Jen Shah's Assistant Stuart Smith Changes Plea To Guilty, 'RHOSLC' Star's Alleged Partner In Crime Admits To Hiding Money & Lying Under Oath
Nov. 19 2021, Published 3:00 p.m. ET
Jen Shah's alleged partner in crime has just changed his plea to guilty, which could be bad news for the currently embattled Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star.
Stuart Smith, Shah's 43-year-old "first assistant," copped to hiding money and lying under oath in the pair's ongoing criminal case about their alleged involvement in a massive telemarketing scheme.
"He pleaded guilty to three counts: conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice," reports Us Weekly. "He admitted to hiding ownership and money, defrauding elderly people and lying to the Federal Trade Commission in a deposition, which constituted perjury."
According to People, Smith changed his plea during a Friday court hearing before Southern District of New York Judge Sidney H. Stein.
Reading a prepared statement to Stein, Smith admitted to his crimes relating to numerous telemarketing companies he said he either helped create or worked for between 2008 and 2021.
"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 told Stein, adding that he "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."
The judge set Smith's sentencing for March of 2022 (one year after he and Shah, 48, were arrested) and released him on bail in the meantime, noting that the maximum prison sentence for all three of the charges he accepted is 70 years.
Smith and Shah were arrested in March and indicted in April for allegedly running a nationwide telemarketing scheme that defrauded hundreds of particularly vulnerable people for close to a decade.
They both initially pleaded not guilty.
