Arts & Entertainment
UPDATE: 'Real Cellmates?' Housewives' Stars to Spend Years in Prison for Fraud
Montville's Teresa and Joe Giudice pleaded guilty earlier this year, will serve staggered sentences.

Two of the stars of the television show “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” were sentenced Thursday to prison terms for committing a string of crimes as part of a long-running financial fraud conspiracy, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Teresa Giudice, 42, and her husband, Giuseppe “Joe” Giudice, 44, both of Towaco, were sentenced to 15 months and 41 months in prison, respectively.
Both defendants previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Esther Salas in Newark federal court to several counts of the superseding indictment returned against them in July 2013.
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The Giudices each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, one count of bankruptcy fraud by concealment of assets, one count of bankruptcy fraud by false oaths, and one count of bankruptcy fraud by false declarations. Giuseppe Giudice also pleaded guilty to one count of failure to file a tax return, according to Fishman.
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The Giudices, stars of Bravo’s reality show “Real Housewives of New Jersey” and residents of Montville, declared bankruptcy in 2009, according to nj.com, after Joe Giudice’s real estate ventures amassed loads of debt and the couple was unable to pay it back.
Teresa Giudice will serve her 15-month stint in federal prison before her husband’s, after a judge granted leniency so one of the parents could be home with their four children, the report said.
According to 7online.com, the couple will also have to pay $414,588.90 in restitution.
“The Giudices together deceived financial institutions with patently false loan applications; were dishonest when they sought the protection of the bankruptcy court and hid assets and income from the trustee; and Giuseppe Giudice cheated the government by failing to pay taxes on years of significant income,” Fishman said in a release. “When they pleaded guilty, both admitted swearing to statements they knew were lies. Prison is the appropriate penalty for these serious financial crimes.”
“Real Housewives” entered its sixth season on air in August, but the couple listed their mansion for $3.9 million in September.
Despite living in the United States all but the first year of his life, Joe Giudice is not a legal citizen, and still faces the potential of deportation, the report said. If that judgment were to occur, it wouldn’t happen until after his sentence is fulfilled, the report said.
Joe Giudice stood before the court and told the judge he was humiliated and that he disgraced “many people,” the report said. Judge Esther Salas criticized the couple for their erroneous reporting of finances and said the inconsistencies in the documentations made it hard for her to be lenient in the sentencing.
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