RHOSLC’s Jen Shah charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in ‘telemarketing scheme’ & faces 30 YEARS in prison
REAL Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a "telemarketing scheme" and is facing 30 YEARS in prison.
Jennifer, 47, and her assistant, Stuart Smith, were arrested in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Tuesday morning and will face a federal judge this afternoon.
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The mother of two and her assistant were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, a revealed.
In the press release, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said: "Jennifer Shah, who portrays herself as a wealthy and successful business person on ‘, 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.
"Now, these defendants face time in prison for their alleged crimes.";
According to the press release, Jen and Stuart, along with others, carried out a telemarketing scheme that defrauded hundreds of victims, many of whom were over the age of 55, by selling them "business services."
In the indictment obtained by The Sun, the participants had a "Business Opportunity Scheme" where they "sold alleged services" to help make the alleged victim's companies more efficient or profitable.
According to court papers, this included "tax preparations or website design services."
The victims were "elderly and did not own a computer."
Participants of the scheme also provided information on "coaching sessions," though the court documents claimed that "at no point did the defendants intend that the victims would actually earn any of the promised return on their intended investment."
Jennifer and Stuart made efforts to conceal their roles in the Business Opportunity Scheme.
In one example, they used encrypted messaging apps to communicate with others involved in this scheme.
The court papers ordered Jennifer and Stuart to “forfeit to the Unite States any and all property, real and personal, involved in said offense or any property traceable to such property.”
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The scheme ran from 2012 to March 2021, according to the indictment.
was the first one to report the news.
One hour before her arrest, Jen reposted a picture shared by her makeup artist of her new hair.
The reality star donned new long braids that are parted down the middle.
