Reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley recorded one more episode of their podcast, Chrisley Confessions, before they were sentenced to a combined 19 years in prison on Monday, November 21, and that episode hit the web two days later on Wednesday, November 23. “Everyone knows that we’re living through a nightmare,” Julie says near the start of the hour-long episode. “And I have been focused on not living in fear.”
Julie, 49, added that doing so is a struggle. “Because I do feel like I live in fear,” she said. “I know in my heart that I am a Christian, I believe God, I believe that God can work miracles, I believe that he will take care of my family, that if I died today, I know where I’m going. But I still have this fear. And I also know that the pain that God allows has a purpose.”
After being convicted of tax evasion and bank fraud this June, the Chrisley Knows Best duo were sentenced to prison on Monday for what prosecutors called “a 15-year fraud spree,” per Variety. Todd got 12 years behind bars, while Julie got seven, and both were ordered to 16 months of probation.
A federal jury found that Todd and Julie had hidden millions of dollars in earnings from the USA reality show from the IRS, and prosecutors alleged that the couple used falsified documents to obtain $30 million in bank loans. Todd and Julie’s accountant, Peter Tarantino, was convicted of conspiring to defraud the IRS, and on Monday he was sentenced to three years in prison.
“Todd and Julie Chrisley are career swindlers who have made a living by jumping from one fraud scheme to another, lying to banks, stiffing vendors, and evading taxes at every corner,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo. “Their ‘empire’ was built upon the backs of defrauded community banks that collapsed while Todd Chrisley used the stolen money to fly to Los Angeles for bi-weekly haircuts.”
In the podcast episode, Julie said she was grateful her marriage to Todd had gotten stronger throughout the legal saga. “When people go through traumatic events, a lot of times, they don’t make it,” she said. “A lot of times, the relationship falls apart because everything is stressful, and there’s way added pressures, and people don’t make it. And I’m grateful that our relationship has grown instead of falling apart.”
Todd, for his part, said that this ordeal is the most taxing of his life so far. “As bad as I hate to say this, burying a parent is the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, but I can honestly and truly say that I don’t think it was as hard as what I’m going through right now,” the 53-year-old observed. “And that’s a sad thing to say, but I deal with that every day.”
