[ad_1]
-
Todd Chrisley traveled from Atlanta to LA twice a month to get his hair done, his former partner testified.
-
Chrisley is accused of a bank and tax fraud scheme by federal prosecutors in Atlanta. He and his wife deny the charges.
-
When the jury learned of his extravagant trips for hair care, mouths dropped open.
When Todd Chrisley was drowning in debt he was still traveling twice a month from Atlanta to Los Angeles to get his hair cut and colored, his former business partner testified Monday.
Federal prosecutors accuse Todd and Julie Chrisley, who star in the USA Network reality series “Chrisley Knows Best,” of evading taxes and operating a conspiracy to defraud banks by making it appear that they were wealthier than they were to live an extravagant lifestyle they couldn’t afford.
When the banks caught on to them, the Todd Chrisley filed bankruptcy, walking away from $20 million in debt, and the couple went on to hide money from the IRS, prosecutors say.
Mark Braddock, who told the FBI that he committed bank fraud on behalf of Todd Chrisley, Julie Chrisley, and himself, testified about the couple’s extravagant spending habits Monday in an Atlanta federal courtroom.
Assistant US Attorney Thomas Krepp asked Braddock why the Chrisleys were so strapped financially.
Even during the great recession, when Chrisley’s foreclosure management business was doing better than ever, the couple was “spending more than they were making,” Braddock said.
They had three housekeepers working five days a week, were buying luxury cars, and had high American Express bills, he said.
Two jurors dropped their mouths open in disbelief when Braddock described Chrisley’s hair care routine, in which he would travel to California and stay at the Beverly Hills Hotel for his bi-monthly appointments.
Braddock told the federal jury that he created fake documents that inflated how much money the Chrisleys had in the bank so they could continue to be approved for loans from community banks. The couple would use the new loans to pay off the old loans, until he was cut off, Braddock said. In all, they received at least $60 million in loans from banks, 100% of them by fraud Braddock said.
“He needed $500,000 to $600,000 a month just to stay even,” he said.
Eventually, though, the loan scheme started to fall apart when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took control of many of the community banks that the Chrisleys were defrauding, and were able to see the inconsistencies between applications, Braddock said.
From then on, he and Todd Chrisley began calling Julie Chrisley ‘Ass-is-on-Fire,’ “because she was running around town like her ass is on fire trying to get bills paid,” Braddock said.
The Chrisleys deny the charges and say that the “tax evasion” was the result of a sloppy accountant, who is also on trial in connection with the conspiracy.
They say the bank fraud was committed by Braddock, who was “obsessed” with Todd Chrisley, and pretending to be him.
On Monday, Braddock denied that he was obsessed and said the only times he impersonated Todd on the phone, or signed his signature, was at his direction.
They were in a “personal, intimate relationship,” beginning in 2003, he said.
Krepp showed the jury emails between Todd Chrisley to Braddock as they discussed how to best “create” personal financial statements that met the standards of lenders whom he was seeking loans from.
Braddock explained that he used “scrapbooking” to piece together records using numbers and signatures from a variety of documents. They also submitted claims that they lost rental income on properties all three of them owned in Florida — even though they didn’t lose money, Braddock said.
In another case, Braddock made it look like Chrisley had $4 million in an account that had no money.
“You are a fucking genious (SIC),” Chrisley replied.
Todd and Julie Chrisley were aware and involved in the fraud, he said.
The Chrisleys cut ties with Braddock in July 2012, when he came to work and Todd Chrisley started yelling at him that he was going to have him prosecuted for fraud, Braddock said.
The Chrisleys have publically accused Braddock of stealing money from them, which he denied on Monday.
Krepp asked Braddock why he regularly created the fake documents for the couple, even though he knew it was fraud.
“He needed money,” Braddock said. “He asked me to do it, and I did it.”
Read the original article on Insider
[ad_2]
Source link
