Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah was unable to participate in her own court arraignment on Wednesday, March 31 due to technical issues caused by more than 250 people calling into the virtual hearing.
According to Page Six, Shah and her co-defendant Stuart Smith, who are in Utah, were scheduled to be arraigned on an indictment out of Manhattan federal court, but 253 people had dialed into the virtual court conference and the system couldn’t accommodate more participants.
At one point an apparent fan of the show blurted to another person, apparently unaware that her line was public, “Do you watch Bravo? It’s the best thing ever!”
Someone — it wasn’t clear if it was the same woman — then said, “So one of the housewives like got busted for fraud.”
After about 45 minutes of trying to get Shah on the call, US District Judge Sidney Stein finally gave up and adjourned the proceeding to Friday, April 2.
The news comes after Shah and Smith, were arrested for their alleged roles in a telemarketing scheme that defrauded hundreds of victims throughout the United States on Tuesday, March 30.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss detailed the accusations against Shah and Smith in a press release on Tuesday, claiming that the duo “allegedly generated and sold ‘lead lists’ of innocent individuals for other members of their scheme to repeatedly scam.”
The statement continued, “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.”
Shah and her assistant were booked on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing and conspiracy to commit money laundering. They each face a maximum sentence of 30 years for the wire fraud charges and an additional 20 years for the money laundering charges.
New York Police Department Commissioner Dermot Shea applauded the NYPD and other branches of law enforcement for banding together ahead of Shah’s arrest in Salt Lake City.
“These individuals allegedly targeted and defrauded hundreds of victims but thanks to the hard work of the NYPD and our law enforcement partners, this illegal scheme was brought to an end,” Shea said on Tuesday. “I congratulate the NYPD detectives, Homeland Security Investigations, and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York for their hard work in bringing these persons to justice.”
HSI Special Agent-in-Charge Peter C. Fitzhugh also noted that the “lavish lifestyle” that Shah “flaunted” on RHOSLC was not necessarily earned through hard work.
“In reality, they allegedly built their opulent lifestyle at the expense of vulnerable, often elderly, working-class people. As alleged, disturbingly, Shah and Smith objectified their very real human victims as ‘leads’ to be bought and sold, offering their personal information for sale to other members of their fraud ring,” Fitzhugh claimed. “Working with our partners at the NYPD and the United States Attorney’s Office, SDNY, and with the assistance of HSI Salt Lake City, HSI New York worked to ensure that Shah and Smith will answer for their alleged crimes. As a result, their new reality may very well turn out differently than they expected.”
A source confirmed to Variety an anonymous tip sent to the Instagram account @twojudgeygirls, that Shah was filming Season 2 with the rest of the cast preparing for a trip to Colorado, reported Page Six.
Shah departed, citing an emergency with her husband, and federal law enforcement subsequently swarmed the production in search of Shah. The source added that cameras were rolling at the time, though it was unclear if the feds stopped them from filming.
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