Jenn Shah arrested in a wire fraud conspiracy; pleads “not guilty”
In a federal conspiracy charge case, “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star Jennifer Shah pleaded not guilty to federal conspiracy held in the Southern District Of New York City. She was arrested and taken into federal custody on Tuesday in Salt Lake City, Utah on the indictment which came down from a Manhattan Federal Court.
Jennifer on Friday pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
“She’s not demonstrated a willingness to disclose her assets,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Kiersten Fletcher.
Smith also pleaded not guilty. During the court hearing, there was an argument over Shah’s bail. The judge agreed to the government’s request of making her bond strict with a $1 million bond secured by cash or property, a request Shah’s lawyers found to be excessive.
Prosecutors also suggested that Shah is hiding assets, and that she and Smith controlled a Shell company holding at least $5 million from the fraud.
“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,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss alleged in a statement earlier this week.
The New York Police Department said the number of victims Shah and Smith have allegedly duped stand in the “hundreds” and press that the alleged fraud had been perpetuated for nearly a decade, when it first started in 2012 and ran until as recently as this month.
“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,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York release reads.
