Jennifer Shah entered a not guilty plea
"Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" star Jennifer Shah entered a not guilty plea Friday on federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, in connection with a purported long-running telemarketing scam.
Shah was arrested Tuesday in Salt Lake City on the indictment
out of Manhattan federal court. Stuart Smith, who appeared with Shah on
"Real Housewives," was also indicted in the alleged scheme. A judge
previously released them without bond.
"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. In actual reality and as alleged,
the so-called business opportunities pushed on the victims by Shah, Smith, and
their co-conspirators were just fraudulent schemes, motivated by greed, to
steal victims’ money," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a
statement at the time.
The NYPD has alleged that Shah and Smith have
"hundreds" of victims. According to the indictment against them,
their alleged scam ran for at least nine years, from 2012 until this month.
Her "Real Housewives" bio describes Shah as
"queen of her house and her businesses as the CEO of three marketing
companies."
But prosecutors allege that Shah and Smith instead ran a
complicated scheme to generate lists of potential victims, many over age 55,
and sell those leads to telemarketing companies that would in turn try to sell
business services to the victims.
Shah and Smith would then purportedly receive a share of the
allegedly fraudulent revenue those telemarketers generated.
The fraud conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of 30
years in prison.
'Real Housewives' Drama
Shah is one of the principal stars of the newest iteration
of "Real Housewives," which debut last November and was renewed in
February for a second season.
During a reunion special last month, Shah tried to explain
what exactly she did for a living, after some of her friends said they didn't
even understand it themselves.
"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, according to a Bravo recap of the show.
PR reps for Shah had no comment on her arrest.
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