The Actual Housewives of Salt Lake Metropolis viewers received a style of a special kind of drama when Jen Shah, one of many solid members of the Bravo actuality TV collection, was arrested on March 30, 2021 in Salt Lake Metropolis for her alleged involvement in a nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme. She was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in reference to telemarketing and conspiracy to commit cash laundering; later that week, she pled not responsible to each prices in court docket. Shah was launched on a $1 million private recognizance bond, with a $250,000 money safety.
On Monday, Shah modified her plea to responsible. Showing in Manhattan Federal Courtroom in entrance of U.S. District Decide Sidney Stein, Shah pled responsible to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, in accordance to studies. The decide agreed to drop Shah’s further cost of conspiracy to commit cash laundering.
“From 2012 to March 2021, within the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, I agreed with others to commit wire fraud,” Shah mentioned in court docket. “I did this by knowingly offering buyer names to individuals who had been advertising and marketing enterprise companies that had little or no worth… I knew this was mistaken. I do know many individuals had been harmed and I’m so sorry.”
Main as much as her arrest, the actuality TV star had already stirred up curiosity relating to her line of labor after her explosive debut within the first season of the present. Shah confirmed off a lavish life-style, full with a number of assistants who she dubbed the “Shah Squad.” Within the third episode of season 1, a whopping eight assistants seem on digicam simply to assist her prepare for a celebration. Considered one of Shah’s assistants, Stuart Smith, who appeared a number of occasions on the present, was arrested in Utah the identical day that Shah was, and charged with the identical crimes. (Smith initially pled not responsible in April 2021; in November, he pled responsible as a part of a plea deal.)
Shah was set to be tried in Manhattan Federal Courtroom, with jury choice starting on July 18. She was going to be tried in Manhattan as a result of the telemarketing scheme she’s allegedly linked to has name facilities primarily based in New Jersey and New York, together with Manhattan. “Jennifer Shah, who portrays herself as a rich and profitable businessperson on ‘actuality’ tv, and Stuart Smith, who’s portrayed as Shah’s ‘first assistant,’ allegedly generated and bought ‘lead lists’ of harmless people for different members of their scheme to repeatedly rip-off,” Manhattan U.S. Legal professional Audrey Strauss said in a press launch. “In precise actuality and as alleged, the so-called enterprise alternatives pushed on the victims by Shah, Smith, and their co-conspirators had been simply fraudulent schemes, motivated by greed, to steal victims’ cash. Now, these defendants face time in jail for his or her alleged crimes.”
Whereas that is removed from the primary time that a Actual Housewives solid member has gotten in hassle with the regulation, Shah’s scenario has been particularly buzzy as a result of she was filming for season 2 of the present on the day of her arrest. The truth is, the season 2 premiere, which aired Sept. 12, 2021, opened with footage of Shah about to embark on a bunch journey with the opposite girls, receiving a telephone name, then asking a co-star to take off her mic earlier than swiftly leaving filming—simply minutes earlier than the Division of Homeland Safety arrived on the scene, a precursor of her authorized woes turning into a important storyline for the season.
Whereas Shah lengthy maintained her innocence and appeared to take her legal prices in stride, even referencing them in her tagline for the final season (“The one factor I’m responsible of is being Shah-mazing”), she now faces as much as 30 years in jail, however agreed as a part of her plea deal to not attraction if she is sentenced to 14 years or much less time. Shah might also be compelled to pay as much as $9.5 million in restitution, in addition to $6.5 million to the federal authorities.
Jen Shah’s function on The Actual Housewives of Salt Lake Metropolis
On The Actual Housewives of Salt Lake Metropolis, Shah is an over-the-top character whose risky outbursts, flamboyant trend sense, and sassy rejoinders present loads of drama. From throwing glasses to feuding with virtually each single one among her different solid members, together with, memorably, co-star Meredith Mark’s college-age son Brooks, her fast mood and unabashed embrace of messy conditions has positioned her squarely on the middle of her franchise. She’s married to her faculty sweetheart, Sharrieff “Coach” Shah, the particular groups coordinator and cornerbacks coach on the College of Utah, with whom she has two sons.
On the present, Shah had initially positioned herself as a darkish horse of types, usually speaking about how her expertise rising up as Tongan and Hawaiian within the predominantly white and Mormon neighborhood of Salt Lake Metropolis affected her, emotions that she revisits as she mourns the dying of her father and navigates the tough dynamics of her buddy group. The collection, which depends closely on faith as a basic theme, additionally hones in on Shah’s conversion from Mormonism to Islam following her marriage and after she learns in regards to the historic mistreatment of Black individuals within the Mormon church.
Why Jen Shah was arrested
Shah and Smith had been arrested on March 30, 2021 in Salt Lake Metropolis for his or her alleged involvement in a telemarketing scheme, the place they allegedly discovered aged individuals who had been simple targets for a rip-off, then bought “lead lists” of them to others, whereas taking a minimize of the earnings. Based on their indictment, between 2012 and the time of their arrest, Shah and Smith allegedly “defrauded tons of of victims all through america, lots of whom had been over age 55, by promoting these victims so-called ‘enterprise companies’ in reference to the victims’ purported on-line companies.”
On-screen, Shah’s shows of wealth had raised questions on her line of labor. In the course of the season 1 reunion of The Actual Housewives of Salt Lake Metropolis, host Andy Cohen requested Shah to explain her work in response to a viewer query about why she wanted so many assistants. Shah responded: “My background is in direct-response advertising and marketing for about 20 years, so our firm does promoting. We have now a platform that helps individuals purchase prospects, so once you’re purchasing on-line or on the web and one thing pops, we have now the algorithm behind why you’re getting served that advert.” In a 2020 interview with Bustle, Shah disclosed that she had three corporations—JXA Trend, Shah Magnificence, and the Actual Shah Lashes—alongside along with her “core enterprise” of direct-response advertising and marketing.
“Shah and Smith flaunted their lavish life-style to the general public as an emblem of their ‘success,’” Homeland Safety Investigations Particular Agent-in-Cost Peter C. Fitzhugh mentioned in a press release. “As alleged, disturbingly, Shah and Smith objectified their very actual human victims as ‘leads’ to be purchased and bought, providing their private data on the market to different members of their fraud ring.”
What occurs subsequent after Shah’s responsible plea
In April 2021, following their arrests, Shah and Smith each pled not responsible on all counts. Shah later accused the police that arrested her of utilizing “deception and trickery” to get her to waive her Miranda rights, and mentioned that her dry contact lenses additionally induced her to signal the mistaken line on the waiver.
On Nov. 19, 2021, Smith pled responsible to all prices, making a press release when he modified his plea that he “knowingly and deliberately mentioned and engaged with different people to develop a plan or operation to acquire cash by false illustration by providing and inducing people, lots of whom had been over 50 years of age or older, to offer cash to entities that I and others had been concerned with” and that “the companies bought had been of no worth and of no actual profit to the client.” Individuals reported {that a} previous court docket doc confirmed that others concerned in the identical telemarketing scheme who pled responsible to comparable prices got sentences of 5-7 years (whereas pleading not responsible, the decide had mentioned that Smith may very well be given a most sentence of 70 years for his mixed prices).
Had Shah not modified her plea to responsible, Smith’s change in his plea might have had a significant impact on her final result; as a result of their friendship has been well-documented each on-line and on the present, Smith’s admission that he knew that the companies had been of “no worth” and “no actual profit” would have made it tougher for Shah to show that she was unaware of the fraudulent scheme. Shah tried to have the case dismissed after Hulu launched the documentary The Housewife and the Shah Shocker in November 2021, claiming that it would spoil her possibilities of a good trial. Shah has additionally filed a request that clips from The Actual Housewives of Salt Lake Metropolis not be proven at her trial, making the case that the content material is “extremely edited and crafted by post-production.”
Now, Shah will await sentencing, which can happen in November.
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