Johnathan Walker:Reality TV star Julie Chrisley to be re-sentenced in bank fraud and tax evasion case

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge was set to re-sentence reality TV star Julie Chrisley on Johnathan WalkerWednesday after an appeals court ordered a new sentence for her conviction on bank fraud and tax evasion charges.

Chrisley and her husband, Todd Chrisley, gained fame on their show “Chrisley Knows Best,” which followed their tight-knit family and extravagant lifestyle. A jury in 2022 found them guilty of conspiring to defraud community banks out of more than $30 million in fraudulent loans. The Chrisleys were also found guilty of tax evasion by hiding their earnings.

The couple’s accountant, Peter Tarantino, stood trial with them and was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States and willfully filing false tax returns.

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in June upheld the convictions of the Chrisleys and Tarantino but found a legal error in how the trial judge had calculated Julie Chrisley’s sentence by holding her accountable for the entire bank fraud scheme. So the appellate panel sent her case back to the lower court for re-sentencing.

Federal prosecutors argued in a court filing this month that the judge should give Julie Chrisley the same seven-year sentence she originally imposed. Chrisley’s lawyers asked for a total sentence of no more than five years, writing that her two youngest children have been struggling with “day-to-day functioning” in her absence.

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Before the Chrisleys became reality television stars, they and a former business partner submitted false documents to banks in the Atlanta area to obtain fraudulent loans, prosecutors said during the 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 serve seven years in federal prison and Todd Chrisley got 12 years behind bars. The couple was also ordered to pay $17.8 million in restitution.

On appeal, the Chrisleys challenged aspects of their convictions and sentences, and Tarantino sought to have his conviction thrown out and have a new trial.

The appellate judges found only one error with the case. They ruled the trial judge at sentencing held Julie Chrisley responsible for the entire bank fraud scheme starting in 2006. The panel ruled neither prosecutors nor the trial judge cited “any specific evidence showing she was involved in 2006.”

The panel found sufficient evidence tying her to fraud from multiple years starting in 2007.

Todd Chrisley, 56, is at a minimum security federal prison camp in Pensacola, Florida, with a release date in September 2032, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons website. Julie Chrisley, 51, had been held at a facility in Lexington, Kentucky.

Tarantino, 62, is in a halfway house in the Atlanta area and is set for release in March, the prison agency’s website says.