Jennifer Shah’s arrest may have taken us by surprise, but now some of her old claims are starting to make a bit more sense!
Like, for example, the time when the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star said she had a whopping eight assistants — one of which would “literally do anything” for her!
As we reported, the Bravolebrity was arrested on Tuesday (while Bravo cameras were filming, no less!) on federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering in connection with an alleged long-running telemarketing scam. Her assistant, Stuart Smith, was also indicted in the alleged scheme.
Just a few months ago, however, the starlet was still touting herself as a successful marketing maven who ran three companies that definitely were not, as the feds put it, “fraudulent schemes, motivated by greed, to steal victims’ money.”
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Back in January, the allegedly fraudulent reality star sat down for an interview with SiriusXM’s The Michelle Collins Show to talk about her businesses. After revealing that she was “up to eight assistants” at the moment, host Michelle Collins asked the 47-year-old why she needed so many — to which Jen responded:
“It takes a lot. Well, okay. So I have three marketing companies and then we have the fashion company, the beauty company, the lashes. So that’s why it really, and I do, I do have a disclaimer. So some, these people are also doing business things too, but because they’re like helping me with like admin assistant type stuff, that’s why they’re like assistants. But I have people that have regular job titles that worked for me.”
Hmmm. A little confusing, no?
After Michelle asked the reality star if there was any task she’d be too “embarrassed” to ask her assistants to perform, Jen went on to reveal that she could tell her right-hand man, Stuart, to do pretty much anything, sharing:
“Oh no, they do it. I mean. Yeah. Especially Stuart, if there’s something like that is like, like Stuart would literally do anything, anything like some, some assistants I won’t ask to do certain things, you know? One of them is just, she’s just strictly virtual. So of course I’m not asking her to do…. But like Stuart is all in for like crazy stuff. Yeah.”
Well, now we know what she means by “crazy stuff” — allegedly!
According to the indictment against them out of Manhattan federal court, Shah, Smith and others not identified “defrauded hundreds of victims” out of thousands of dollars by generating lists of potential victims, then selling those leads to telemarketing companies that would later try to sell the victims business services like coaching sessions, tax prep, and web design.
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The indictment claims that Shah and co. did not “intend that the victims would actually earn any of the promised return on their intended investment, nor did the victims actually earn any such returns” — but they would receive a share of the allegedly fraudulent revenue those telemarketers generated.
Feds say this alleged scam ran for at least nine years — from 2012 until this month. The fraud conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
What do U think about this mess? Ch-ch-check out the clip from Jen’s interview (below) and share your thoughts in the comments!
[Image via Bravo/YouTube]
The post <i>RHOSLC</i>'s Jennifer Shah Said Her Assistant Stuart Would 'Literally Do Anything' For Her Months Before Their Arrest For Fraud! appeared first on Perez Hilton.