Todd and Julie Chrisley, stars of reality TV show Chrisley Knows Best, were arrested Wednesday and charged with income tax evasion, wire fraud and conspiracy bank fraud. They face 30 years in prison if convicted on all charges.
According to WSBTV, the Chrisleys turned themselves in after being indicted by a federal grand jury for tax evasion and other financial crimes. The 12-count indictment detailed the lengths the couple took to hide millions of dollars in reality TV income from the IRS.
The documents claim the couple deposited millions of dollars into a LLC they formed to hide their income. Furthermore, the reality stars did not file tax returns for 2014, 2015 or 2016.
According to documents obtained by WSBTV, prosecutors scoured text messages and emails to piece together their case against the Chrisleys.
They also claim the Chrisleys used their production company, 7 C Production, to hide their reality TV income from the IRS.
Todd is accused of directing an employee to falsify income and asset documents.
In one text message, Todd angrily snapped at his employee for not helping him to falsify his taxes.
The message reads:
“giving me an excuse as to why you can not figure this out does not move it off your plate., this is not what we discussed, passing it back and forth is not getting the results requested, if you do not know how to do this then find a crooked accountant to do it. Ask [redacted] who her guy uses for his crooked shit.”
In a previous bankruptcy filing, Todd claimed the government got the state wrong where he files his taxes.
“I am a Florida resident and have been for 15 years and if I don’t make money in Georgia I don’t pay taxes in Georgia. I pay $750,000 to a million dollars every year in taxes.”
