ATLANTA– Reality TV star Julie Chrisley’s punishment bank fraud and tax evasion was dismissed Friday by federal appeals judges, who ordered a lower court to redo her sentence over what the appeals panel called a “narrow issue.”
Julie Chrisley and her husband Todd Chrisley, who rose to fame with the show ‘Chrisley Knows Best’ which chronicled the exploits of their close-knit family, were sentenced 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 hiding their income while displaying an extravagant lifestyle.
The couple’s accountant, Peter Tarantino, stood trial alongside them and was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States and intentionally filing false tax returns.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of the Chrisleys and Tarantino in a ruling that found only a legal error in how the judge calculated Julie Chrisley’s sentence by holding her responsible for the entire bank fraud scheme. Therefore, the appeals panel sent her case back to the lower court for resentencing.
Before the Chrisleys became reality TV stars, they and a former business partner submitted false documents to Atlanta-area banks to obtain fraudulent loans, prosecutors said at 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, walking away from more than $20 million in unpaid loans.
Julie Chrisley was sentenced to seven years in prison and Todd Chrisley received 12 years behind bars. The couple was also ordered to pay $17.8 million in restitution.
Their lawyers argued in vain in higher appeal that an IRS official lied at trial when he testified that the couple still owed taxes and that prosecutors knowingly failed to correct that false testimony. They also alleged that prosecutors failed to show enough evidence to convict the Chrisleys of tax evasion and conspiracy, or that Julie Chrisley participated in bank fraud.
Tarantino’s attorney argued that the accountant suffered damages from being tried by the Chrisleys. His request for a new trial was denied.
The appellate judges found only one error in the case. They ruled that the sentencing judge held Julie Chrisley responsible for the entire bank fraud scheme that began in 2006. The panel found that neither prosecutors nor the trial judge “cited any specific evidence showing her involvement in 2006.”
The panel found sufficient evidence linking her to fraud for several years beginning in 2007.
“We must vacate Julie’s sentence so that the court can address the narrow issue of what is the appropriate amount of loss attributable to Julie” so that her sentence can be recalculated, the appeals panel wrote.
Alex Little, an attorney for the Chrisleys, did not immediately respond to an email message seeking comment Friday evening.
Todd Chrisley, 56, is in a minimum security federal prison camp in Pensacola, Florida, with a release date of September 2032, while Julie Chrisley, 51, is in a prison in Lexington, Kentucky and will be released in July 2028. This is reported by the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
Tarantino, 61, is being held in a minimum-security federal prison camp in Montgomery, Alabama, with a release date of next August.