Jen Shah’s cousin, Danny Filipe, the cousin of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah, is speaking out for the first time after the GoFundMe page he created for her was removed amid legal drama.
Danny shares that he felt it was important to update fans on the situation and to show how much needed to be done to secure her freedom.
“It’s what we do as a family, stick together. Her plea was not guilty. She is innocent. Enough said,” he told The Sun.
Over the weekend, Shah’s cousin started a campaign to raise $2.5 million to pay for the Bravo star’s legal fees. The now-deleted GoFundMe campaign was titled Justice For Jen Shah.
A spokeswoman for GoFundMe released a statement to The Sun regarding the now-deleted campaign. “I can confirm the fundraiser violates our Terms of Service. The fundraiser has been removed from the platform and all donors were refunded.”
“On March 30, lawyers from the Southern District of New York brought extremely serious allegations against my cousin. On April 2, Jen proclaimed her innocence by entering a plea of 'not guilty,' and hired an experienced team of New York lawyers that have begun aggressively defending her and fighting the government’s case.”
The description continued: “We are asking 10,000 caring souls to donate $250. Jen is facing decades incarcerated in prison separated from her family if she is unable to mount a competent and well-thought-out defense.”
“In seven weeks, Jen and her family have spent over $138,000 in legal fees and costs. My family is asking for your help for Jen and the Shah family,” he wrote.
Shah's family member added, "I am asking you to please help her and her family as they have helped so many of us. Jen needs the financial sustainability to present her case and evidence so that she does not become one of the 10,000 people that are wrongfully convicted.”
Fans of the Bravo hit reality series were not pleased after they learned about the GoFundMe page. On social media, some fans said they had reported the account and encouraged others to do the same. Within hours, the campaign was taken down by GoFundMe, according to Radar Online.
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.”
Photo Credit: Bravo Media/NBCUniversal; Courtesy via Danny Filipe/Instagram
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