Reality TV couple Todd and Julie Chrisley and their former CPA, Peter Tarantino are facing charges including, wire fraud, tax evasion, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and defrauding the Internal Revenue Service, reported WSBTV.
The charges were handed down in Atlanta-Georgia Northern District.
#Breaking #Exclusive (thread) : Reality TV couple Todd and Julie Chrisley and their former CPA Peter Tarantino just indicted by federal grand jury for tax evasion, other financial crimes.
Indictment handed down in Atlanta-Georgia Northern District. @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/81HOeTTKui— Nicole Carr (@NicoleCarrWSB) August 13, 2019
On the night before the indictments, Todd anticipated the event and wrote a lengthy Instagram post denying the accusations against himself and his wife. He blamed their ex-employee, saying that he or she had stolen from them and created fake documents, as well as, forging signatures and threatening other employees if they said anything.
More (thread): Read an hour ago that a Chrisley rep wasn’t aware that anything happened yet. I don’t have the electronic copy of the Chrisley indictment yet, but here are screenshots from the stamped hard copy. Breaking down at 5 @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/dOBpLUyxJ8
— Nicole Carr (@NicoleCarrWSB) August 13, 2019
“I’ve never talked about this publicly before, but there’s been a cloud hanging over Julie and me and our entire family for the past seven years. It all started back in 2012, when we discovered that a trusted employee of ours had been stealing from us big time,” he starts the post on Instagram.
Todd said that he would not go into details but added that this person had bugged their home. He then said he fired the unidentified person and took that person to court. “We even discovered that he illegally bugged our home, needless to say, we fired the guy and took him to court —and that’s when the real trouble started. To get revenge, he took a bunch of his phony documents to the U.S. Attorney’s office and told them we had committed all kinds of financial crimes, like tax evasion and bank fraud. That got their attention all right, but once we had a chance to explain who he was and what he’d done to us, they realized it was all a bunch of nonsense and they sent him on his way.”
View this post on InstagramThank you all for your love and support. Our family will forever be grateful ❤️ God bless you all!
Todd alleged that their former employee persuaded investigators at the U.S. Attorney’s office and, as a result, obtained immunity from prosecution.
“So far so good—except that our former employee didn’t give up. Somehow, he persuaded a different set of investigators at the U.S. Attorney’s office not only to reopen the case but also to grant him immunity from prosecution for his own crimes and bring charges against us,” Todd said.
“As a result, it looks like later this week Julie and I are going to be named in a federal indictment charging us with tax evasion and probably a bunch of other financial crimes as well,” he wrote.
Todd went on to explain they have “a ton” of evidence and denied any wrongdoing.
“I’m telling you all this now because we have nothing to hide and have done nothing to be ashamed of. Not only do we know we’ve done nothing wrong, but we’ve got a ton of hard evidence and a bunch of corroborating witnesses that proves it.”
NEW (thread): Just wrapped interview w BJ Pak, US Attorney for Georgia Northern District.
Says the Chrisleys were not reporting sizable reality tv salary to the IRS. Feds: Former Roswell CPA (Tarantino) aided falsifying of docs. Named in counts 11, 12 of 12 ct indictment @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/ymvrdFAQyl— Nicole Carr (@NicoleCarrWSB) August 13, 2019
Todd’s daughter, Savanah Chrisley, left a supportive text message for her father, “Thank you for being YOU! You have and always will be the glue that holds us all together. God has a much bigger plan for all of us and this is just part of it,” she wrote, “thank you for being the most loving, kind hearted, and honest father. You will forever be my bestfriend…now let’s let God do the work.”
