The 9 biggest bombshells from the Todd and Julie Chrisley trial
The 9 biggest bombshells from the Todd and Julie Chrisley trial
Libby Torres,Haven Orecchio-Egresitz
Tue, June 7, 2022 at 5:16 PM
Julie and Todd Chrisley were found guilty of bank fraud and tax evasion in Atlanta.Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
- Todd and Julie Chrisley were found guilty of defrauding banks and hiding money from the IRS.
- The trial, which began in May, was full of shocking allegations about the reality-TV couple.
- Here are the nine biggest bombshells from the weeks-long trial.
Todd Chrisley denied allegations of bank fraud.Photo Bank via Getty Images
A superseding indictment from February included an email a Chrisley "co-conspirator" sent to a bank, which included a financial statement showing that Chrisley had $4 million in a Merrill Lynch bank account.
The statement was false, since Chrisley didn't have an account with Merrill Lynch at that time. When he did open an account with the financial institution in 2008, he never had more than $17,000 on deposit, the indictment said.
"As a result of false representations like these, a number of banks issued the conspirators millions of dollars in loans, much of which Todd and Julie Chrisley used for their own personal benefit," the indictment read.
The Chrisleys "burned" through loans to purchase luxury items.
Julie Chrisley, left, and Todd Chrisley on season eight of "Chrisley Knows Best."USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
Assistant US Attorney Annalise Peters said in her opening statement that the Chrisleys not only submitted fake documents that implied they had greater wealth than they actually did, but that the couple also "burned" through the $30 million they received in loans on luxury items.
"They made up documents and they lie through their teeth to get whatever they want, whenever they want it," Peters said to the jury.
According to Peters, the Chrisleys hid money from the IRS while partaking in a lavish lifestyle.
But an attorney for Todd Chrisley said the couple exaggerated some aspects of their lifestyle for their television show.
Julie Chrisley, left, and Todd Chrisley on season eight of "Chrisley Knows Best."USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
Chrisley has made several bold claims about his spending over the years — in 2017, he said during a radio interview that he paid over $1 million in taxes a year (Peters said "hadn't paid a dime" in years, and records presented at trial show no significant payments), and in an episode of his reality show "Chrisley Knows Best," the television personality claimed to spend about $300,000 annually on clothing.
"It's all part of the sizzle. It's all part of the show. It's all part of the act," Bruce Morris, an attorney for the Chrisleys, told the jury of Chrisley's claims. According to Morris, despite Chrisley's attempts to appear wealthy on the reality show, he was actually in bankruptcy when he made the claim about his hefty wardrobe budget.
Morris also said that the Chrisleys' ex-employee who turned them in to federal agents was "obsessed" with Todd and "wanted to be him."
Todd Chrisley.USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
Mark Braddock was a business partner of the Chrisleys until 2012, and during that time, Chrisley's attorney Bruce Morris argued, Braddock did everything he could to "live like Todd," including buying one of Chrisley's former homes and impersonating Chrisley on phone calls.
Morris went on to argue that after Chrisley fired Braddock, he went to the FBI for "protection and revenge," and claimed that Chrisley had committed bank fraud.
The defense said that the Chrisleys continued to "lie through their teeth" to get bank loans and avoid taxes even after they'd fired Braddock.
The woman who made the Chrisleys famous was a previous employee to whom he owed $10,000.
The Chrisley family stars in "Chrisley Knows Best" and a spin-off of the show.Tommy Garcia/USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
Annie Kate Pons, a producer on "Chrisley Knows Best," testified that she met Todd Chrisley in Los Angeles in 2009. She was a former DC newswoman who moved to LA to work in TV.
While trying to break into the business, she met with Todd Chrisley because he had plans to launch a luxury department store, Chrisley and Co, she testified.
Pons said she was trying to sell a line of baby clothes to Chrisley. He didn't buy them but offered her a future job as a buyer for the department store.
She took the job, and flew to New York during fashion week to try and network with designers for the future store, which never came to fruition.
In the end, Chrisley owed Pon $10,000 in unpaid work, which she tried to get, "but it never came," she said.
A few years later, though, when working in TV, Pons kept thinking of the Chrisleys' boisterous family and pitched a reality show about them. The sizzle reel took off, and the show was sold to USA Network.
Pons testified that she only worked on the show for one season, but will be credited as a producer for the lifetime of the show — bringing in around $200,000 a year.
Mark Braddock testified that he and Chrisley had an "intimate" relationship.
Todd Chrisley on season eight of the reality series "Chrisley Knows Best."USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
Braddock said he helped the Chrisleys falsify documents in order to obtain bank loans and told prosecutors that he became involved in the fraudulent schemes due to the nature of his relationship with Chrisley.
"We had a personal relationship of an intimate nature," Braddock said. "I would do whatever he needed to get done."
Braddock and Chrisley's personal relationship lasted for about a year, and then they went on to have a business relationship and "brotherhood," Braddock testified.
According to Braddock, he and Chrisley paid a would-be blackmailer $38,000 in cash.
Todd Chrisley on season eight of "Chrisley Knows Best."USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
Braddock also testified that during his employment at Chrisley's foreclosure-management company, Chrisley Asset Management, he and Chrisley were contacted by an anonymous texter at one point.
The texter threatened to go public with Chrisley and Braddock's fraud, as well as their affair, he said. Braddock testified that the texts said, "pay cash and we'll shut up."
According to the ex-business partner's testimony, he made four $9,500 withdrawals from the business account. Braddock subsequently met Chrisley in a parking garage and gave him the cash "in a little bag" to pay the blackmailer.
Insider previously reported that the Chrisleys fired Braddock in 2012. Chrisley has since alleged that Braddock stole money from his family.
Chrisley's attorney, Bruce Morris, alleged in his opening statement that Braddock was "obsessed" with Chrisley and wanted to be him. Morris implied later in his cross-examination of Braddock that he believed he was Chrisley.
The Chrisleys' daughter reported to the FBI that her father and brother were extorting her.
Lindsie Chrisley.Photo by Marcus Ingram/Getty Images and USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
Lindsie Chrisley, the Chrisleys' oldest daughter, told the FBI in 2020 that her father and brother, Chase, were trying to extort her and threatened to release a sex tape of her.
Emails from Lindsie Chrisley to the FBI were shown to the jury in which she said she was trying to get a restraining order against her father, who was harassing her. She made similar comments on "Dr. Phil."
"I am in no way, shape, or form connected to this monster," she wrote in 2020.
During her testimony, however, she was combative with the prosecutor, who asked her during cross-examination about reaching out to law enforcement about her dad, prompting the judge to intervene and tell her to stop answering questions in that tone.
Lindsie said she later learned there was no sex tape, and now doesn't believe that her father was behind the extortion.
On direct examination, she said that her father had been her primary caregiver when she was recovering from an eating disorder in 2008, and he also dedicated his time to care for his son, Kyle, when he was dealing with a substance-use disorder.
Her father's top priorities, she said, are "his children and his wife, in that order."
Another ex-employee said she "ruined" Chrisley's life at the direction of Braddock.
Todd Chrisley on season eight of "Chrisley Knows Best."USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
Donna Cash testified that Braddock told her to commit financial fraud with him, in order to ruin Chrisley's finances.
According to Cash, who worked at Chrisley's asset-management company, she sent fake financial documents to loan companies and lied about the health of the company at Braddock's urging.
But Cash testified that she stopped when she realized the Chrisleys' home was on the brink of foreclosure. She then confided in Chrisley that "both Mark and I were lying to him about everything that was going on."
"It was the worst thing I've ever done in my life," Cash said of the fraud.
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