Not everyone was taken by surprise over Jen Shah’s arrest earlier this year.
During the latest episode of Real Housewives of Salt Lake Cityon Sunday, November 14, Meredith Marks, 49, admitted that she wasn’t as shocked as the rest of her costars when Shah was arrested earlier this year.
The arrest happened back in March when Shah, 47, was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering after she and her assistant Stuart Smith allegedly ran a telemarketing scheme targeting elders.
Now Bravo viewers are seeing the drama unfold on this season of RHOSLC, where Shah’s fellow housewives explained their own reactions to the news.
While Lisa Barlow, Whitney Rose, Heather Gayand Jennie Nguyen were all taken off guard after hearing about Shah’s legal woes, Marks insisted that she was “not surprised” at all.
“Meredith, it is bad,” Barlow told Marks, who was already in Vail, Colorado for a girls trip when her costars told her the news.
“Honestly I’m not surprised by this,” Marks said after hearing about the arrest, causing the show’s newest cast member, Nguyen, to ask, “Why are you not surprised, Meredith? Do you know something? Did she tell you something?”
“Too many things didn’t add up and I have suspected that something was going on for a while,” Marks answered. “Now it’s like validated that I was right. I’m not crazy.”
“The good news is while everything else is falling apart around us, we do have a beautiful house here,” Marks continued. “Love you guys. See you soon. Mwah!”
While the rest of the stars voiced their confusion over Shah’s arrest in the episode, some of them admitted to being skeptical of Shah’s finances in the past.
“Where does she get all her money and all of her things from?” Rose asked the rest of the women. She later revealed in a confessional that Shah’s lifestyle didn’t really add up.
Later in the episode, Marks went on to explain why she wasn’t all that surprised over the fraud and money laundering charges after Shah was allegedly involved in retail theft at her store.
“In late September [2020], I was with my entire family. We were all in New York. And I have, like, eight missed calls from Jen,” Marks recalled in Sunday’s episode. “I was at dinner and I called her back and she’s like, “Oh, we’re good. I was trying to get into your store. It was closed. I was banging on the door, but your manager opened it for me.’ Great, so she left. My manager called me and I’m like, ‘Oh great, what did she buy?'”
Marks’ manager reportedly claimed that Shah spent “a few hundred dollars,” but that a clutch bag seemed to be missing from the store after Shah and her friends left.
“[My manager told me], ‘There is a green clutch that I know was here. Her friends were holding it and it is gone,” Marks said. “So, I said to my manager, ‘Send her a text and just gently say, “Did you borrow it?'"
Marks’ manager then reportedly got a call from one of Shah’s associates, claiming they would “bring the bag back tomorrow.”
“Jen did not walk out with a bag,” Marks explained in her confessional interview. “But what really didn’t sit well with me is she kept someone who she knew did take something out of my store in her employment. That’s not my friend.”
The two women have had a rocky relationship in the past, after Shah reportedly made homophobic comments against Marks’ son Brooks on social media. Now Marks believes her suspicions about Shah might be correct. “I just waited quietly and I don’t point my fingers when I don’t have the facts,” Marks said on Sunday night’s episode.
Shah and her assistant both pleaded not guilty to the charges against them back in April. Their trial date is set for March 2022.
