Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah has been arrested is being accused of running a telemarketing scheme on Tuesday (March 30). Shah and her alleged accomplice Stuart Smith were officially charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the special agent in charge of the New York field office of Homeland Security, and the commissioner of the New York City Police Department.
In a statement, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss claims the duo “allegedly generated and sold lead lists of innocent individuals for other members of their scheme to repeatedly scam.” Strauss went on to call the “so-called business opportunities pushed on the victims by Shah, Smith, and their co-conspirators” an unjust plot saying they were “just fraudulent schemes, motivated by greed, to steal victims’ money.” If convicted, “these defendants face time in prison for their alleged crimes,” Strauss added. Shah and Smith could face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for the fraud conspiracy charge.
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“Jennifer Shah, who portrays herself as a wealthy and successful businessperson on ‘reality’ television, and Stuart Smith, who is portrayed as Shah’s ‘first assistant,’ allegedly generated and sold ‘lead lists’ of innocent individuals for other members of their scheme to repeatedly scam,” Strauss’ statement read. According to NBC New York, the NYPD alleges the real housewife and Smith have “hundreds” of victims from their scheme that’s reportedly been going on for nine years since 2012. Prosecutors break down Shah’s scheme saying that she and Smith created a plot to come up with lists of potential victims, many of whom were close to retirement age, and sold those lists to telemarketing companies that would, in turn, try to sell business services to the victims.
Shah’s Real Housewives biography calls her the “queen of her house and her businesses as the CEO of three marketing companies,” but in last season’s reunion, it was revealed some of her castmates were still confused as to what that meant. “My background is in direct response marketing for about 20 years, so our company does advertising. We have a platform that helps people acquire customers, so when you’re shopping online or on the Internet, and something pops, we have the algorithm behind why you’re getting served that ad,” Shah said of her job at the time.
