Jen Shah’s legal team is accusing prosecutors of picking on their client because she’s famous.
According to court documents obtained by Radar Online, the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star's attorneys are claiming she’s being made an example of because she’s a television personality.
Shah’s lawyer Priya Chaudhry fired off a scathing letter to the court in direct response to claims made last week, which state the FBI believes Shah had “greater culpability” in the complex telemarking scheme.
In fact, they claim she was one of the leaders in the scam that targeted “senior participants.”
Chaudhry is firing back, stating the damning accusations “have no place on the public record.”
“We urge the Court to order it stricken or at least redacted, and to remind the government that it should not file naked statements on the record absent an application for relief or the request of the Court,” she wrote, adding that the RHOSLC star “has steadfastly maintained her innocence.”
“Unlike all of the other defendants, Ms. Shah is a public figure because of her work on the Bravo television network. The government is well aware of this, and timed its letter for the night before oral argument, knowing that it would be picked up by the press—which it was, and was reported in a highly prejudicial manner,” Chaudhry added.
However, prosecutors believe Shah’s newfound fame has anything to do with the case.
In the documents obtained by Radar Online, prosecutors laugh off her team’s accusations, claiming they are coming after her because she deserves it, not because she’s a Bravo reality star.
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; Shutterstock
