Todd Chrisley once flaunted a life of luxury on the reality show “Chrisley Knows Best,” but behind the scenes he was building a house of cards on fraudulent dealings. The patriarch of perfection portrayed on TV has been accused of conning everyone from banks to builders. In one particularly brazen episode, Chrisley allegedly swindled a home builder out of a fortune – then tried to wash his hands of the debt. Court filings, bankruptcy records, and news investigations reveal a disturbing pattern: Todd Chrisley has a habit of taking money, goods, and services and never paying what he owes, all while maintaining an image of lavish wealth.

One of Chrisley’s victims was Rinik Homes, Inc., an Atlanta-area construction firm that thought they were building the reality star’s dream home. In January 2006, Rinik signed a contract to renovate and expand a mansion for Chrisley on a cost-plus basis – meaning Chrisley agreed to cover all construction costs plus a fee (rinik homes complaint.pdf). The property, a grand estate in Roswell, Georgia, was even placed under The Chrisley Family Trust, a legal entity Chrisley controlled (rinik homes complaint.pdf). Rinik Homes delivered on its end: by 2009, they had “performed [all] work… at the instance of Chrisley” and in “reliance upon [his] agreement to pay” (rinik homes complaint.pdf). All the work was finished to Chrisley’s satisfaction and was accepted by him with no complaints (rinik homes complaint.pdf). The estate was lavishly transformed with high-end improvements, courtesy of Rinik’s labor and materials, and Chrisley happily moved in to enjoy his newly improved mansion.

But when the final bills came due, Chrisley simply refused to pay up. According to Rinik’s lawsuit, an “outstanding and unpaid” principal balance of $370,623.17 remained on the project – with a steep 18% annual interest clause pushing the total to about $540,000 by early 2010 (rinik homes complaint.pdf) (rinik homes complaint.pdf). Rinik Homes “demanded payment” in full, yet Chrisley “failed and refused to pay” even a dime (rinik homes complaint.pdf). All the while, the reality star was enjoying the benefits of Rinik’s work – living in the luxury home that the builder’s team had crafted for him.

Desperate to get paid, Rinik Homes sued Todd Chrisley in March 2010 for breach of contract. The complaint pulls no punches. It even accuses Chrisley of abusing his family trust to dodge responsibility. In a scathing allegation, Rinik’s attorneys wrote that Chrisley used the trust “to defeat justice, to perpetuate fraud or to evade contractual responsibility,” treating it as a “mere instrumentality” of his personal dealings (rinik homes complaint.pdf). In other words, the builder believed Chrisley was hiding behind his trust to avoid paying what he owed.

Chrisley’s scheme was as audacious as it gets: Astonishingly, on the very day he acquired the property in 2006, Chrisley obtained a $1.5 million construction loan – an amount “in excess of the projected budget” for the renovation (rinik homes complaint.pdf). He had secured ample cash to pay Rinik Homes for the work. Yet once the lavish project was complete, he allegedly pocketed the loan money and left the builder holding the bag for the costs. Rinik Homes not only lost the payment but spent years fighting a wealthy client who knew how to game the system.

By 2012, before Rinik could get justice, Todd Chrisley pulled his sneakiest move yet: he declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy. This legal “escape hatch” allowed Chrisley to wipe out a mountain of debt – including, it appears, the money owed to Rinik Homes. As People magazine reported, after “several lawsuits and judgments” against him over the years, Chrisley finally filed for bankruptcy in August 2012 (‘Chrisley Knows Best’: Inside Todd Chrisley’s $45 Million Bankruptcy Case). He listed a staggering $49.4 million in debts (‘Chrisley Knows Best’: Inside Todd Chrisley’s $45 Million Bankruptcy Case), and the bankruptcy effectively erased those obligations. Prosecutors later noted that Chrisley “filed for bankruptcy in 2012, erasing $20 million in loan debt” in one fell swoop (Todd and Julie Chrisley sentenced to federal prison in tax evasion case). For Rinik Homes, this meant their court battle was futile – the builder would never see the half-million dollars Chrisley owed for the mansion he’d built and enjoyed. Chrisley had gotten a free luxury home remodel, and when it came time to pay the bill, he used the bankruptcy courts to walk away unscathed.

The Rinik Homes debacle was not an isolated incident – it was a preview of Todd Chrisley’s broader pattern of fraudulent behavior. Time and again, Chrisley has been caught taking money or services and leaving others on the hook. Consider these examples of the Chrisley con:

• Defrauding Community Banks: From 2007 to 2012, Todd and Julie Chrisley orchestrated a massive bank fraud scheme, falsifying documents to obtain roughly $36 million in loans. Prosecutors argued the Chrisleys deliberately “swindled” small Atlanta-area banks by inflating their net worth to get loans, even targeting smaller banks that did less due diligence (Todd and Julie Chrisley sentenced to federal prison in tax evasion case). The Chrisleys spent the cash on luxury cars, designer clothes, real estate and travel – essentially using new loans to pay off old ones. After burning through all the money, Todd Chrisley later filed for bankruptcy and erased about $20 million of these loans, leaving the banks holding the bag (Todd and Julie Chrisley sentenced to federal prison in tax evasion case).
• Dodging Tax Bills: Chrisley’s habit of not paying what he owes extended to Uncle Sam. In his 2012 bankruptcy filing, he listed a “delinquent IRS bill” of about $595,227.98 in unpaid federal taxes (‘Chrisley Knows Best’: Inside Todd Chrisley’s $45 Million Bankruptcy Case). He failed to pay taxes for multiple years even while raking in millions, and prosecutors said the couple hid income and actively evaded taxes dating back to 2009 (Todd and Julie Chrisley sentenced to federal prison in tax evasion case). As one IRS investigator put it, the Chrisleys “defrauded… the Federal Government through tax evasion and other fraudulent means in an effort to minimize their tax liability, but project an image of wealth” (Todd and Julie Chrisley sentenced to federal prison in tax evasion case). In 2022, a federal jury indeed convicted Todd and Julie Chrisley of tax evasion (and fraud), confirming that their extravagant lifestyle was propped up by cheating the taxman.

• Living Large on Others’ Dime: Despite defaulting on debts, the Chrisleys continued to live like royalty. Bankruptcy documents showed Todd had mortgages totaling $12 million and was even borrowing money from family – including a $4.4 million loan from his wife, Julie (‘Chrisley Knows Best’: Inside Todd Chrisley’s $45 Million Bankruptcy Case). By the time he went bust, he claimed to have only “$55 in a checking account and $100 in cash” (‘Chrisley Knows Best’: Inside Todd Chrisley’s $45 Million Bankruptcy Case). Yet that didn’t stop the Chrisleys from living extravagantly. In the words of the bankruptcy trustee, “neither [Chrisley nor his wife] has been employed since 2012” and “however, they continue to live in lavish residences, drive expensive vehicles and travel extensively.” (‘Chrisley Knows Best’: Inside Todd Chrisley’s $45 Million Bankruptcy Case) In short, Chrisley was financing a Hollywood lifestyle with money he wasn’t paying back – whether it was a contractor’s fee, a bank loan, or a tax bill.
• Hiding Assets in Bankruptcy: Todd Chrisley’s 2012 bankruptcy (and the collapse of his former company) led to a tangle of accusations that he hid assets to avoid paying creditors. Chrisley had a $23 million judgment entered against him, after which he swiftly transferred a half-million-dollar Atlanta condo to Julie Chrisley – an obvious attempt to put it out of creditors’ reach (Celebrity Bankruptcy Update: Todd Chrisley Gets a Sweet Deal in Chapter 7 Case). About a year before filing Chapter 7, the couple even claimed a $170,000 worth of valuables stolen in a robbery, collected the insurance payout, then Todd signed over his interest in that claim to Julie, making the money inaccessible to his creditors (Celebrity Bankruptcy Update: Todd Chrisley Gets a Sweet Deal in Chapter 7 Case). Hiding assets from the bankruptcy court is illegal (the trustee explicitly called these moves fraudulent), and it could have landed the Chrisleys in even deeper trouble. In the end, Todd Chrisley struck a deal to settle the bankruptcy fraud allegations for a relatively small sum – roughly $150,000 (reduced to $135,000) if paid early (Celebrity Bankruptcy Update: Todd Chrisley Gets a Sweet Deal in Chapter 7 Case). He even bragged that his $46 million bankruptcy case “was settled for $135,000” (Celebrity Bankruptcy Update: Todd Chrisley Gets a Sweet Deal in Chapter 7 Case) – essentially a slap on the wrist. But the pattern was clear: whenever bills came due, Chrisley would do almost anything to avoid paying in full.

Each of these episodes paints the same picture: Todd Chrisley built a false empire on other people’s money. He duped banks into handing over cash, stiffed contractors who worked on his homes, and skipped out on tax bills – all while showing off mansions and couture closets on TV. As U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan summed up, “Over the course of a decade, the defendants defrauded banks out of tens of millions of dollars while evading payment of their federal income taxes” ( Northern District of Georgia |  Television personalities sentenced to years in federal prison for fraud and tax evasion | United States Department of Justice). The Chrisleys’ fraud was so extensive that the FBI and IRS teamed up to bring them down, warning that “when you lie, cheat and steal, justice is blind” to fame and fortune ( Northern District of Georgia |  Television personalities sentenced to years in federal prison for fraud and tax evasion | United States Department of Justice) (Todd and Julie Chrisley sentenced to federal prison in tax evasion case). In other words, Todd Chrisley’s celebrity status couldn’t save him from the consequences of his actions.

In the end, Todd Chrisley’s long-running scam collapsed under its own weight. He and his wife Julie were indicted, tried, and in 2022 both were found guilty on all counts of bank fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion by a federal jury (Todd and Julie Chrisley sentenced to federal prison in tax evasion case). Todd Chrisley, now 54, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison (plus 3 years supervised release) ( Northern District of Georgia |  Television personalities sentenced to years in federal prison for fraud and tax evasion | United States Department of Justice), and Julie Chrisley to 7 years in prison. They were ordered to pay back a whopping $17.2 million in restitution to their defrauded victims (Todd and Julie Chrisley sentenced to federal prison in tax evasion case). The family’s TV shows were swiftly canceled, and the Chrisley name became synonymous with financial crime rather than Southern charm.

Yet even with the Chrisleys behind bars, the saga isn’t over. Investigators and creditors are still untangling the complex web of Chrisley finances in an effort to recoup what they can. With so many threads in this story, there is growing speculation that further investigations into the Chrisley family could be forthcoming. Where did all the money go? Did any associates or family members help hide assets? Are there other victims or unpaid debts yet to surface? We will be looking into it all!

For true-crime enthusiasts, the fall of Todd Chrisley has been a gripping saga of greed and comeuppance. But for those whom he defrauded – the banks, the taxpayers, and companies like Rinik Homes left holding unpaid bills – it’s a story of justice long delayed. As new layers of the Chrisley scandal continue to emerge, one thing is clear: Todd Chrisley’s “perfect” life was a carefully constructed fraud, and now that it has crumbled, the full extent of his wrongdoing is still coming to light. Don’t be surprised if even more Chrisley family secrets and financial misdeeds are uncovered – this house of cards may have more cards yet to fall.

Sources:

• Rinik Homes, Inc. vs. Michael Todd Chrisley, Complaint (State Court of Fulton County, March 2010) (rinik homes complaint.pdf) (rinik homes complaint.pdf).
• People Magazine – “Inside Todd Chrisley’s $45 Million Bankruptcy Case” (Steve Helling, 2014) (‘Chrisley Knows Best’: Inside Todd Chrisley’s $45 Million Bankruptcy Case) (‘Chrisley Knows Best’: Inside Todd Chrisley’s $45 Million Bankruptcy Case).
• DOJ Press Release – “Television personalities sentenced… for fraud and tax evasion” (U.S. Attorney N.D. Georgia, Nov. 21, 2022) ( Northern District of Georgia |  Television personalities sentenced to years in federal prison for fraud and tax evasion | United States Department of Justice) ( Northern District of Georgia |  Television personalities sentenced to years in federal prison for fraud and tax evasion | United States Department of Justice).
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution – news coverage of Chrisley trial and sentencing (Todd and Julie Chrisley sentenced to federal prison in tax evasion case) (Todd and Julie Chrisley sentenced to federal prison in tax evasion case).
• Bankruptcy filings and court documents via Radar Online/Law360 (Celebrity Bankruptcy Update: Todd Chrisley Gets a Sweet Deal in Chapter 7 Case) (Celebrity Bankruptcy Update: Todd Chrisley Gets a Sweet Deal in Chapter 7 Case).