In Season 1, Episode 1 of Real Housewives of New Jersey, one of Teresa Giudice’s first scenes featured her shopping for furniture for her and her now ex-husband Joe Giudice’s brand new dream home. Teresa memorably whipped out cash to pay for the $120,360 worth of gaudy furnishings, declaring, “I hear the economy’s crashin’, so that’s why I pay cash.”
Only a few short years after that shopping trip, Teresa and Joe got pinched for mail, wire, and bank fraud. In the years since she and Joe were convicted, Teresa has pointed her finger at RHONJ alum, Caroline Manzo, as well as her brother and sister-in-law, Joe and Melissa Gorga as rats who ran to the feds.
Now 15 years after the furniture scene, Teresa believes the show’s producers likely caused her legal troubles. She says they made her pretend to pay cash that day, which probably perked up the government’s suspicions.
Teresa says she “would have had to walk around with two briefcases” to carry that much cash on her
Teresa reunited with RHONJ alums Kim D and Jacqueline Laurita on an episode of her (now solo) podcast, Turning the Tables. They took a trip down memory lane, leading Jacqueline to reveal things about that furniture scene, which she had tagged along for.
When Teresa brought up the furniture episode, Jacqueline recalled, “Oh, my God! They were handing you the money! The producers were like, ‘We think it would be cool if you paid in cash,’ but we don’t have this much cash on us.”
Tre remembered that she and Jacqueline only had about $500 in cash between them, so producers allegedly gave her a stack of smaller bills to create the appearance of a fat wad of cash.
She explained, “It showed how much my furniture was, like $140,000 or whatever it was. Then I’m giving out 100-dollar bills. Then they showed the calculator, and it looked like I had all of that money and cash on me. I would have had to walk around with two briefcases!”
Teresa said she probably paid with a check off-camera. Then she dropped her newest blame-bomb. “I think that’s why the government came after us.”
Tre and Joe were convicted of mail, wire, and bankruptcy fraud in 2014. Teresa served 11 months in prison in 2015. Joe spent 41 months in jail and was deported to Italy in 2018. He currently lives in the Bahamas.
Let this be a cautionary tale for everyone: never let producers tell you to pay for something in cash if you’re allegedly committing bank fraud and signing the falsified documents that come across your $5,000 desk.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey continues Sundays at 8/7c. on Bravo. Old seasons stream on Peacock.