Heather Gay is finally breaking her silence and is sharing her thoughts on her Real Housewives of Salt Lake City co-star Jen Shah’s arrest amid ongoing legal drama.
“What I can say is this is the biggest, hugest thing that has happened to our community, and to our group of friends, and to Jen personally, and to me personally,” Gay said on the June 2 episode of the So Bad It’s Good with Ryan Bailey podcast, according to Reality Blurb. “I mean, this is big, and it’s real.”
She continued, “It’s all very, very real, but it’s also hyper-realized. I don’t think anything’s bigger or more hyper-realized than a federal indictment or your friend facing prison. Like, this is hyper-realized drama, but it’s real, and it’s happening.”
Gay went on to explain how difficult the situation has been for the cast. “And so what I can say is it does feel like we’re ten years into [the show], but we’re only [in the] second season, and everything plays out in real-time,” she explained. “We are in it with her. We are going through it as friends, [and] as people who for the first time in [our] lives are public figures. And for the first time in [our] lives, we have to answer to not only [our] family and friends, but to a worldwide audience, and to also see [our] trials and struggles played out and subject to public opinion.”
Heather confirmed that filming on season two wrapped a couple of weeks ago, and shared that viewers can expect an intense, dramatic season.
“It is all the five horseman of drama,” she shared. “I mean, you’ve got intrigue, and crime, and passion, and loyalty, and friendships all on the backdrop of Salt Lake City, Utah.”
The news comes after Jen Shah and her assistant, Stuart Smith, were arrested for their alleged roles in a telemarketing scheme that defrauded hundreds of victims throughout the United States on Tuesday, March 30.
Shah and Smith were booked in Salt Lake City on conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing and conspiracy to commit money laundering charges. They each face a maximum sentence of 30 years for the wire fraud charges and an additional 20 years for the money laundering charges.
“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 said in a press release on Tuesday, reports the outlet. “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 Smith flaunted their lavish lifestyle to the public as a symbol of their ‘success,’” HSI Special Agent-in-Charge Peter C. Fitzhugh added. “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. 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.”
According to Us Weekly, New York Police Department Commissioner Dermot Shea went on to thank the “hard work” of the NYPD for the case.
“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.”
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