The Unreal Housewife: Ep. 6, Look Bitch, I’m Doing You a Favor

Previously on Queen of the Khan, Jenshaw's attorneys make the case to a federal judge that she's not the scammer everyone thinks she is writing.

Mishaw originally started to work in telemarketing on the legitimate and legal side of the business, and was slowly drawn into working with a group of men who were committing fraud. These men recognize in Mishaw a talent for organizations, hard work, and relationship building, and they took advantage of her skills to further their own criminal ends.

She really did blame it on the bad crowd she fell in with in New York. But when you're married and have two kids, just upping and moving across the country to live there and being like and then I fell in with a bad crowd, I just don't believe it.

But her attorneys try again and again to get the criminal case against her dismissed for the craziest reasons, like she couldn't read her miranda rights.

Even while being read my rights, I did not understand what was going on after I signed the waiver even though I could not read it. But before Detective Bastos began as questioning, I informed the detective that my contact lends were blurry.

A judge denies her motion to dismiss, and the federal case against her grows, and.

Actually it tied into another investigation that we had, which is even spawning on to additional investigations.

Then suddenly Genshaw gets unceremoniously dumped by her legal team.

If you don't tell your attorneys the entire truth at the beginning, you are never going to get the result that you anticipate, and you're going to spend a lot of money doing it.

The new attorneys Jen hires come out swinging, and they want a federal judge to force ABC News to turn over hundreds of hours of raw footage and all their notes they use to produce a documentary about Jen. Her attorneys think ABC News has evidence that can clear their client's name, and every news organization in the country holds their collective breath.

If a federal judge grants this motion, it could open a Pandora's box. It's not how it's supposed to work, and there are protections in place for journalists and that is why everyone's eyes are on this motion.

I'm Jonathan Walton, and this is Queen of the Cohn The Unreal Housewire episode six. Look, bitch, I'm doing you a favor.

When you think of the real houses of Salt Lake City. I'm sorry, it's the gen Sha show.

Hey no, because party knows Gone.

That's a clip from a Hulu documentary titled The Housewife and the Shawshocker, produced by ABC News.

The whole time she was filming the show, law enforcement was investigating her.

I don't know if she knew that she was going to be arrested that day.

ABC News even manages to snag an interview with our favorite Homeland Security special agent, Ricky Patel.

She's accused of an elaborate fraud scheme.

And when that Hulu documentary goes live on November twenty ninth, twenty twenty one, the very next day, Jenshaw's new legal team pounces, writing an angry letter to the federal judge in her case, stating.

In a documentary which was released yesterday by ABC News and is available for streaming worldwide, two supervisor reagents with Homeland Security Investigations gave interviews about miss Shaw and opined on her involvement with the alleged scheme. Her quote unquote lavish lifestyle and her alleged treatment of propose victims. Misshaw respectfully requested the court grant her leave to file a

Local Criminal Rule twenty three point one states, in part quote, it is the duty of government agents not to release or authorize the release of non public information or opinion in connection with pending criminal litigation. So because government agents like Ricky Petateel with Homeland Security granted ABC News and interview, Jenshaw's attorneys are now pushing really hard to get the

This is why I'm taking the time to speak to you, and I thank you for actually putting this out there.

The more attention we give these complex scams, the less likely people are to fall for them. She did file emotions based on your participation in that ABC News Hulu documentary. She singled you out by name that you gave this interview. How dare you compromise her ability to defend herself at you know, impede her ability to get a fair trial and a jury that's not tainted by the documentary. I thought the documentary did a good job of portraying her

I agree when I was contacted, I did that based on a PSA type environment as well, Right, like, hey, we understand what's happened. We know this arrest happened, we know this was involving a celebrity, and it was Hey, we would like to get the message out there. But at the end of the day, my motivation and my perception of that was really to say, this could happen, and it could be anybody that's behind it, and here's

So, in response to Jen's attempt to get her case dismissed based on what government agents publicly said in that ABC News Hulu doc, prosecutors actually watch the documentary themselves and type up everything that was said by the government agents interviewed, and then they submit it to the judge, arguing, quote.

The defendant has not and cannot established that she'll be prejudiced at the trial by the HSI officials comments in the Hulu show. Her appearance on television with one of her criminal defense attorneys, during which the defendant and her attorney discuss the pending charges and the circumstances.

The prosecutor is referring to this scene on Real Housewives where Jen is meeting with her lawyer on camera.

Basically, it's eminent that we have to go to trial because anything other than that would be as saying or guilty and taking a plea right.

The only way to stop.

Let's go to trial.

The prosecutor continues her efforts to garner publicity, weigh heavily against the merits of any potential motion to dismiss. For the foregoing reasons, the motion should be denied.

And a federal judge agrees.

Responding quote, the agent's statements are largely statements about telemarketing fraud overall, with general references to the lifestyles of the persons involved and a Homeland security investigation into telemarketing floors. Shaw's motion is denied and full.

But Jenshaw's attorneys aren't giving up yet. On February eleventh, twenty twenty two, in a bold move, they actually subpoena ABC News for all the raw footage and notes from that documentary, and they want all communications between ABC and the prosecution. They're looking for any kind of evidence they can find anything anyone said or did behind the scenes of that Hulu doc that could potentially get their client off, but federal Judge Sidney Stein cuts them off at the knees, writing.

The United States recognizes a journalist's privilege and light of the need to protect the public's interest in being informed by a vigorous, aggressive, and independent press. The journalist's privilege is a qualified privilege that protects both confidential and non confidential press materials from disclosure.

In Layman's terms, Jenshaw's lawyers will not be granted access to all the footage and the behind the scenes notes and communications from that ABC News doc. So the criminal case against Genshaw and her assistant Stuart Smith starts picking up speed as it heads for trial. Jen still swears she's innocent, but the federal government has a vast amount of hard evidence that clearly shows Genshaw masterminded these scammy

When you have her confronted by another government agency in a deposition questioning her about the business, and instead of stopping she finds ways to be sneakier about it and keeps going.

Former prosecutor and host of the Emily Show podcast, Emily D. Baker that all.

Happened after the FTC investigation. Yeah.

In page three of the indictment, I'm going to read

Concealment is a huge part of not getting caught, and we saw this in the text messages.

Oh, the text messages. So the day Jenshaw was arrested, her house was raided and all her belongings were confiscated, and it soon became very clear that Genshaw was nothing more than a professional poser. She didn't own the house you saw her in on Housewives, the shaw Ski chalet. She was renting her cars were released, a lot of her jewelry and the vast majority of her fendies and Louis Vauton's and her other high end accouterments were all

All the cell phones I found in her closet.

She had a lot of cell phones. Yes, like how many?

Like at least maybe ten?

She had ten cell phones.

Yes, they looked like burner phones.

And when the government gets their hands on all those phones that text messages they extract tell one hell of a story. For example, years earlier in twenty eighteen, when Jenshaw is being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission, she finds out one of her victims actually recorded her company's telemarketing call and submitted it as evidence to the FTC. And she angrily texts her assistant Stuart Smith, I'm.

So fucking pissed off.

This slimy piece of shit of a customer recorded our sales pitch and we sound like crooks.

Now they have our sales.

Recording, So this proves that as far back as twenty eighteen, Jenshaw knew she was being investigated by the federal government for scamming people, and she went ahead and joined the cast of Real Housewives a year later in spite of that fact, knowing full well it could all blow up

Look, bitch, I'm doing you a favor.

You aren't on the lease and you don't pay rent, therefore you don't live here. If someone is doing you a favor, you bring my name into a criminal federal prosecution case. My home is my place of refuge. They could come in with a warrant now at any time if they wanted to.

Again, this was a year before she got cast on Housewives, and later when Jenshaw's assistant Stuart Smith is scheduled to be questioned by investigators.

She texts him, your go to answer is I don't know or I don't remember. I don't know his best though, because if you don't know, you don't know.

Most people who here they're being investigated by the federal government would be scared and maybe stop what they're doing and reevaluate. But not Jenshaw, because in a text message from all the way back in March of twenty seventeen, she writes to a co conspirator.

I have gone to great lengths to keep everything confidential. I do not want anyone to know anything they shouldn't be saying my name.

And then later in December of twenty seventeen, she texts her assistant Stuart Smith.

I flew to Palm Springs this morning and met with that guy and flew back. He will let us use his company in Cyprus to set up international.

They have a twelve thousand square foot facility in Cyprus and Kosovo.

He was basically saying that they have the directors and nominees all set up already and we could use their corporation setup. We have to do it and minimize the risk.

Like most con artists, Jen Shaw is overly confident. She thinks she's the smartest person in the room, and she really believes she can get away with anything. At this point, she lets all her partners in crime know that she wants to be paid in cash from now on. And interestingly enough, before the FTC investigation, jen and her team of scammers were texting each other on a messaging app

I told Chrystil to download Telegram and we'll have all the reps download Telegram as well. That way we will have everyone delete their Viber accounts. I told Conan to let the sales group and vibr that he set up.

And then suddenly Jensh that's all quickly establishes an entirely new identity on Telegram.

Instead of using Jennifer Shaw or Genshaw. Her name on Telegram was Becky White. She was Becky with the good hair. It was good hair because she was stealing it from all these elderly people.

That's Zach Peter again from the No Filter with Zach Peter podcast.

So just because you call yourself Becky and you collect your payments in cash, doesn't mean you're actually innocent. Jenshaw, we know who you are. Becky with the good hair, soon to be Becky with the bad hair, because she's gonna be in prison and she's not gonna be able to get it blown out anymore. Becky White. Of all the names to pick, she was probably like, Okay, I have seniors on top of mine.

Betty White's pretty great.

Let's just call it myself Becky White, because I love I love senior citizens so much.

I do think that was the calculus. Absolutely, you come up with a name that will engender trust out of your mouth. Yeah, you're right. I think that played into her decision to choose that night.

I mean, you don't really look at Genshaw and see a Becky White, you know.

But Jenshaw, acutely aware now she's under federal investigation, just keeps thumbing her nose at authorities and continues scamming with her telemarketing companies. It almost feels like she's daring the Feds to do something about it.

We found somebody to help us move things offshore and to move the business entities to Kosovo, so we can run this for a long time.

Former Prosecutor Emily D. Baker again paraphrasing some of Jenshaw's text messages from court records.

Evading detection is a big part of this, and we know that Jenshaw started taking more evasive measures after the FTC started coming down on her. So she had already been deposed, she had already been part of businesses that were shut down. She knew that the government was looking at her and was like, you know, but I can do this better so that they don't come after us, or they can't find the same evidence. We're gonna use encryptive messaging instead of text messaging. We're gonna make sure

And this is what upsets me the most is because I call into question everything I think I know about the universe and people. Right when you hear her declaring her innocence all that time, you know, taking her mother's money to pay lawyers. I'm a woman of color. It's a prosecution. She seems so believable and she's so emphatic that she's innocent. Yeah, that is all an act because

She is believable, but it's part of the game. Being believable is a huge part of the game here for her and keeping the people around her invested. You never know how you might be able to leverage the relationships around you, especially as you're getting ready for trial. You saw members of the cast show up in New York as she was getting ready to go to trial to support her, to be there for her, to support her.

Yes, fellow Housewives castmate Heather Gay had gens back the entire time. As she tells Meredith Mars on this Real Housewives after show episode.

We know and love Jen and love being around her.

It's it's an easy way to show up and offer whatever we can.

And it's like I want to shake them all and shake her. It's like, God, what a waste of time. Not only is she a deplorable human being for doing this to all these other people, but ensnaring all the loving people in her life to.

Support her, who trusted her.

It's another crime. Eventually, though, Jenshaw's most trusted supporter and literal partner in crime, her assistant Stuart Smith, who himself is indicted along with Jenshaw, turns on her.

If I'm Stuart's attorney, the first thing I'm saying is what do you know about her? What do you have to prove it? And she is immediately going to try to pin this on you, and you need to get there first. But he also had the advantage of Jen speaking publicly saying I'm innocent, I'm not doing this, so he knew she wasn't going to just accept responsibility. And they work together so long he has to know how she operates, and I don't think he trusted that she

In November of twenty twenty one, Stuart Smith pleads guilty to three counts conspiracy to commit wirefraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice. He tells the judge quote.

I know only and intentionally discussed and engaged with the other individuals to develop a plan to obtain money by four representation by offering and inducing individuals, many of whom were over fifty years of age, to provide money to entities that I knowthers were involved with.

As part of his plea, Stuart agrees to help federal prosecutors build a stronger case not just against jen Shaw, but against the whole scammy telemarketing and Shalada. It's early July twenty twenty three now, and Stuart Smith still hasn't been sentenced yet.

I imagine he is still working with the Feds to wrap this up, because after Stuart got arrested, another co defendant got indicted, popped up and pled and was sentenced almost immediately. So I think Stuart is still working with the Feds. And Stuart was the one closest to jen and had the most to turn over. He didn't even go to pre trials on this. His attorney said no, no, we don't need any of these court hearings, no motion filing, nothing.

And it's not only Stuart Smith helping prosecutors build a stronger case against Jenshaw.

So I did submit evidence to the federal government, quite a lot of evidence.

Jen's former designer, CoA. Johnson, who, if you recall, Jen had stopped paying for months, who was only too happy to turn over all the evidence he had to federal investigators too, Like what kinds of evidence. Are we talking?

Text message is conversations between her Stewart, her Stewart coach, her Stuart, my colleagues on the business. I saw some of my evidence in the last summaries that the state prosecutor submitted.

So with Stuart Smith pleading guilty and pointing the finger at Jenshaw, and with Coed Johnson and several others submitting even more evidence against her to prosecutors, all of a sudden, it feels like the universe is conspiring to take Jenshaw down. If she goes to trial and is found guilty, she could be looking at decades behind bars, But the criminal justice system has a way of rewarding people for pleading guilty because it saves the government potentially millions of dollars

From twenty twelve to March of twenty twenty one, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, I agreed with others to commit wirefraud. I knew this was wrong. I knew many people were harmed, and I'm so sorry.

I am shaw shocked that Jenshaw pled guilty. Shocked, I tell you shocked.

Former prosecutor Emily D. Baker on her popular YouTube show The Day Jenshaw pled guilty.

The judge still has control over sentencing. What is hard and fast is that Jenshaw pled guilty and can't withdraw that guilty plea. That is it. The plea is entered. She pled guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit wirefraud. This charge carries up to thirty years maximum sense. What she will be sentenced to depends on the judge. What we know for sure is that she is going to forfeit six point five million to the government. That is

And because of that, prosecutors want the judge to sentence her to ten years in federal prison. In a brief to the court, they write.

The defendant was not deterred by the Federal Trade Commission's investigations or enforcement actions, nor by learning that dozens of her co conspirators have been arrested by federal law enforcement and pled guilty for their roles in the scheme. She engaged in a years long, comprehensive effort to hide her continued role.

In the scheme.

Despite the defendant's best efforts, she got caught. She then went on a public offensive and tried to profit off the charges by selling Justice for Jen merchandise. She played guilty at the eleventh hour only after receiving the government's trial exhibits and witness statements in light of her conduct and her post arrest behavior, herbulated expressions of remorse ring hollow.

Federal Judge Sidney Stein has the latitude here to do whatever he wants. He could give her the maximum thirty years, or he could give her probation and no prison time at all. The balls in his court and Jenshaw's lawyers know that they think three years in prison is enough to teach Shenshaw a lesson. In their sentencing memo to Judge Stein, they make a really creative case for leniency, writing Miss.

Shaw's failure to plead guilty early in the investigation is not a reflection of her lack of remorse. Rather, it reflects the enormous shame and guilty feels and the difficulty she has endured in admitting to all those who love and admire her that she had committed this crime, a mistake that has not only ruined her own life, but has broken her heart as she has watched the damage that her actions have caused to the family that she loves so dearly.

Her lawyers then try to leverage Jenshaw's childhood for sympathy.

Jen was so deeply affected by the ridicule she had to endure from her classmates because her physical appearance differed from the predominantly Caucasian community in Utah. Jen grew up as an outsider in a hostile and strange environment, a place that did not welcome strange children of color.

After Jen's lawyers finished pulling at every heartstring they can find, Jenshaw herself writes to the judge, I'm posting a copy of her letter at Queen of the Khan on Instagram so you can read it in its entirety, though there are a few redres actions, Jen Wrights, I.

Accept complete responsibility for my bad conduct. The terrible business decisions I made in professional relationships I developed stemmed from some personal, painful experiences that I was going through in my life. As a lawyer, my husband worked horrible hours, but at least he was able to bring his work

Jen goes on to say that she was depressed about her marriage potentially ending, and she had sudden deaths in the family that also took an emotional toll on her.

She writes, while all of this was going on, the pressure was significant because my marriage was almost over, I needed money. I lost my grandmother in January twenty eighteen, whom I was very close with as she helped raise me. When I thought things couldn't get any worse, my entire world came crashing down with my father unexpectedly passed away on September eighth, twenty eighteen. My husband did not come to my father's funeral, which felt like a devastating admission

It's just amazing to me that, after pleading guilty for scamming thousands of people out of millions of dollars using her fraudulent telemarketing cons Jenshaw has the audacity to frame her sophisticated scams as quote poorly structured businesses or products that I influenced or controlled.

Ah.

If I was Judge Sidney Stein, I'd see that statement as an utter lack of recognition of her crime, pointing to a confounding absence of actual remorse.

Interestingly, it's not signed. It's typed up, but it's not signed.

Former prosecutor Emily D. Baker, again commenting on the fact that the thirty other people who submitted letters to the court on behalf of Jenshaw signed them, but Jen didn't sign hers.

Whether the judge buys it or not is a whole separate thing.

Speaking of separate things, prosecutors get really annoyed at how hard Jenshaw and the thirty family members and friends she got to write letters on her behalf to the judge are trying to portray her as this pillar of the community who's never been in trouble with the law until now. Not so fast, they say, Jenshaw actually has run a foul of the law quite recently, as a matter of fact.

And this all came out very quickly before sentencing because Jen her sentencing memo is I've had a very hard life. I'm an upset, standing, loving wife and mother. The bad crowd in New York. These criminals over here, not me. These criminals over there pulled me in and manipulated me, and it was a dark time in my life. It was basically like a gray hoodie YouTuber apology in this sentencing memo of woe. And I think some of it's true and some of its spin. And that's all sentencing memos.

I mean.

They also said the entire case against Genshaw should be dismissed because of her glurry contacts while she was being read her miranda rights, or because of that Hulu documentary tainting the jury pool. They also said Jenshaw is not the criminal here. It's those evil men in New York who roped her into scamming. But you heard some of those text messages she sent after she found out she was being investigated.

Right, I'm so fucking pissed off.

This slimy piece of shit of a customer recorded our sales pitch and we sound like crooks.

Now they have our sales recording.

Ultimately, Judge Stein sentences Jenshaw to six and a half years in federal prison and orders her and her co defendants to pay six point seven million dollars in restitution to the victims. Victims like sixty four year old Penny Pucket.

She needed more, who.

As you heard in episode three, got scammed out of thirty thousand dollars through Jenshaw's telemarketing scheme.

We probably will never be able to be retired.

We'll have to work until we can't work anymore.

What's truly noteworthy about Genshaw, and really about any con artist, is they do actually reveal who they are before they scam you, if you're paying close enough attention.

I would call her a narcissist with sociopathic features.

Beverly Hill's forensic psychologist, doctor Alice Berkowitz, Who's never met Genshaw but talks to the gen Shaws of the world literally all day every day.

I've worked a lot in criminal court, and I've worked a lot with white collar crime. She's just so full of herself and believes that she's beyond reproach. The sociopathic features. Sociopathic features are antisocial personalities. They're the people that are going to be criminals. They're the people that are going to be politicians. I'm sorry to say, but she doesn't have any morals, sure them have a moral code, and

In an interview Jenshaw gave to access Hollywood's Housewives Nightcap before anyone knew she was a scammer. When asked to explain what she did for a living, the best.

Way to describe it is, I'm the Wizard of Oz.

I'm like the one behind the curtain that nobody knows exists, but I'm the one making everything happen.

Oh, I'm the Wizard of Oz. And she thinks that evokes a magical quality about her that people will be enamored by or impressed by that she's magical. But if you've seen The Wizard of Oz, you know that by the end of the movie, he's a con artist. Everything was a lie. Nothing he said or did was true. Smoking mirrors literally, So was Jenshaw giving herself away unintentionally. Do con artists do that in your experience?

Sometimes? Yeah, But you know, the Wizard of Oz also never got in trouble for being a Connor.

He got away with it.

He did, didn't he?

So I think for her being the Wizard of Oz means I can get away with anything. I'll just make magic. But there are people that want to get caught. I don't think she's one of them, though. I think she really thought she'd get away with this.

And Jen Shaw didn't pull this massive telemarketing scam off by herself. She was working with dozens of other co conspirators over the years, which makes me wonder what did Coach, her husband know much more than he let on. That's what Jen's former designer, Cola Johnson believes.

I remember one time Stuart screwed up on some kind of transaction or lost like about eight million, and Jenna was very upset, and she came down to the office late at night with Coach and they were both yelling and screaming at him, asking him where their money is. I'm just like, okay, I understand why your husband's coming into the conversation of your business. I mean, unless your husband's a part of this business.

It sounds like Coach knew what was going on.

Absolutely. He's a very smart man. He's a lawyer. He was very involved in a lot of the.

Group text messages that converse about the business that I was doing with her and the business that Stuart was doing, So I mean he knew a lot and his wife was doing his crime for almost ten years, like also realizing the benefits of her crime. He benefited from it, her children benefited from it.

So I've no he knew what she was doing for sure.

We don't know for a fact if Coach Shaw knew about Jen's crimes. But even if he did, Homeland Security Special Agent Ricky Pttel says, that doesn't necessarily make Coach guilty of a crime.

You know, just speaking about something, speaking about a business doesn't necessarily mean that you're actively engaged in it, you're actively involved in it, or that you conducted any overacts right that you actually were a participant or a leader.

On February seventeenth, twenty twenty three, Jen Shaw reported to federal prison in Brian, Texas, about one hundred miles east of Austin. It's July now, twenty twenty three, and none of Jenshaw's victims have seen a single dime in restitution.

Restitution is very difficult. It's very difficult to get criminal courts are set up for punishment. They are so up for probation to prevent you from doing the crime things again. And they're set up for custody time. That's it. They are not well set up for the victim restitution.

And I just think it's unnecessarily complicated. If I was in charge of the world, or at least the criminal justice system, and you issue a court order for restitution to a victim, that should automatically be attached to that perpetrators social security number and name, so any money that comes in comes to them from anywhere automatically gets diverted to the victim.

I mean, there's a simple way to do this, but the IRS has figured that out. The IRS has a great way to attach people's property exactly. The government could do it for themselves.

If a victim gets court ordered restitution, it should be exactly what it sounds like.

Yeah, it should be.

And in the prosecutor's minds, they got their convictions, they're happy, they've moved on. So this money that theoretically, yeah, I'm just theorizing, coach could be living on for the rest of his life. These millions of dollars she might have stashed in Kosovo or God.

Wherever could be.

Yeah, and no one cares. No one's keeping tabs. They moved on to the next gammer.

Yep, they've moved on to the next case.

Next time on Queen of the Khan.

So Elizabeth Holmes has asked to go to the same federal prison camp that Jenshaw's at. This doesn't surprise me. Both of them have argued similar things. I was caught up in this. I was trying to prove myself as a woman in this field. The men around me were manipulating me. I didn't know that this was fraudulent.

And a woman who literally sat across from Elizabeth Holmes every day during her trial.

Some of it will never live my brain ASTs.

It has some really insightful takeaways.

She named her daughter Invicta, which means invincible or unconquered.

I mean it's as adult.

Portions of public statements from court records and from Jenshaw's text messages were dramatized verbatim in this episode. Queen of the Khan. The Unreal Housewife is a production of AYR Media and iHeartMedia, hosted by me Jonathan Walton. Executive producers Jonathan Walton for Jonathan Walton Productions and Elisa Rosen for AYR Media. Written by Jonathan Walton, Segment producer Gregory Harvey,