According to PEOPLE, all motions were denied in court. U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein wrote in an Aug. 5 filing that in this case of an alleged “extensive, long-running telemarketing fraud conspiracy that sold millions of dollars of essentially nonexistent services and products to elderly, unsophisticated consumers,” Shah’s motion to dismiss the indictment because there’s no proof she “joined the conspiracy willfully and with the specific intent to defraud” doesn't survive “even cursory scrutiny.”
Shah had previously claimed she did not properly understand her Miranda rights because she was suffering from “blurry vision" due to “dry” contact lenses and thus “was unable to read” the waiver in front of her when she signed it.
She also claimed law enforcement misled her to get incriminating statements from her, and said she was “confused and emotionally off-balance” at that moment.
Responding to Shah’s request to dismiss her post-arrest statements, the judge wrote that “the Court finds that Shah’s Miranda waiver was decidedly voluntary” and that her “difficulty reading due to the claimed dryness of her contact lenses” did not affect her ability to understand her right.
“In addition to showing Shah the Miranda waiver form, [officers] read each question aloud,” added the judge.
On Monday, Daniel R. Alonso, one of Shah’s attorneys, said in a court filing obtained by PEOPLE that he and his colleagues Henry W. Asbill and Michael S. Chu were resigning from Shah’s counsel. The filing said that Shah “wishes to have ChaudhryLaw PLLC represent her for all purposes in this matter going forward, rather than Buckley LLP.” Her team will now be comprised of her recently retained attorney Priya Chaudhry and partners.
“Our team has been bringing Ms. Chaudhry and her team up to speed for more than a month,” said Alonso, explaining there would be a smooth transfer and that all parties in the case had consented to the change in counsel.
The court accepted the withdrawal. Shah has a pre-trial conference date on Oct. 8, and she is set for trial with co-defendants Chad Allen and Cameron Brewster on Oct. 18.
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
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