Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice showed up in court on Wednesday with husband Joe Giudice, where the two pleaded not guilty on charges of fraud.
According to the New York Daily News, the couple did not speak during the trial, allowing the prosecutors to battle it out for them.
Following the court appearance, Teresa-clad in an understated nude pantsuit with her hair in a large top knot-and Joe held hands, wry expressions wringing their faces.
According to Joe's lawyer Miles Feinstein, the husband and wife "vehemently deny their guilt."
"There's an assumption of innocence and they vehemently assert their innocence," he also told the swarm of press that assembled outside the Newark federal courthouse.
41-year-old Teresa and her 43-year old beau Joe face charges of mail and wire fraud, bank fraud, falsifying statements on loan applications, in addition to bankruptcy fraud.
The parents of four have been slammed with accusations of fabricating their income claims on applications for loans in 2009, just a few months before the show began.
Then, after RHONJ took off in a big way, the Giudices allegedly hid their hefty earnings when they filed for bankruptcy at the tail-end of the first season.
But even years before the reality television show gained Teresa and Joe massive fame within the Bravo world and beyond, the couple were reportedly engaging in some shady stuff.
The Daily News stated that in September 2001, Teresa fabricated her employment of four years at Modern Era Investment Corp. on a $121,500 mortgage application. She claimed she made $3,750 a month working for Modern Era, but lawyers working on the case reported that Mrs. Giudice was, in fact, out of a job from January 2001 to 2008.
Joe also was in the fare-evasion game, as he skipped out on filing his tax returns from 2004 to 2008-a time during which he supposedly made around a million dollars.
If charged guilty on all 39 counts, the two could go to jail for up to 50 years. Joe, nee Giuseppe, is an Italian citizen, and could get deported back to his European home country.
