One of 'The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City' was charged with running a 9-year telemarketing fraud scheme

• The Justice Department on Tuesday charged Jen Shah with running a telemarketing fraud scheme.
• Shah is a cast member of Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
• Shah is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Jen Shah, a cast member of Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City," was charged Tuesday by the Justice Department with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in relation to telemarketing and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The charges were filed Tuesday by the Justice Department in the US Attorneys Office in the Southern District of New York.

Shah, and her alleged co-conspirator, Stuart Smith, were arrested Tuesday morning and were expected to appear in a Salt Lake City court later Tuesday, the Justice Department said.

"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 Audrey Strauss, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

She continued: "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."

Shah has starred in "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" since it premiered on Bravo last year. The show is the 10th and most recent installment in the long-running reality franchise. The show was renewed by Bravo for a second season in February.

The 47-year-old is described by Bravo as "the queen of her house and her businesses as the CEO of three marketing companies. Always decked out in designer brands, Jen loves to host parties and spares no expense - it's important to her that everyone knows she is the best host in Utah."

The alleged scheme occurred for nearly a decade from 2012 until March 2021, according to the Justice Department. Prosecutors allege the pair, along with unnamed co-conspirators, defrauded "hundreds" of people as part of the nine-year telemarketing scheme.

According to the criminal complaint, Shah and Smith "generated and sold leads" to other participants involved in the scheme knowing that the people they identified as "leads" would be defrauded.

Some of the "participants" involved in the scheme marketed tax preparation or website design services to victims, claiming to make their business operations more efficient, even though many of the victims "were elderly and did not own a computer," according to the Justice Department.

Shah and Smith were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing, which carries a prison sentence of up to 30 years. Both were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.