Apparently, even beautiful people have bad days. Today, in a federal court in Newark, New Jersey, Giuseppe “Joe” and Teresa Giudice, stars of the Bravo reality television show, The Real Housewives of New Jersey, pleaded guilty to a slew of charges against them.
Teresa pleaded guilty to four of the counts against her and Joe to five of the counts against him, including failure to file federal income tax returns. The latter isn’t surprising since failure to file crimes generally aren’t terribly hard to prove.
Interestingly, failure to file a tax return does not usually result in jail time. It’s considered a misdemeanor (26 U.S. Code § 7203) and usually results in fines of up to $25,000, though prison time of up to a year can be tacked on. If the violation is found to be willful, however, it can be treated as a felony and sentencing can range to up to five years. Tax crimes may often be combined, as is the case here, with other financial crimes.
The number of other financial crimes attached to the Giudices wasn’t insignificant. The pair were initially indicted on 39 counts of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, bank fraud, making false statements on loan applications, and bankruptcy fraud. The charges included separate charges for Joe for failure to file federal income tax returns for tax years 2004 through 2008.
According to the indictment, the Giudices engaged in a mail and wire fraud conspiracy beginning in 2001. As part of the scheme, they reportedly submitted fraudulent mortgage and other loan applications and supporting documents to lenders. To support their claims, Teresa allegedly submitted fake federal forms W-2 and fake pay stubs to lenders.
The pair originally pleaded not guilty to the charges in August of 2013. At the time, the Giudices claimed that they were unfairly targeted for prosecution because of their celebrity, an allegation that many folks – including me – didn’t quite buy.
Today, Teresa Giudice is taking a different tack. She issued this statement through her attorney:
Today, I took responsibility for a series of mistakes I made several years ago. I have said throughout that I respect the legal process and thus I intend to address the Court directly at sentencing. I will describe the choices I made, continue to take responsibility for my decisions, and express my remorse to Judge Salas and the public. I am heartbroken that this is affecting my family—especially my four young daughters, who mean more to me than anything in the world. Beyond this, I do not intend to speak specifically about the case outside of court, at the recommendation of my attorney and out of deference to the Government and our legal system.
According to the gossip site TMZ, the team at Real Housewives of New Jersey has indicated that they are currently filming and intend to predominately feature this latest episode in the lives of the Giudices. However, filming will end before the couple’s sentence date which has been scheduled for July 8.
Joe faces up to 37 to 46 months in jail – and possible deportation because he is not a U.S. citizen. Federal Judge Esther Salas told Joe that, after prison, he would face immigration proceedings which would “likely result in … your being removed from the United States.”
Teresa will get off a bit easier. Without the tax piece, she faces just up to 21 to 27 months and has agreed to pay $200,000 to the government due in July. Without the plea, the couple faced up to 50 years of prison time and millions of dollars in fines.
