Todd and Julie Chrisley lived an extravagant, reality TV-worthy lifestyle that was built on lies, according to prosecutors.
In her opening statement on Tuesday, Assistant US Attorney Annalise Peters said that the couple — best known for their USA Network reality series "Chrisley Knows Best" — submitted fake documents exaggerating their wealth to banks to borrow more than $30 million that they "burned" on luxury items, while also hiding money from the IRS.
"They made up documents and they lie through their teeth to get whatever they want whenever they want it," Peters told the jury.
Dressed in a navy blue suit, Todd Chrisley sat in a 17th floor Atlanta federal courtroom with his wife, Julie, and their legal team on Tuesday, where they are on trial for bank fraud and tax evasion. Two of their children, Savannah and Chase Chrisley, were in the courtroom Tuesday.
Julie Chrisley is also charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of obstruction of justice on accusations that inflated her income to rent a $13,000-a-month California home that she then didn't pay the rent on, and also manipulated documents provided during the federal investigation.
The Chrisley's accountant, Peter Tarantino, is charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and two counts of willfully filing false tax returns.
The Chrisleys have denied all of the charges, and their lawyer has blamed all bank fraud and tax evasion on the former employee who eventually turned the couple into the FBI, Mark Braddock.
Todd Chrisley's attorney, Bruce H. Morris, alleged in his opening statement that Braddock committed all the fraud — while impersonating Todd Chrisley — without them knowing and then turned on them when he was fired in 2012.
Braddock was "obsessed" with Todd Chrisley, and "wanted to be" him, buying homes and furniture to live a lifestyle that mimicked his, Morris said.
An attorney for Tarantino said that his client was an accountant who failed the CPA exam many times over 20 years and was unqualified to have taken on the Chrisleys. He is a procrastinator who was "in over his head," but not a criminal, he said.
Peters said in her opening that Braddock was a "fraudster." He was offered immunity for his participation, but said that he admitted all his crimes, as well as the specific instances of fraud committed by the couple, which was then backed up with other evidence.
The couple continued to commit fraud, she said, even after they cut all ties with Braddock.
"They were dead to each other," she said.
Todd Chrisley initially made his money by buying homes, fixing them up, decorating them, and selling them for a profit, Peters said.
And for a while, he was successful at that.
From 2007 to 2012, the business was doing well, but the couple was spending more than they were making, Peters said.
They "burned through" money on luxury cars, designer clothes, and a lifestyle outside of their budget, she said.
To get even more, the couple, and Braddock, began a scheme they called "scrapbooking," which involved piecing together parts of various documents when applying for personal loans to make it look like they had more money than they did.
They "targeted" over a dozen community banks with their schemes, believing those smaller branches would be less scrupulous, Peters said.
In one case, a statement made it look like Todd Chrisley had $4 million in an account, when he never had more than $20,000.
They used new loans to make payments on old loans, until they could no longer get anymore, she said.
When that happened, Todd Chrisley claimed bankruptcy in 2012 — walking away from $20 million in unpaid loans and putting a hold on the collection of $500,000 he owed on his 2009 taxes, Peters said.
Not long after, the couple got their reality show deal.