We're just gonna go ahead and make this very simple:
Jen Shah is f--ked.
On Friday, the reality star's former assistant, Stuart Smith, changed his plea from not guilty to guilty during a Friday appearance before Southern District of New York Judge Sidney H. Stein.
How does this relate to Shah?
Along with The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City cast member, Smith was arrested and charged in March with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing.
He was also charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of obstructing an official proceeding.
Both Smith and his former boss have been accused of misleading elderly citizens about phony business opportunities in order to compile their personal information.
They are then accused of selling this information for massive profit.
The pair pleaded not guilty during an arraignment in April... and Shah has continually insisted she didn't do anything wrong.
At one point, she even whined that she's being framed because she's famous.
Now, however, Shah may need to rethink her legal stance.
She's been named by authorities as one of the orchestrators of this dastardly scheme, which means she faces decades in prison if convicted.
We can't say for certain what Smith agreed to with prosecutors in order to change his plea today to guilty -- but we all know how this typically works, right?
You sign a plea deal because you have valuable information the opposing counsel wants.
In other words?
You sign a plea deal in exchange for a lighter sentence -- because you plan on flipping on someone else involved with the case.
Based on their long-time relationship, it seems VERY likely that Smith would have damning information against Shah.
During his hearing, Smith read a statement confessing to his crimes as they pertain to various telemarketing companies he said he either helped create or worked for between 2008 and 2021.
Said Smith in court:
"I knowingly and intentionally discussed and engaged with other individuals to develop a plan or operation to obtain money by false representation by offering and inducing individuals, many of whom were over 50 years of age or older, to provide money to entities that I and others were involved with."
He continued:
I "became aware that these telemarketing companies were misleading customers of those entities by selling individuals, many of them who were older than 50 years of age, information that purported to be services to enhance their business opportunities.
"The services sold were of no value and of no real benefit to the customer."
In March, prosecutors claimed that Shah and Smith's scheme was a "coordinated effort to traffic in lists of potential victims," referred to as "leads."
From there, they allegedly sold those leads to telemarketing companies that would attempt to sell business services to the targeted individuals.
Both "received as profit a share of the fraudulent revenue per the terms of their agreement with those participants," according to the official indictment.
In September, Shah appeared alongside The Real Housewives of Potomac's Gizelle Bryant on Bravo's "Spilling Iced Tea" Instagram Live and addressed her ongoing legal woes.
"I think what people don't understand is, here in America, you're innocent until proven guilty. I'm innocent," she said.
"And I believe that this is not just my test, this is everybody's test close to me and in my corner."
Shah is, naturally, still appearing on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City amid this ongoing situation.
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