Amid Jen Shah’s ongoing legal woes, Bravo fans are looking at the Shah Squad. However, only one key part of the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’s inner circle — Stuart Smith — has been named in the alleged telemarketing scheme.
Us Weekly confirmed in March 2021 that Jen and Stuart were arrested while cameras were rolling on season 2 of the series.
“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 March 30. “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.”
Several days later, Jen and Stuart both pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Court documents released in August 2021, however, signaled that Stuart may be changing his plea.
“Mr. Smith is working diligently towards a resolution of his case. I am confident his case will be resolved without the necessity of a trial and I hereby request that we be excused from the August 10, 20201, hearing,” Stuart’s attorney wrote in a letter to the United States District Judge at the time.
As Jen’s October 2021 trial was delayed (seemingly due to COVID protocols) to March 2022, her arrest aired on a November 2021 episode of RHOSLC. She slammed her costars for how they spoke about her shortly after the episode made headlines.
“Y’all see who these ladies really are. They have zero compassion for me and my family. It takes an evil person to take delight in what we’re going through,” she wrote on November 15, 2021, via Instagram Stories. “I am [100 percent] innocent and I hope the ladies each learn a valuable lesson from this and stop judging others.”
Jen added that the scandal is “heartbreaking” for her family, which includes husband Sharrieff Shah and their two sons — Sharrieff Jr. and Omar.
“Everyone is using this as their story lines and jokes and my family is the recipient of this heartless behavior,” she wrote via Instagram Stories. “I look forward to my fay in court so everyone will see this. I hope this will serve as a lesson to everyone that judged and ridiculed me and my family without having any facts, evidence or poor. This is exactly what’s wrong in America … You are not innocent until proven guilty.”
Scroll through for more on Jen’s relationship with her husband, sons and Stuart:
