ATLANTA (AP) 鈥� Reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley are accusing one of their former defense attorneys of legal malpractice that they say led them to be convicted and imprisoned, separating them from each other and their family, ruining their reputations and costing them millions.
The Chrisleys were in August 2019 and a jury in Atlanta including bank fraud and tax evasion. Todd Chrisley was sentenced to serve 12 years in federal prison while Julie Chrisley got seven years. Both were after .
The lawsuit filed Friday says the law firm, Balch & Bingham, 鈥渉eld itself out as capable of defending Todd and Julie Chrisley in one of the most consequential federal criminal prosecutions in the country. It was not.鈥�
The partner who led the Chrisleys’ defense, Chris Anulewicz, 鈥渉ad no meaningful defense experience鈥� and the firm knew that or should have known that, the lawsuit says. But the firm let him lead the case 鈥渂ecause the Chrisley name meant money, publicity, and the kind of high-profile notoriety that brings in business.鈥�
The Chrisleys are asking for a jury trial and are seeking compensatory damages 鈥渋n excess of $25 million,鈥� as well as compensation for their legal costs and attorney fees.
While he was supposed to be handling their defense, the lawsuit says, Anulewicz 鈥渇ound time to steer the Chrisleys into a $75,000 investment in his brother-in-law’s startup food truck business 鈥� exploiting his position as their attorney to benefit himself and his family while neglecting his duty to them.鈥� Anulewicz now works for a different firm.
Patrick T. O’Connor, an attorney representing Balch & Bingham and Anulewicz, said Monday that he couldn’t comment because they haven’t been served with the lawsuit yet. But he said 鈥渋t will be vigorously defended.鈥�
The Chrisleys, who now live in Tennessee, became famous through their show, 鈥淐hrisley Knows Best,鈥� which followed their tight-knit family and extravagant lifestyle.
Before the Chrisleys became reality television stars, they and a former business partner submitted false documents to banks in the Atlanta area to obtain millions of dollars in fraudulent loans, prosecutors said. They spent lavishly on luxury cars, designer clothes, real estate and travel and used new fraudulent loans to pay old ones. Todd Chrisley then filed for bankruptcy, walking away from more than $20 million in loans, prosecutors said.
The federal criminal investigation against the couple was based on an unlawful, warrantless search by the Georgia Department of Revenue of a warehouse where the Chrisleys had stored some belongings, the lawsuit says. The judge granted a defense request to suppress the physical documents from that search.
But Anulewicz didn’t ask her to suppress 鈥渄erivative evidence,鈥� including emails, bank records and financial documents that 鈥渇ormed the core of the government’s case,鈥� the lawsuit says. Federal agents opened their investigation based on the seized information and then got search warrants to obtain specific documents from the Chrisleys’ email accounts, the lawsuit says.
鈥淲ithout that evidence, the government would not have had sufficient evidence to support a conviction,鈥� the lawsuit says.
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