The moment Real Housewives fans have been waiting for has finally arrived.
“The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star Jen Shah was arrested earlier this year in March after being federally charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering through an alleged telemarketing fraud scheme. And now, viewers are getting a sneak peek of what went down.
Bravo Insider released the first look at the new RHOSLC season, which premieres this Sunday, September 12. The clip, as seen above, shows the ladies in a bus leaving for a cast trip. But things quickly go south when Shah answers a call from her husband.
She tells her co-stars she has to leave, and 12 minutes later Homeland Security Investigators show up looking for Shah. The baffled ladies tell them she left, and the clip then cuts to officers outside of Shah’s home saying they have a search warrant.
Meanwhile, the ladies – Whitney Rose, Heather Gay, Mary M. Cosby, Lisa Barlow, and Jenny Nguyen – seemingly decided to leave for their trip, since they were initially unaware of the ordeal. Rose then reads an article sharing Shah’s charges which leaves all the ladies baffled.
According to a press release from the Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York at the time, the scheme had allegedly been going on since 2012 and targeted those who were over 55 years of age. Shah’s assistant Stuart Smith was also arrested. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Shah’s Co-Stars Face a Major Question
Prior to Shah’s arrest, she was preparing to leave for a RHOSLC cast trip. The ladies had decided to meet at Gay’s business – Beauty Lab and Laser. Once Shah’s husband called her, she fled the parking lot, making it by only 12 minutes.
The narrow escape made many co-stars wonder if one of them tipped off the authorities. “How did they know she was here?” Barlow asks the ladies on the bus. “Somebody had to have told them she was here.”
The teaser ends with the producers asking each cast member in a confessional, “What do you know that you’re not saying right now?” It then cuts to producers asking them, “So do you know who tipped off the feds that day?” The clip ends with Meredith Marks beginning to speak.
The theme of ‘who snitched’ seems to carry on throughout the season. In the RHOSLC season two trailer, Rose insinuates that Marks had something to do with Shah’s arrest. “It looks like you might have something to do with the fact that Jen was indicted,” she tells Marks at a group dinner.
Shah then blows up and screams to Marks, “I swear to God, if you have anything to do with the bulls*** charges against me, Meredith, you’re f****** disgusting.” Marks replies in her classic one-liner, “Get out of my face. I’m out, I’m disengaging.”
Shah screams back, “You’re f****** fraudulent,” to which Marks replies, “Who’s calling who a fraud? Love you baby, bye.” In another scene, Gay sits down with Shah and asks her how they knew she was at Beauty Lab and Laser that day.
The Ladies Deal With the Aftermath of Shah’s Arrest
Shah’s arrest has the biggest effect on her, but the cast also confesses to struggling with it. Barlow tells Marks in one scene, “I just don’t think she is who we think she is,” to which Marks cries back, “She’s not!” Nguyen later asks Barlow, “Do you have business with Jen?”
Even Shah’s closest friends fear what her arrest means for them. Gay tells the ladies, “I don’t want to be indicted! I don’t want to be involved!” In another scene, Rose tells her friends, “If we do not share what we know, we’re in danger.”
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