Todd & Julie Chrisley Are Being Indicted For Tax Evasion! Read Their Plea Of Innocence!

UPDATE 8/13/2019 3:19 P.M. PST: The Chrisleys were able to get ahead of their legal trouble news, but not by much.

On Tuesday the government did indeed indict Todd, Julie, and their accountant, Peter Tarantino, on charges of tax evasion, bank fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy.

Todd previously insisted all of this was some kind of frame job by an unnamed duplicitous employee (whom we can only assume was Tarantino).

However, the feds have a different version of events; they say the Chrisleys defrauded several banks from 2007-2012 by giving them false documents in order to get better loans. Furthermore, they contend in 2014 — after the firing of the supposed culprit — Todd and Julie used a “fabricated credit report that had been physically cut and taped or glued together” to get a lease on a home in California.

US Attorney Byung J. Pak said in a statement:

“Todd and Julie Chrisley are charged not only with defrauding a number of banks by fraudulently obtaining millions of dollars in loans, but also with allegedly cheating taxpayers by actively evading paying federal taxes on the money they earned.”

He added:

“Celebrities face the same justice that everyone does. These are serious federal charges and they will have their day in court.”

It doesn’t look good for them at the moment…

Well, this right here is definitely beyond couch time.

Todd Chrisley just announced he and his wife, Julie, were about to be indicted on federal charges of tax evasion!

The Chrisley Knows Best patriarch took to Instagram on Monday to get in front of the news breaking and explain why his family is completely innocent of the legal poopstorm that’s about to come through the Chrisley house.

Todd begins:

“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.”

No, Todd doesn’t name the employee. And no point in guessing as this was years before the show began.

“I won’t go into details, but it involved all kinds of really bad stuff like creating phony documents, forging our signatures, and threatening other employees with violence if they said anything. We even discovered that he illegally bugged our home.”

What a violation! So scary!

“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.”

Whoa! Could they be held liable for signing fake documents they didn’t know were fake?

https://giphy.com/gifs/chrisleyknowsbest-chrisley-knows-best-ckb-l2Sq5L9nTke5jw5bO

They didn’t have to worry about it… at the time anyway. Todd continues:

“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.

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. 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.”

WHOA!

“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.”

Well, we certainly hope that’s true for their sake. Though we’re not sure how they could even get to the point of being indicted if they could prove their innocence so completely…

https://giphy.com/gifs/season-episode-knows-HuKiqTB2CKXf2

Todd goes on to give the full Chrisley by quoting the Bible, then concluding:

“We want to express our gratitude to everyone who helped place us where we are today in our lives.”

Except that employee probably. But that kind of goes without saying.

Todd and Julie’s son and costar Chase Crisley responded with full support, writing:

“I love you dad, the truth will come out. We are going to beat this and come out stronger than ever. You have taught me so much and continue to teach me everyday what it means to truly be a man, father, husband and also my best friend. No matter what happens nothing can take us away from each other. I’m beyond proud of you and i hope and pray i can grow to be half the man you are. I love you pops”

Another reality TV family indicted on financial crimes. Yeesh. At least they won’t have to face Todd being deported… to Roswell, Georgia.

What do YOU think of Todd’s explanation of the charges??

It certainly puts this GIF in a new light…

https://giphy.com/gifs/chrisleyknowsbest-chrisley-knows-best-ckb-3oz8xPjbjTNlt3PoEU

We guess we’ll hear the government’s side of things and see the evidence against the Chrisleys soon enough.

[Image via Nicky Nelson/WENN.]