Fort Dix prison getting 'Housewives' star as inmate
Giuseppe "Joe" Giudice, a Real Housewives of New Jersey star, is expected to begin a 41-month prison sentence Wednesday at the Federal Correctional Institution at Fort Dix on bankruptcy fraud and conspiracy charges.
Giuseppe "Joe" Giudice, a
Real Housewives of New Jersey
star, is expected to begin a 41-month prison sentence Wednesday at the Federal Correctional Institution at Fort Dix on bankruptcy fraud and conspiracy charges.
His wife, Teresa, who also pleaded guilty to fraud charges, was released in December from the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Conn., after serving nearly a year there.
The couple are featured in the Bravo reality show, first telecast in 2009. They have four daughters.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said that Giuseppe Giudice and his wife sent fraudulent applications to lenders to receive loans and mortgages, and lied about their employment status and salaries.
"Teresa and Giuseppe Giudice used deception and fraud to cheat banks, bankruptcy court, and the IRS," U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said when the couple pleaded guilty in federal court in Newark in 2014.
Giuseppe Giudice, inmate number 65704-050 and listed as 45 years old on the Bureau of Prisons website, is not a U.S. citizen and could be deported to Italy after serving his sentence.
The Fort Dix prison, a low-security facility in Burlington County that does not have bars or locks on rooms in the housing units, generally requires inmates to wake up at 6 a.m. and go to bed at 11:30 p.m., according to an inmate handbook posted on the Federal Bureau of Prisons website. The prison houses 4,500 inmates.
"Inmates and their living areas can be, and are searched, at any time," according to the handbook.
Inmates must wear the standard-issue khaki uniform to eat lunch, but can wear recreational clothing, such as sweat pants and T-shirts, during breakfast and dinner, according to the guidelines. Inmates can also use telephones in the housing units, but are limited to 15 minutes per call.
In an October episode of the reality show - one of a series of such programs that also follow the lives of affluent housewives in Atlanta, New York City, Orange County, Calif., and Beverly Hills - Giuseppe Giudice saw a Fort Dix sign as he traveled to a Jersey Shore vacation home and told his brother-in-law, "That's where I'm stationed to go at the (bleeping) end of March," according to a recap of the episode on NJ.com.
Apollo Nida, the husband of Real Housewives of Atlanta star Phaedra Parks, also is serving time in the Fort Dix facility on fraud charges.
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