Todd and Julie Chrisley sold off their Tennessee estate off the market for $5.2 million – despite being behind bars.
Both of them are currently serving prison sentences after being convicted of tax fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
However, even while locked up, they were able to offload their sprawling property last April and keep the transaction secret until TMZ exposed it this week.
Spread across 13,279 square feet in Brentwood, Tennessee, the house belonged to the Chrisleys for four years before they sold it.
When they first purchased the property in April 2019, months before they were indicted, Todd and Julie forked over $3,375,000.
Todd and Julie Chrisley sold off their Tennessee estate off the market for $5.2 million – despite being behind bars
Spread across 13,279 square feet in Brentwood, Tennessee, the house belonged to the Chrisleys for four years before they sold it
News of the sale broke just two days after their daughter Savannah vigorously defended them on her Instagram page.
She as reacting to her parents getting a $1million settlement from the state of Georgia after they claimed a Department of Revenue investigator ‘specifically targeted’ them.
Savannah felt that was very strange.
‘This should SCARE all of you! How are my parents sitting in prison but somehow are awarded a settlement? 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,’ she wrote.
‘I encourage everyone to open their eyes to the corruption that is occurring EVERY SINGLE DAY!! I’ll keep fighting the good fight ❤️.
‘WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS? #freethechrisleys.’
She also said: ‘You may see us struggle…. But you will NEVER see us give up!’
On Wednesday Todd and Julie celebrated a rare legal victory after they scored a $1 million settlement from the state of Georgia.
Todd and Julie’s daughter Savannah shared a new post to Instagram on Wednesday morning
The reality TV star was reacting to her parents getting a $1million settlement from the state of Georgia after they claimed Department of Revenue investigator ‘specifically targeted’ them; seen in 2020
Todd, 54, and Julie — who will be receiving a visit from her children in prison for her 51st birthday — had sued the former Director of Special Investigations for Georgia’s Department of Revenue, Joshua Waites, back in 2019.
They contended in court filings that Waites was ‘specifically targeting’ them with a tax evasion investigation due to their public profile and reality TV fame.
‘We have been saying for months that the criminal case against the Chrisleys was highly unusual and had real problems,’ their attorney, Alex Little of Burr & Forman LLP, said in a statement to People. ‘This settlement is an encouraging sign.’
He added: ‘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.’
However, Little appears to be referring to different governments, as the Chrisleys were cleared of tax evasion charges by the state of Georgia but were later convicted of multiple counts of bank fraud and tax evasion by a federal jury.
Savannah felt that was very strange. ‘This should SCARE all of you!’ she wrote; pictured with her family
Todd, 54, and Julie, 51, sued the former Director of Special Investigations for Georgia’s Department of Revenue, Joshua Waites, back in 2019; seen in 2017
The couple are currently serving federal prison sentences for bank fraud and tax evasion; still from Chrisley Knows Best
Todd was originally sentenced to 12 years in prison, while Julie was sentenced to seven years behind bars, but both sentences were subsequently shortened in September of last year, and they appear to have been shortened again more recently
As long as nothing else changes, Todd can now expect to be released on September 23, 2032.
Julie will now be leaving prison even earlier, with a tentative release date of August 20, 2028, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ online inmate search system.
Michael J. Bowers, the Chrisleys’ former lawyer, who filed their lawsuit in 2019, wrote that Waites’ charges against the couple were ‘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,’ according to People.
The lawsuit alleged that Waites ‘began to focus his efforts and desire’ on the Chrisley Knows Best stars, while particularly singling out both Todd and their daughter Lindsie, who is currently estranged from her parents.
Bowers and the Chrisleys claimed that Waites was only targeting Lindsie as a means to get her to share incriminating information about her parents.
That approach didn’t appear to pan out, and the lawsuit alleges that Waites then shared Todd and Julie’s confidential tax records with Lindsie.
‘Ultimately Waites’s efforts failed, but in the process, the Chrisleys were forced to incur substantial personal and financial hardship,’ Bowers wrote in filings.
‘We have been saying for months that the criminal case against the Chrisleys was highly unusual and had real problems,’ their attorney said in a statement. ‘This settlement is an encouraging sign’; seen in 2019 in Nashville
After the settlement was announced, a spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Revenue said that its ‘investigators are fair and impartial,’ but they admitted that revelations from the lawsuit were ‘disappointing,’ according to Page Six; seen in 2018 in Los Angeles
Although Todd and Julie are still facing years behind bars, even with the Georgia charges coming to nothing and the settlement from the state, the couple still have legal avenues to fight their conviction.
In April, their appeal against their federal convictions will be heard by an appeals court in Atlanta.
Following the settlement with the Chrisleys, a spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Revenue said in a statement that its ‘investigators are fair and impartial.’
However, they admitted that revelations from the Chrisleys’ lawsuit were ‘disappointing,’ according to Page Six.
