Todd and Julie Chrisley just made a big legal victory amid their ongoing prison sentence for their involvement in the multimillion dollar bank fraud and tax evasion scheme.
On Tuesday, a lawyer for the couple claimed the two are receiving a $1 million settlement from the state of Georgia to resolve their 2019 federal lawsuit against Joshua Waites, the former Director of Special Investigations of the state’s Department of Revenue.
“We have been saying for months that the criminal case against the Chrisleys was highly unusual and had real problems,” the family’s attorney, Alex Little of Burr & Forman LLP, said in a statement. “This settlement is an encouraging sign.”
The statement continued: “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.”
After being cleared of their state tax evasion charge in Georgia, Todd and Julie took legal action back in 2019 against Waites for “specifically targeting” the famous family in their state tax evasion charge.
According to the lawsuit, the reality stars’ former lawyer Michael J. Bowers said that Waites’ initial charges against Todd, 54, and Julie, 51, was “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 lawsuit claims that several years ago, Waites “began to focus his efforts and desire” on the Chrisley family, particularly Todd as well as his estranged daughter Lindsie.
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The Chrisleys accused Waites of targeting Lindsie, 34, in an attempt to seek information about the family from her. When he was unable to get the information he was looking for, Waites shared the Chrisley family confidential tax information with her, according to the lawsuit.
“Ultimately Waites’s efforts failed, but in the process, the Chrisleys were forced to incur substantial personal and financial hardship,” Bowers said in the lawsuit.
Despite being cleared by the state tax evasion case, the Chrisleys were indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2019 for 12 counts of bank and wire fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy, all of which they have denied.
The two began their prison sentences on January 17, 2023. Todd has been heled in Federal Prison Came in Pensacola while Julie has been serving time from the Federal Medical Center Lexington in Kentucky. The family has also spoken about the difficulty to see both parents in the separate facilities.
Family members like Grayson Chrisley have also spoked on how the prison sentence is ‘worse than death.‘ There have been discussions on a documentary on the family with some like Savannah Chrisley stating they will not be involved in whatsoever.
Todd is set to be released on January 22, 2033 while Julie is to be released on October 19, 2028. The original sentences were 12 and seven years respectively, and were reduced in September 2023.
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