‘The Housewife & the Shah Shocker’ Documentary: Biggest Revelations About Jen Shah’s Business, Alleged Crimes

Credit: ABC News / Hulu

'The Housewife & the Shah Shocker' Documentary: Biggest Revelations About Jen Shah's Business, Alleged Crimes

As Jen Shah’s March 2022 trial approaches, The Housewife & the Shah Shocker is exploring the charges against the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star — and how she ended up at the center of an alleged telemarking scheme. The ABC News documentary, which is currently streaming on Hulu, features interviews from two alleged victims, agents investigating Shah and her assistant Stuart Smith, legal experts and ABC correspondent Aaron Katersky. “The folks that are behind this are pros at what they do. It is disgusting," Homeland Security Investigations Acting Special Agent in Charge Rick Patel said in The Housewife & the Shah Shocker. ”And what we’d like to tell any victim is, it's not your fault, please come forward, because we need your help to make sure this doesn't happen to more people." Shah and Smith have been accused of selling “lead lists” and presenting allegedly fake business opportunities to vulnerable individuals. While Shah has pleaded not guilty to the fraud and money laundering charges, Smith changed his initial not guilty plea earlier this month, pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice. “Generally, I believe her defenses are that she's not the one that is selling these other services,” criminal defense lawyer Ronald Richards said. “She's just providing leads, and that she shouldn't be criminally liable. … Jen Shah is gonna say ‘No, I was good at getting leads and what they did with the leads is their problem.’” [jwplayer Ij3zFXwX-zhNYySv2] Eric Patterson, the founder of the Utah Investigative Journalism Project, explained: “If you're just a lead generator, you're the most removed from anything that would be illegal or fraudulent or unethical. ‘I just provide you with numbers, you dial them. And I hope that you're being forthright and honest with these people.’” Shah and her team declined ABC News’ request for comment, but the Bravo star’s aunt Lehua Vincent defended her in the doc. "This is the most difficult time for our entire family. The Jen Shah that I know is a woman who has come from a culture that is deeply rooted in honesty, loyalty and hard work,” Vincent said. “There's just no way that Jen has the ability to be harmful or hurtful or disrespectful. You are innocent until proven guilty … and I believe her to be nothing but innocent.” Scroll through for a breakdown of The Housewife & the Shah Shocker:

Credit: ABC News / Hulu

'The Housewife & the Shah Shocker' Documentary: Biggest Revelations About Jen Shah's Business, Alleged Crimes

As Jen Shah’s March 2022 trial approaches, The Housewife & the Shah Shocker is exploring the charges against the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star — and how she ended up at the center of an alleged telemarking scheme. The ABC News documentary, which is currently streaming on Hulu, features interviews from two alleged victims, agents investigating Shah and her assistant Stuart Smith, legal experts and ABC correspondent Aaron Katersky. “The folks that are behind this are pros at what they do. It is disgusting," Homeland Security Investigations Acting Special Agent in Charge Rick Patel said in The Housewife & the Shah Shocker. ”And what we’d like to tell any victim is, it's not your fault, please come forward, because we need your help to make sure this doesn't happen to more people." Shah and Smith have been accused of selling “lead lists” and presenting allegedly fake business opportunities to vulnerable individuals. While Shah has pleaded not guilty to the fraud and money laundering charges, Smith changed his initial not guilty plea earlier this month, pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice. “Generally, I believe her defenses are that she's not the one that is selling these other services,” criminal defense lawyer Ronald Richards said. “She's just providing leads, and that she shouldn't be criminally liable. … Jen Shah is gonna say ‘No, I was good at getting leads and what they did with the leads is their problem.’” [jwplayer Ij3zFXwX-zhNYySv2] Eric Patterson, the founder of the Utah Investigative Journalism Project, explained: “If you're just a lead generator, you're the most removed from anything that would be illegal or fraudulent or unethical. ‘I just provide you with numbers, you dial them. And I hope that you're being forthright and honest with these people.’” Shah and her team declined ABC News’ request for comment, but the Bravo star’s aunt Lehua Vincent defended her in the doc. "This is the most difficult time for our entire family. The Jen Shah that I know is a woman who has come from a culture that is deeply rooted in honesty, loyalty and hard work,” Vincent said. “There's just no way that Jen has the ability to be harmful or hurtful or disrespectful. You are innocent until proven guilty … and I believe her to be nothing but innocent.” Scroll through for a breakdown of The Housewife & the Shah Shocker:

Credit: Andrew Peterson/Bravo

Claims About Her Money

In Shah’s casting tape, she claimed that she spends $50,000 a month, a number questioned by the experts in the doc as her husband, Sharrieff Shah, wouldn’t be able to provide her that lifestyle with his assistant college football coach salary. Koa Johnson, one of Jen’s former employees, alleged that her fur coats, jewelry and Porsche are borrowed or loaned.

Credit: ABC News / Hulu

Employee Allegations

In between seasons 1 and 2 of RHOSLC, a video of Shah screaming at her employees, including Johnson, surfaced.

"Every scene, she’s, like, screaming, and in real life, there are moments where she’s always screaming. She’s actually worse off screen," he alleged. "She did say in a couple of her interviews that she's the Wizard of Oz. The woman behind the curtain. I don't think she's the wizard, I think she's the Wicked Witch of the West.”

Johnson, who said in the doc that they don’t know who took the video, subsequently quit and moved to Hawaii.

“The last to paid compensation I got from her was in September 2020, but I worked for her all the way up to January,” he claimed. “As far as my other coworkers, they made it known to me that they weren't be compensated as well.”

According to the doc, Shah said Johnson didn’t deliver on all of the dresses that she paid for the materials for. She addressed the situation during a season 2 episode, telling Bravo cameras: “He took my kindness and repaid me by making it look like I mistreated him, which was not the case at all."

Credit: Rick Bowmer/AP/Shutterstock

Behind-the-Scenes of the Arrest

“In the case of Jen Shah, she had a television crew that was following her around on a regular basis,” Patel said of Shah’s March arrest being captured by Bravo cameras. “Our investigators, our special agents, needed to do our job, and I’m happy to say they did it without incident and it was that she was taken into custody.”

Credit: ABC News / Hulu

Penny Pucket’s Story

Pucket claimed that she spent $97 on a program that was supposed to help her market her new baby blanket company and ended up in $29,000 in debt after Ecommerce, one of the companies that contacted Pucket to “coach” her, allegedly manipulated her into signing up for more services. She never sold one blanket.

“Penny clicked an ad for a work at home business. And we can assume her name wound up on a lead list,” Katersky claimed. “And that meant it was open season on her because she was seen as being susceptible to salespeople getting her to buy more stuff.”

Credit: Rick Bowmer/AP/Shutterstock

Jen’s Business Background

According to the doc, Shah was deposed in 2015 by the FTC regarding her work at telemarketing company Thrive. “Two years later, they fine thrive $27 million for deceptive sales practices,” Katersky explained.

Credit: ABC News / Hulu

Marie Walker’s Story

Walker was allegedly “inundated with calls from telemarketing companies” after clicking on an ad for home-based businesses in 2020 while trying to start an online beauty business. The pre-school teacher spent $1,000 on “a social media boost package” from Mastery Pro, a company which prosecutors allege is run by Shah and Smith.

“In January 2021, I started having a lot of trouble with the website. I was trying to reach the marketing coach, the website builders and I couldn't reach anybody," Walker claimed. “There was no website, nothing. … I contacted all my credit card companies, my bank, I'd contacted the police department, made reports. I contacted the FTC. I put in a total of about $18,000. I did get back some on credit cards, about $8,000, but the rest is lost.”

Walker concluded: ”If I can talk to the people that scammed me, I would say, 'Would you do this to your mother? To your sister? And why, why would you do this? And why would you keep doing it? Or do you have a conscience about it?' Cause I know I couldn’t do this.”

Earlier this month, Smith admitted to “misleading customers” and told the court that he and others created Mastery Pro "to hide actual ownership of the corporation." The documentary alleged that Mastery Pro made at least $5 million in criminal proceeds.

Credit: Bravo

Stuart’s Plea Change

Earlier this month, Smith changed his plea — which could affect Shah’s March 2022 trial.  

“Eight months after the arrest, he pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and obstruction, admitting that he hid money and defrauded elderly people,” Katersky said. “And he didn't say who he conspired with but everybody knows his association with Jen Shah. Together, the charges to which he pleaded guilty carry a maximum of 70 years in prison, to be sentenced in March of 2022.”

Richards added, “She's going to have a hard time attacking his credibility because they were best buddies until the arrest. … Stuart knows where the bodies are buried and I think that he testifies, that's going to be a devastating witness.”