Good news: Todd Chrisley will also soon be released from prison to reunite with his family
Reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley were awarded a $1 million settlement — what their lawyer called “an encouraging sign” — after filing a lawsuit against the Georgia director of special investigations who uncovered their bank fraud and tax evasion.
The “Chrisley Knows Best” couple accused Department of Revenue Director of Special Investigations Joshua Waites of using his position to threaten people on dubious tax claims in a lawsuit filed in 2019.
The lawsuit, seen by Business Insider, called Waites’ case “a shocking example of how an out-of-control public servant can abuse his office and violate the rights of innocent citizens for reasons that have more to do with securing publicity and money for his office than with enforcing the law.”
The Chrisleys alleged that Waites pursued an “increasingly aggressive relationship” with the Chrisleys’ daughter Lindsie Chrisley Campbell in an effort to get her “to reveal compromising information about her family.”
In the process, the lawsuit claimed, Waites disclosed the Chrisleys’ personal tax information to Lindsie and others, which was “intentional, willful, and malicious and/or with deliberate indifference to the Chrisleys’ rights.”
On Tuesday, Alex Little of the Nashville, Tennessee, law firm Burr & Forman announced that the state government had agreed to a settlement.
In a statement, Little called the settlement an “encouraging sign” for the Chrisleys in advance of their appeals case.
“We have been saying for months that the criminal case against the Chrisleys was highly unusual and had real problems. This settlement is an encouraging sign. It’s nearly unprecedented for one arm of the government to pay money to defendants when another arm is fighting to keep them in jail.”
In 2019, prosecutors accused the Chrisleys of taking out $30 million in bank loans and engaging in a conspiracy to hide their financial situation and defraud banks. They were indicted on 12 counts, and in 2022 both were found guilty of all 12 counts. The Chrisleys denied the crimes but turned themselves in.
Todd Chrisley was sentenced to 12 years in prison and Julie Chrisley received a 7-year sentence, but in 2023, both had time shaved off their sentences.
In November, the couple brought forward an appeals case, scheduled to be heard in April, on the grounds that the government used illegally obtained evidence in the case against them.
