'Housewives' Giudices Indicted on 2 New Fraud Charges

Towaco residents and stars of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” Teresa, 41, and Giuseppe “Joe” Giudice, 43, were indicted Monday for additional charges of bank and loan application fraud, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said. This brings their new total of indictments up to 41 counts. 

They are set to appear in Newark federal court before U.S. District Judge Esther Salas on these new charges at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. Recently, Joe Giudice's court date for forgery charges stemming from a March 2011 arrest was delayed. 

The two additional counts stem from a $361,250 mortgage loan that Teresa Giudice received in July 2005. While she was getting the loan, she and her husband prepared a loan application falsely stating that “Teresa Giudice was employed as a realtor and that she had a monthly salary of $15,000; Teresa Giudice was not employed outside the home at the time,” according to Fishman’s office.

The Giudices “did knowingly and intentionally conspire and agree with each other and others to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud the lenders and to obtain money from the lenders by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises," according to their court document.

The two new counts carry a maximum possible penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

A federal grand jury returned the 41-count superseding indictment and adds two new counts against each defendant. They were indicted July 29 on the original 39 counts, which include conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, bank fraud, making false statements on loan applications and bankruptcy fraud, as well as charges against Joe Giudice for failure to file tax returns from 2004 through 2008, according to Fishman’s office.

Joe Giudice will be represented by Miles Feinstein and Teresa Giudice by Henry E. Klingeman.