Alright, buckle your seatbelts Real Housewives of Salt Lake City fans, do we have some news for you. Jen Shah has been polarizing since she first appeared on our TVs. In Season 1, we saw her throw glasses, scream at everyone and take no accountability for her actions. While she called herself the Queen B of SLC, she was looking more like the Queen Brat. Even Heather Gay says her old friend wasn’t being extra on camera — she just really acts like that.
The situation only got worse when audio leaked of Jen berating her employees. Again, she took no accountability, sent a cease and desist to fan accounts reposting the audio and has continued to post on Instagram to promote herself and her businesses like nothing happened. She also has been shading her co-stars behind their back, but what else would you expect after her performance at the reunion?
And then, on Tuesday, things took a turn for Jen, and it’s far from Shah-mazing. She was arrested and is facing federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering in connection with a long-running telemarketing scheme, according to NBC New York. Her assistant Stuart Smith, who appeared on the show, is facing the same charges and was also arrested Tuesday.
“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. Dang, it’s going to take more than a Coach Shah pep talk to fix this.
The NYPD says Jen and Stuart conned “hundreds” of victims in a scam that ran for at least 9 years. They are accused of selling lists of potential victims to sell leads to telemarketers.
RELATED: Jen Shah Claims She Does Not Abuse Her Staff Following Leaked Audio
The maximum sentence for a fraud conspiracy charge is 30 years. That’s a long time for Jen to go without her glam squad and fur coats. And now her old tweet about being Teresa Giudice 2.0 for flipping a table now has a whole new meaning.
According to the Salt Lake City Tribune, Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Peter Fixhugh says Jen and her assistant “flaunted their lavish lifestyle to the public as a symbol of their success,” but they “allegedly built their opulent lifestyle at the expense of vulnerable, often elderly, working-class people.”
RELATED: Jen Shah Claims She Does Not Abuse Her Staff Following Leaked Audio
The charges say that Jen and Stuart sold personal information to companies that “sold alleged services … including tax preparation or website design services, notwithstanding that many victims were elderly and did not own a computer.” And they apparently went over-the-top to conceal their roles in the scheme. The charges state they used third parties’ names, encrypted messaging applications, and instructed participants to send fraud proceeds to offshore bank accounts, among other things. Apparently, Jen doesn’t just dress like a movie villain, she really might be one.
And after bragging about the Shah Squad in Season 1, this is yet another reason why Jen is probably not the best boss. I’d take being a Sonja Morgan intern over working for Jen any day.
RELATED: Audio Of Jen Shah Berating Her Reunion Dress Designer And Other Shah Squad Members Leaks; Said “I’m Gonna Beat The Sh*t Outta You”
All of this is going down as RHOSLC is currently filming its second season, so hopefully, we get to see what went down on the show. It’ll be a big change from Jen’s first season filled with over-the-top outfits, parties and outings. It was apparently all a Shah-scam.
TELL US – WHAT DO YOU THINK OF JEN SHAH’S ARREST? DO YOU THINK WE WILL SEE WHAT WENT DOWN ON THE NEXT SEASON OF RHOSLC?
[Photo Credit: Bravo]