Less than two weeks afterJen Shahwassentencedto 6.5 years in federal prison for a far-reaching telemarketing scheme, one ofThe Real Housewives of Salt Lake Citystar’svictimshas stepped forward to detail the devastating impact the fraudulent enterprise had on real people’s live.
“My daughter had just purchased this property. And I don’t think she realized that it takes a lot of cash flow to maintain a property this size,” Trisha explains the events leading up to her involvement in 2016. “I went online, did a webpage, just a standard, normal webpage. I was fairly decent in working with computers.”
She continues, “About three weeks later, I got a phone call saying, ‘We noticed that you have a new website. [They] did a sales speech about all of the perks if I went with them that they could teach me.”
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Trisha says she paid about $12,000 for the first program, but surprising additional costs kept adding up. Looking back now, she says she handed over $47,000 — or half of her retirement savings — to the scam.
“I mean, I was shell-shocked,” Trisha says later in the interview, “But it turned out to be true.”
Also in Thursday’s episode, Shah’s former stylist and designer Koa Johnson speaks about his experience with Shah — and why he turned on the reality star.
“I would describe our relationship [as] very close because it was a business relationship, but at the same time [it was a] personal relationship because I had to work so closely with her,” he says of their dynamic.
“When I first created a look for her based off what she wanted to portray [onRHOSLC], which was being a very glamorous, strong Polynesian woman, fierce, inviting, pretty much a badass,” he recalls.
But Shah was a different person away when cameras stopped rolling, says Johnson: “Jennifer Shah is a very difficult person to get to do anything. She’s self-sabotaging. She will stay at home all day in bed, in her pajamas or in the clothes she’s been wearing for the last three days.”
Eventually after seeing both sides of the reality star, he tellsNightline: “I did submit some information that may have helped lead them in a direction to convict her in her federal trial.”
Knowing the role he played in her imprisonment, Johnson adds that he will not “feel safe” again untilShah begins her prison sentence on Feb. 17.
Shah was initiallyarrested in March 2021alongside assistantStuart Smithfor targeting people in a nationwide phone scam to defraud those over the age of 55. She was then charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
ThoughSmith entered a guilty pleain November 2021, Shah continued to proclaim her innocence and even entered a not guilty plea in April 2021 before ultimatelyswitching her plea to guiltylast summer.
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source: people.com
