Todd and Julie Chrisley to receive $1M settlement from the State of Georgia, court documents show
By Maxime Tamsett, CNN
(CNN) — Imprisoned reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley will receive a $1,000,000 settlement from the state of Georgia, marking the end of a civil lawsuit they filed against Joshua Waites, the former Director of Special Investigations for Georgia’s Department of Revenue, according to court filings.
CNN reached out to representatives for Waites and the Georgia Department of Revenue for comment following the settlement announcement.
In the October 2019 lawsuit, the couple alleged Waites “improperly shared the Chrisleys’ confidential tax and other information” with Todd Chrisley’s “estranged daughter, Lindsie Chrisley Campbell, in an effort to induce her to reveal compromising information about her family,” according to the complaint.
The lawsuit also alleged Waites’ “conduct was specifically intended to and did in fact cause the Chrisleys severe emotional distress, anxiety, and mental anguish.”
Waites investigated the Chrisleys’ tax obligations to the state of Georgia ahead of the couple being charged with tax evasion. The state case was eventually settled in October 2019, “with the Chrisleys paying just under $150,000,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported at the time.
Filed Tuesday, the new settlement said the Georgia Department of Administrative Services “shall issue within thirty days of this agreement: two checks totaling $1,000,000, delivered to counsel,” for the couple.
In a statement released Tuesday, Alex Little, the attorney representing the Chrisleys, called the settlement with the state “an encouraging sign.”
“We have been saying for months that the criminal case against the Chrisleys was highly unusual and had real problems. 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.”
The Chrisleys, known for their reality program “Chrisley Knows Best,” were found guilty in June 2022 on federal charges of conspiracy to defraud banks out of more than $30 million in fraudulent loans, as well as several tax crimes.
The Chrisleys maintain their innocence and are appealing their criminal convictions, which according to Little are expected to “be heard by the federal appeals court in Atlanta in April.”
Todd Chrisley is serving 12 years at a Federal Prison Camp (FPC) in Florida, and Julie Chrisley is serving her seven-year sentence at a Federal Medical Center (FMC) in Lexington, Kentucky.
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