Jen Shah’s assistant Stuart Smith has changed his plea to guilty.
Earlier this year, the Real Housewives of Salt Lake Citystar and her former employee were arrested after allegedly running a fraudulent telemarketing scheme.
The pair both previously pleaded not guilty to the wire fraud and money laundering charges against them, but now Stuart seems to have turned on his old boss.
According to attorney Ronald Richards, Smith, 43, “pleaded guilty to three counts: conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice,” per a report from Us Weekly.
On Friday, November 19, the outlet confirmed that Smith “admitted to hiding ownership and money, defrauding elderly people and lying to the Federal Trade Commision in a deposition, which constituted perjury,” according to Richards.
At the time of the pair’s attest, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss previously stated that “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 remembers of their scheme to reportedly scam.”
The attorney continued at the time, “In actual reality and as alleged, the so-called business opportunities pushed on the victims by Shah, Smith and the co-conspirators were just fraudulent schemes, motivated by greed to steal victims’ money.”
During the upcoming trial, Smith could face a maximum of 30 years in prison, but it is not yet clear what the new guilty plea will mean for Shah, who has maintained her innocence ever since her arrest began making headlines earlier this year.
The Bravo personality is set to appear in court for the trial in March 2022 after previously trying to get her case thrown out to no avail.
After the RHOSLC episode featuring Shah’s arrest aired earlier this month, the TV personality took to social media to bash her costars’ reactions to her legal troubles.
“Y’all see who these ladies really are,” she wrote on Instagram on Monday, November 15. “They have zero compassion for me and my family. It takes an evil person to take delight in what we’re going through.”
“I am [100 percent] innocent and I hope the ladies each learn a valuable lesson from this and stop judging others,” she concluded.
As OK! previously reported, most of Shah’s fellow cast members were surprised by her arrest, with the exception of Meredith Marks, who admitted she wasn’t “shocked,” about the news.
