The Real Housewives of New Jersey OG Teresa Giudice is known to have legal issues. Not only has the reality star proclaimed her innocence, but Entertainment Weekly now reports that she now has a theory on why the Federal Government took an interest in her in the first place. Giudice and her ex-husband Joe Giudice were arrested for mail, wire, and bankruptcy fraud in 2014. The former couple submitted fraudulent applications and supporting documents to obtain mortgages and other loans, and falsely claimed that they were employed and receiving salaries. They were both found guilty, and Teresa served 11 months in prison the following year. Her ex-husband spent 41 months in prison before being deported to Italy.
Season 1 of The Real Housewives of New Jersey featured an infamous furniture scene, where Giudice went shopping for her “dream home”. On her new podcast Turning the Tables, she discussed the episode with her former castmates Kim DePaola and Jacqueline Laurita and her daughter, Milania Giudice. Giudice picked out “French chateau” furniture that totaled to over $100,000 and appeared to pay for it all in cash. However, Giudice is now saying that was not what happened, and suspecting that the scene is what led to her arrest.
The ‘RHONJ’ Star Swears She is Innocent
When talking about the scene on her podcast, Laurita exclaimed “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,” she claimed. Giudice remembered that she and Laurita had around $500 in cash on them at the time, but the producers alleged gave her a bunch of smaller bills to appear that she had more.
Jenn Fessler joined Season 13, has made waves among this cast, and has officially gotten the name “Messy Fessler.”
Although she thinks that she paid for the furniture with a check, that does not mean that she evaded the authorities. Giudice now theorises that the footage is partly what made the federal investigators investigate Giudice and her ex-husband. “I think that’s why the government came after us,” she said.
Despite serving 11 months in prison and pleading guilty, Giudice protested her innocence. She claimed she had no knowledge of what her ex-husband was doing, and she signed the papers without knowing that the documents were fraudulent because he instructed her to, which he did admit to on an episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. In the first episode of her new podcast, she stated, “I think a lot of us wives out there sign papers that our husbands tell us to sign.”
The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs every Sunday on Bravo at 8 PM. You can watch all the episodes on Peacock.