified prosecution based on testimony of a dishonest source who has somehow managed to successfully mislead prosecutors,” the statement concluded.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
