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Todd and Julie Chrisley of ‘Chrisley Knows Best’ indicted on tax evasion charges

Reality TV personalities Julie (L) and Todd Chrisley (R) visit Hallmark's 'Home & Family' at Universal Studios Hollywood on June 18, 2018 in Universal City, Calif. Paul Archuleta/Getty Images

Todd and Julie Chrisley of Chrisley Knows Best were indicted on Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Atlanta on tax evasion and other charges.

The 12-count indictment issued against the Chrisley Knows Best star and his wife, Julie, also includes charges of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States, U.S. Attorney Byung J. (BJay) Pak said at a news conference.

Allan Mayer, a representative for Chrisley, said Tuesday afternoon that his client’s lawyers hadn’t seen the indictment and couldn’t comment.

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Accountant Peter Tarantino was also charged in the indictment with conspiracy to defraud the United States and aiding the filing of a false tax return. A woman who answered the phone at his office Tuesday afternoon said he was with a client and would have no comment.

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The family moved to Tennessee a few years ago, but the criminal charges stem from when they lived in Atlanta’s northern suburbs.

Todd denied any wrongdoing in an Instagram post before the indictment was announced.

“[W]e have nothing to hide and have done nothing to be ashamed of,” he wrote in the post alongside a photo of his family.
“It all started back in 2012, when we discovered that a trusted employee of ours had been stealing from us big time. I won’t go into detail, but it involved all kinds of really bad stuff like creating phony [sic] documents, forging out signatures and threatening other employees with violence,” Todd wrote.

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He also alleged that the employee “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 [sic] 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.”

Todd accused the former employee of persuading “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.

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“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 continued: “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.”

“We want to express our gratitude to everyone who helped place us where we are today in our lives. We thank you for your support and we will continue to work every day to earn your respect, loyalty and admiration,” Todd concluded his post.

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Chrisley Knows Best follows the tight-knit, boisterous family living in the Nashville area. Much of the series emphasizes Todd’s obsessive yet comedic efforts to keep tabs on three of his kids, two of whom are in their 20s, and his mother.

The series has aired on USA for seven seasons and recently premiered a spinoff called Growing Up Chrisley, featuring his kids Chase and Savannah, who move to Los Angeles. Todd also briefly hosted a talk show, According to Chrisley, for the network. Todd and Julie also have a podcast called Chrisley Confessions.

Global News reached out to USA Network who had no comment on the matter.

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—With files from the Associated Press

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