Julie Chrisley won a victory in the court of appeals Friday when judges overturned her conviction for tax evasion and bank fraud.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals still upheld the convictions against Julie and her husband, Todd Chrisley, who were sentenced to a combined 19 years in prison in November 2022 after a jury found the couple guilty of conspiring to defraud community banks out of more than $30 million in fraudulent loans, in addition to conspiring to defraud the IRS.
According to The Associated Press, a three-judge panel determined that the sentencing of Julie was calculated incorrectly by the trial judge.
Todd’s original sentence of 12 years was reduced by two years. Julie received a seven-year sentence for bank fraud and tax avoidance charges after being initially indicted on August 2019. In September 2023, her sentence was reduced from seven years to seven months.
Each of them will have to serve 16 months of probation after their prison sentences are over.
According to the outlet, a lower court will now have to redo the punishment of a woman on ‘a narrow issue.
Alex Little, the lawyer for Todd and Julie, told the outlet that the Chrisley family “hoped to hear more good news” in the future.
He said, “We are pleased that the Court has agreed that Julie’s punishment was incorrect, but we are disappointed that Todd’s appeal was rejected.”
In the Chrisley case two years ago the prosecutors claimed that the Chrisleys submitted false documents to banks to apply for loans. Julie was also accused of submitting a fake credit report and a fake bank statement when she tried to rent a home in California.
Annalise Peters of the United States Attorney’s Office claimed that at the trial, the Chrisleys “conspired” to evade the IRS.
Julie Chrisley was convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud in the bank, fraud in the bank, fraud against the United States, and tax fraud. She was also hit with wire fraud and obstruction-of-justice charges. She was sent to the BOP’s Lexington facility for the satellite camp with minimum security.
Todd Chrisley has been convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud against banks, fraud against banks, fraud against tax authorities, and conspiracy to defraud the United States. He checked in at Federal Prison Camp Pensacola, a minimum-security facility.
Peters argued, when it came to Chrisley’s former accountant Peter Tarantino who was sentenced to three years in prison after willfully filing false tax returns, that Little did not show any “actually compelling prejudice” that resulted from this.
In 2019, the Chrisleys won a small court case when the Georgia Department of Revenue cleared them of a charge of $2 million in state tax evasion stemming from an investigation that lasted two years and involved nearly eight years of returns dating back to 2008.
The Department of Revenue has dropped its claim that a couple owed over 2.1 million dollars in state taxes and penalties, plus interest. It now claims the debt is less than $110,000.
