The state of Georgia has settled state tax-evasion charges with reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, but the "Chrisley Knows Best" couple still faces federal counts.
The pair agreed to pay $147,944.75 to settle the case with the Georgia Department of Revenue and got a refund of more than $66,000 for the tax years from 2013 to 2016, NBC affiliate WXIA of Atlanta reported.
The Chrisleys' representatives hailed it as an exoneration, but the couple still faces a 12-count indictment reached by a federal jury in August on charges of conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion.
In the federal case, they are accused of conspiring to defraud “numerous banks” by giving the institutions false personal financial statements and other information while getting millions of dollars in loans, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said in August.
"Chrisley Knows Best" chronicles Chrisley, a wealthy Georgia real estate magnate known as the "patriarch of perfection," as he micromanages the lives of his five children and gets wrapped up in comedic misadventures.
The show airs on the USA Network, a unit of NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News. It has run for seven seasons and recently debuted a spinoff called "Growing Up Chrisley," starring two of the Chrisley kids.
The tight-knit family moved from the northern Atlanta suburbs to the Nashville area a few years ago. The criminal charges are linked to their time in the Georgia cities of Roswell and Alpharetta. Prosecutors also say they took steps to obstruct IRS collection efforts, including hiding income.
Todd Chrisley has said in an Instagram post that he and his wife did nothing wrong.
A statement from their representatives said that in the state case they had been accused of evading nearly $2 million in taxes between 2008 and 2016, but that they had actually overpaid the state in four of those years.
"Julie and I knew all along that we had done nothing wrong and that when the facts all came out, we would be fine,” Todd Chrisley said in a statement released by their representatives. "We're just glad that the Department of Revenue was willing to keep an open mind and look at all the evidence."
The couple’s attorneys said in the statement that they had always maintained there was no tax fraud evasion and that “this settlement with the state is a big step in the direction of proving their innocence."
The family accountant, Peter Tarantino, was also charged in federal court. All three have pleaded not guilty in the federal cases, according to court records.
Bob Page, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia, said in an email Wednesday that the federal case is still proceeding through the courts.
