RHOSLC star Jen Shah breaks her silence after pleading not guilty to telemarketing scheme

Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shan broke her silence and thanked her ‘true friends’ for reaching out after she was arrested last week for her alleged involvement in a nationwide telemarketing scheme.

The budding reality television personality took to Instagram on Saturday afternoon where she praised a few of her followers for believing in her after she pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering.

Jen, 47, and her assistant Stuart Smith are facing 30 years behind bars for their reported involvement in a nearly decade-long scandal which defrauded hundreds of people across multiple states.

‘Thank you for being loyal, believing in me and not believing the hype,’ she wrote in an Instagram Story with a few photos of her face. 

‘This journey has showed me who my true friends are. All my love. #ShahSquad.’

Shah was arrested in Salt Lake City on Tuesday and faces up to 30 years in prison for allegedly defrauding elderly people via a telemarketing scheme which New York prosecutors say went on for nine years.

‘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 on Tuesday. 

‘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.’  

Cameras were reportedly rolling on the second season of the hit Bravo show when Jen was arrested as the women — including Meredith Marks, Lisa Barlow, Heather Gay, Whitney Rose and Mary Cosby — made their way to Vail, Colorado, according to US Weekly.

‘Jen was filming with a few of the other women present when she was arrested. The women were completely shocked when Jen was taken away,’ an insider revealed.

‘Jen’s future this season remains unclear,’ the source added. ‘If she will go back to filming or not, no one is really sure, she hasn’t resumed filming yet.’ 

Shah’s husband Sharieff, a football coach at the University of Utah, regularly appears by her side on RHOSLC and the couple has two sons Omar, 17, and Sharrieff Jr., 26.