After being made to forfeit $6 million, ex-Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star turned federal convict Jennifer “Jen” Shah must give up more than a hundred luxury jewelry, bags and other items — the majority of which are “counterfeit,” a federal court order indicates.
The 108-point list, itemized in Roman numerals, reveals Shah’s bounty being given up to the U.S. government — and it is a catalogue of high-fashion names: Yves Saint Laurent, Versace, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Christian Louboutin, Valentino, Prada, David Yurman and others. Dozens of them are the real thing. The vast majority of the items, however, are not, according to the order.
Beginning at the 32nd item on the list, every item is marked “counterfeit,” starting with two knock-off “Louis Vuitton” bags. Three fake “Chanel” bags and a wallet follow, then a string of ersatz “Fendi,” “Bottega Veneta,” “Balenciaga,” “Hermes,” and other faux high-fashion bags and jewelry, including several boasting 18-carat-plated gold or imitation pearls.
On July 11, 2022, Shah pleaded guilty to bilking elderly and vulnerable people out of millions in a nationwide telemarketing scheme. She also entered into a $6.5 million preliminary forfeiture order that day, and her prosecutors followed up with a more detailed order on Thursday.
During her guilty plea, Shah said: “I agreed with others to commit wire fraud.”
The telemarketing scheme involved supposed coaching services for business opportunities, which she conceded before her conviction had “little to no value.”
“Furthermore, while doing this, I knew many of the purchasers were over the age of 55,” Shah said at the time.
Shah’s guilty plea fell just a week before her anticipated trial, and she told the judge that she was “so sorry” for what she did.
When Shah was arrested in 2021, Bravo had been taping its second season of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. The Southern District of New York’s then-U.S. attorney announced the charges against her with great fanfare.
“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,” then-U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said on the day of their arrest. “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.”
Shah repeatedly had claimed she was innocent, playing on her name as she proclaimed: “the only thing I’m guilty of is being Shah-mazing.” The following year, she would become a federal “Shah”-nvict.
Her attorney Priya Chaudhry called Shah a “good woman who crossed a line.” Her client now faces a maximum 30 years of imprisonment under her counts of conviction, but her agreement with federal prosecutors calculates the sentencing guidelines far lower: between 135 to 168 months of imprisonment, or 11 and one-quarter years to 14 years.
Shah and her attorneys’ electronic signatures appear at the end of the forfeiture order, which was also signed by U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein.
Her sentencing has been scheduled for Jan. 6, 2023.
Read the order here.
[image via YouTube/Bravo TV]
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