On Tuesday, Real Housewives of Salt Lake City cast member Jen Shah and her assistant Stuart Smith were arrested on wire fraud conspiracy and money-laundering conspiracy charges in Utah. They are expected to appear before a judge in federal court in Salt Lake City this afternoon.
The charges were brought by the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. The indictment alleges that Shah and Smith “carried out a wide-ranging telemarketing scheme that defrauded hundreds of victims” throughout the U.S. from 2012 until this month. It claims Shah and Smith targeted the victims, “many of whom were over age 55,” and allegedly sold them “business services” that they knew to be fraudulent, according to a press release from the Department of Justice. Shah and Smith allegedly participated in a “widespread, coordinated effort to traffic in lists of potential victims,” allegedly selling the victims’ information to other participants in their scheme. Per the Department of Justice, some of those in on the scam allegedly told their targets they would “make the management of Victims’ businesses more efficient or profitable, including tax preparation or website design services, notwithstanding that many Victims were elderly and did not own a computer.”
Shah made a name for herself as the feisty, rage-prone star of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, Bravo’s newest addition to its flagship franchise. Season one found Shah at the center of the drama, hurling drinks and picking fights with cast member Mary Cosby after Cosby told friends that it “smelled like hospital” when she was out with Shah one night. On the show she was often surrounded by members of her “Shah Squad”—a cohort of assistants that included her alleged coconspirator, Stuart Smith.
“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,” said Manhattan U.S. attorney Audrey Strauss. “In actual reality and as alleged, the so-called business opportunities pushed on the victims by Shah, Smith, and their coconspirators were just fraudulent schemes, motivated by greed, to steal victims’ money. Now these defendants face time in prison for their alleged crimes.”
Shah’s career was not a major point of focus on the show, but it came up briefly during the first part of the season one reunion. Host Andy Cohen asked Shah a question from a viewer: “Why do you need four assistants?” Shah responded, “I need a lot of help, you know? They all do different things…I run a lot of different companies and businesses, and a lot of them have different roles in the companies.” Cohen then pressed Shah to explain exactly what she did for work. Her response was as follows: “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, 47, and Smith, 43, have each been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing, “through which they victimized 10 or more persons over the age of 55,” carrying a maximum sentence of 30 years. They have also both been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
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