More than a year after "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" premiered on Bravo in 2009, the state Attorney General’s Office announced it had entered into a multimillion-dollar settlement with Wells Fargo stemming from allegations of fraudulent mortgage sales practices, NorthJersey.com reported. That 2010 bank settlement is now at the center of an immigration appeal by Joe Giudice, the husband of Teresa Giudice, one of the stars of the popular show. Joe Giudice is facing deportation to Italy after he recently completed a 41-month prison term for bankruptcy and mortgage fraud charges. In October, a judge ordered that Giudice be deported upon release, but his lawyers filed an appeal the next month. In his appeal, one of Giudice's immigration attorneys, Jerard Gonzalez of Woodland Park, claims that Giudice was one of the estimated 900 New Jersey residents whom the bank settlement affected. He said that under the settlement, two of Guidice's home-related loans were forgiven. In 2013, Giudice and his wife were charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, bank fraud, making false statements on loan applications and bankruptcy fraud. Prosecutors at the time alleged that they overstated their income when applying for loans, then concealed the wealth they earned from the television show in a bankruptcy filing. The indictment said they obtained millions in home-related loans between 2001 and 2008.
