Things just got a whole lot messier for Jen Shah.
New court documents reveal that the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star “orchestrated” the telemarketing fraud scheme against the elderly that led to her arrest earlier this year.
Jen has been classified as an alleged “senior participant” in the telemarketing scheme along with her assistant Stuart Smith. The two have been classified as “Tier A” defendants in the ongoing fraud case.
Documents claim Jen and Smith were “responsible for orchestrating the broader scheme” and “supplying the leads that sustained” the telemarketing companies that in return prayed on elderly customers. They allegedly engaged in the nationwide telemarketing scheme between 2012 and March of this year.
“In particular, Jennifer Shah and Stuart Smith obtained leads directly from lead sources and provided them to, among others, coaching sales floors operated in Utah and Nevada by [other defendants],” the document alleges, as reported by TMZ.
Jen’s lawyer, Priya Chaudhry tells PEOPLE, “After investigating for nearly ten years, and a 12-day trial in which Ms. Shah was never mentioned, the Government suddenly lobs this absurd claim. This is just their latest made-up allegation, and like all others, totally unsupported by evidence. The reality is — she is totally innocent.”
There are four other defendants in the case who have been labeled Tier A while there are 23 defendants labeled in Tiers 1 through 4. One Tier A defendant has already been sentenced to 78 months in prison while several other lower-tier defendants received anywhere from 366 days to 87 months.
Tier A defendants were added to the classification list because the defendants had “greater culpability.” Documents also claim that “many” of the senior participants in the fraud “continued to participate in the scheme after they became aware of the criminal charges.”
Jen and Smith were arrested in March. They were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Both pleaded not guilty during an arrangement in April.
In June 2020, Jen attempted to have the charges against her dropped. She claims that she was suffering from “blurry vision” due to “dry” contact lenses when she was being read her Miranda rights. Due to this she was “was unable to read” the waiver she signed. Prosecutors opposed the motion on July 7.
RHOSLC will return to Bravo for season 2 in late 2021.
Thoughts on this all? Do you think Jen can get out the charges against her? Sound off below!
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