0:00

Previously on Queen of the Con.

0:04

Thank god Jenshaw ended up being a con

0:06

artist, because she really helped to put Salt Lake on the

0:08

map.

0:09

Real Housewives star Jen Shaw goes

0:11

from an ugly duckling childhood

0:14

to radiant swandam in high

0:16

school.

0:17

We were at an assembly and out

0:20

came this tiny Polynesian

0:23

girl with this beautiful

0:25

long hair, and when

0:27

she danced, everybody

0:30

went crazy. We

0:32

couldn't get enough of her.

0:34

And years later neither could Bravo

0:36

viewers until her public

0:38

fall from Grace on national television.

0:41

What's going on.

0:42

I've just got a phone call on strath staying years

0:44

in the hospital. He has internal bleeding,

0:46

so I need to go.

0:49

That phone call she got, was that someone

0:51

on her side quote unquote trying

0:54

to warn her?

0:55

I think she was absolutely getting warned because we

0:57

know they were en route to the parking lot because they show

0:59

up there so lya thereafter.

1:01

We're looking for Jen Saw.

1:03

She just like, wow, they have like swat team

1:06

stuff.

1:06

What the heck. Jenshaw

1:09

is ultimately arrested and charged

1:11

with masterminding an elaborate scam

1:14

that cost victims millions of dollars,

1:16

and her former employees are not

1:19

surprised. Would you call her a

1:21

con artist?

1:22

I would just call her a con She's not very much

1:24

of an artist.

1:34

I'm Jonathan Walton and this is Queen

1:37

of the con The Unreal

1:39

Housewife Episode

1:41

two. I'm making money

1:44

on every clique. Love

1:52

the hair, dude, Wow, I like the

1:54

swoop.

1:55

I'll thank you.

1:57

Coha Johnson is a fashion designer

2:00

who really looks like a fashion

2:02

designer. He's got angular features,

2:04

an eclectic wardrobe, and a bleach

2:07

blonde and pink mane whimsically

2:09

framing his face, bobbing

2:11

and bouncing as he talks to me about his most

2:14

infamous client, Jen Shaw,

2:16

and her three season stint on Bravo's

2:19

Real Housewives of Salt Lake City that

2:21

he had a front row seat to because

2:24

whenever you'd see gen Shaw freaking

2:26

out in a fancy dress.

2:29

Where's this person?

2:30

Whitney shut the up?

2:33

It was always a CoA Johnson

2:36

original.

2:37

I would design customy me

2:41

specifically for her, and

2:43

I would source everything and I would get all the

2:46

fabrics, notions, crystals, feathers,

2:49

feeds, all that fun stuff.

2:51

I'm posting some of the dresses CoA designed

2:53

and created for Jenshaw at Queen

2:55

of the Khan on Instagram, so you can

2:57

see how spectacular they are. They

3:00

really look like gowns you'd see Jennifer

3:02

Aniston or Halle Berry wearing at

3:05

the Oscars. You're a talented

3:07

guy.

3:07

Thank you.

3:09

I can't even fathom how you design a dress

3:11

and then you would sew it.

3:12

Yeah, So I would create, We would come

3:15

up with a design together. We would collaborate on the log

3:17

I would start sourcing all the fabrics and then

3:20

I would drink the fabrics, cut

3:22

it out and make the pattern and everything, do

3:24

fittings with her, so it myself, refit,

3:27

resellt with the zipper and and call it a day.

3:30

You know, from start to finish.

3:32

And how did you lend that job with Jenshaw?

3:34

How did you meet her? How did it happen?

3:37

So from the get go I met her in March

3:39

of twenty twenty, right

3:41

before the pandemic started. A

3:44

friend of mine, he was designing

3:46

for her at the time, and

3:49

reached out to me in Hawaii.

3:51

I was visiting my parents in Hawaii and he

3:53

said, Hey, I'm working for a

3:56

housewife for the Royal Housewives of Salt Lake City,

3:58

the newest franchise and filming

4:01

with her for season one. I

4:03

would love for you to come over for like a month

4:05

to kind of like help start

4:07

her clothing line. So

4:09

I said, hey, I mean, that sounds like a great idea. I'm

4:11

not really doing anything. And

4:14

I was expected to go there for.

4:16

A month, but

4:18

CoA ended up staying for nearly

4:21

a year, and over the course of

4:23

his tenure as Jen's personal designer

4:25

and stylist, he got to know her

4:27

really well.

4:30

It was very interesting, it was very monumental.

4:32

It's very life changing.

4:34

What do you know about how Jen Shaw

4:37

even got on The Real Housewives to begin

4:39

with?

4:40

So it's an audition process for sure.

4:42

I got to see her audition tape.

4:45

I had to work my ass off here

4:48

in Utah.

4:48

I've always been at least fifty round a month.

4:51

I heard she spent a fortune on an audition

4:53

tape.

4:54

She definitely spent a fortune. She

4:56

bragged about a lot of the things that she would spend

4:58

her money on was

5:00

on there as well.

5:02

I'm telling you, was she two types of crazy?

5:04

Now?

5:05

So yeah, how she got on the show, I

5:07

mean when I first met her back

5:09

in March of twenty twenty, she had

5:11

a very big personality, and I was told that she

5:14

had a very big personality and

5:16

Bravo loves that. Bravo loves especially

5:19

she was a woman of color. She

5:21

was Polynesian, and that's something

5:23

especially in Salt Lake City, that you

5:26

don't see a lot of that type of

5:28

person in a very conservative

5:31

state.

5:32

Did Bravo seek her out

5:34

to be on the show or did she seek out

5:37

the show to be on Bravo's Real

5:39

Housewives.

5:39

Bravo sought her out.

5:41

So usually how it worked is Bravo

5:43

will seek out one person

5:45

who will recommend another person who will recommend

5:47

another person.

5:48

For auditioning for the show. So

5:51

she was sought.

5:52

Out by Bravo and recommended

5:54

by someone else on the show.

5:57

Interesting. What was it like

5:59

working for Jenshaw for that year?

6:02

She was very pleasant in the beginning.

6:04

I felt I grew to

6:07

love her personality, loved

6:09

her family, her kids,

6:11

her extended family, her mom, her

6:13

brothers, her sisters. I got to know them

6:16

very well, and being also Polynesian

6:18

myself, in Hawaiian specifically, we

6:21

just had that kind of cultural

6:23

connection because we were

6:25

of the same background

6:28

and the culture. And I really really did

6:31

love her like a sister. As

6:34

things progressed and during my time with

6:36

her things became very, very

6:39

chaotic.

6:40

She hasn't been home since Saturday.

6:42

Toxic.

6:44

You decided to bring it to me.

6:46

Abusive that what happened

6:48

when the grata.

6:51

And it ended pretty abruptly

6:54

and according to Coha, as bad as

6:56

Jenshaw was on camera, Yeah

7:00

right, she was actually

7:02

worse off camera than

7:04

on correct.

7:06

Yeah, how so explain that

7:09

like when she got upset, she got really

7:11

upset, throwing glasses, throwing

7:13

phones, breaking phones, breaking

7:16

objects, and she her hats on

7:19

or throw at you or any of my colleagues.

7:21

She would do that.

7:23

She would call us and just

7:25

scream her head off

7:27

and tell us what horrible

7:30

employees we were and that we weren't

7:32

doing anything.

7:34

Things got so bad for CoA and

7:36

the Shaw Squad, which is what Jen called

7:39

the team of people under her employ that

7:41

at one point when she was going off

7:43

on them for the hundredth time, someone

7:46

hit record.

7:48

And you can set up fuckingmiling bitch and

7:50

being a fucking bitch. You are here,

7:53

you are.

7:54

There was a video that got out of her losing

7:57

her shit on you and throwing

7:59

things.

8:09

So that night was the night

8:11

before she had to leave to New York City.

8:13

For the reunion filming.

8:15

She was coming down from being drunk.

8:18

She realized that she still needs to pack.

8:21

Jen was a very difficult person to get to do

8:23

any task, Like

8:26

she couldn't get out of bed. She

8:28

would wake up at two pm at

8:31

that point, like she missed her

8:33

hair appointments, nail appointments. She

8:36

just couldn't get out of bed or do anything. And

8:38

when she was up, she was on her phone social

8:40

media, distracting herself

8:42

from actual responsibilities and tasks

8:45

that she needs to complete.

8:45

It.

8:46

It was a very difficult situation for

8:49

me because I was not only making her dresses, but I

8:51

was assisting and helping her do

8:54

daily tasks because she fired

8:56

so many of her personal assistants.

9:00

How did you feel as you're standing there and

9:02

she's just going off on you and yelling and

9:04

throwing stuff.

9:06

I handled this shit, It's

9:09

no not yet handle

9:11

it.

9:15

So in that instance, she was upset

9:18

because she was not prepared, and I

9:21

was literally at.

9:23

My wits end.

9:24

I was emotionally, mentally,

9:26

physically drained at that point because

9:29

I've already finished her

9:31

reunion gown, and by

9:34

her yelling at me and screaming at me. I just

9:36

kind of was numb at that point because

9:38

it was not the first time that she

9:41

did that to me. There were many many

9:43

other it's as previous to that

9:46

moment that she did, and

9:49

I was just kind of like numb to the situation and

9:51

her yelling Like it was just like I was just

9:53

completely blank out as she's like yelling,

9:56

screaming and assaulting me. But

9:59

I still doing

10:02

my job. You still have a dress. It's

10:04

not like you have nothing. I gave you everything.

10:06

And I think that's what you have

10:08

to understand that Jen expects everything from

10:11

you and drain you.

10:12

I mean, that was her crime. She took

10:15

everything.

10:15

From these people and expected

10:17

everything to be given to her.

10:19

And sid.

10:23

Who do you think recorded that video and

10:25

released it?

10:26

That's a good question. I

10:29

know everybody wants to say it's me. It's

10:31

something to me. There were two of my other

10:33

colleagues that were present there, plus Jen, plus

10:35

her husband. I can't say

10:38

who did it or if I know that did

10:40

it, but I'm just really glad

10:42

and grateful that it was put out there.

10:45

Designing dresses for Jen Shaw

10:47

and having those dresses shown worldwide

10:50

on the Real Housewives show was a

10:52

tremendous opportunity for CoA. Johnson,

10:55

It would be for any designer, but that

10:57

opportunity came with a deep

11:00

price.

11:01

It was a living nightmare, for sure. It

11:10

was a living nightmare. For sure.

11:12

You would just be on edge the entire time,

11:14

like I did so much.

11:16

I stayed up all night.

11:17

Sewing a dress for her because she needed it

11:19

for tomorrow, or she needed it for some kind of event.

11:22

But I always still felt on edge because

11:25

she would call and just

11:27

be like, nothing's ready, nothing's prepared. Her

11:29

life was in shambles, She was in chaos constantly.

11:31

It was a complete nightmare,

11:34

and my colleagues had to go through it. Myself,

11:36

A lot of the people around us had

11:38

to suffer her wrath.

11:42

Looking back, did Jenshaw

11:44

scam you?

11:46

Yes?

11:47

She did. Now,

11:49

the scam Jenshaw pulls on

11:51

Koa is not as egregious

11:54

or as complicated as the elaborate

11:56

scam she was pulling on thousands of

11:58

people across the country, systematically

12:01

bilking them out of millions of dollars.

12:03

Her crime is very complex, and I think a lot

12:05

of her fans still are scratching

12:07

their heads and wondering why she's sitting in jail.

12:10

Oh, we're going to get to all that. It's

12:12

insane, so stay with us. But

12:15

the scam Jenshaw pulls on Koha

12:17

was just cruel and dehumanizing.

12:20

She essentially stopped paying him

12:23

for the last four months he was with her.

12:25

He was living in her house designing

12:28

for her full time, away from his friends

12:30

in New York and away from his family

12:33

in Hawaii. In a

12:35

way, she tricked you into working

12:37

for free.

12:38

Yeah, she did robbed me, exhausting

12:40

me of all of my resources. Yeah,

12:42

I was still able to perform under those circumstances.

12:45

So yeah, she definitely

12:47

scammed myself and a lot of my colleagues

12:50

of their time and money that they deserved.

12:54

How many other people did she not pay U?

12:57

There were quite a few of us. That was my time there.

13:00

There was at least myself

13:02

and not maybe five

13:04

other assistants of

13:06

hers.

13:07

She stiffed all of them.

13:09

Oh yeah, absolutely.

13:11

And you know, part of the scam I think

13:14

is I can tell by researching

13:16

you, you're a very talented,

13:19

hard working designer and you

13:21

take pride in what you do, so I

13:23

can tell you're not even doing it for the money.

13:26

So I think she uses that against

13:28

you. She knows you're not doing it for the money, and

13:30

she thinks I'm paying him, he'll still

13:33

do it because he takes pride in his.

13:34

Work, exactly my work ethic.

13:37

She saw that I was a very hard worker, and

13:39

she fed off with that work ethic for sure.

13:42

She also dangled fame and recognition.

13:46

A lot of the things that we as artists as

13:48

designers do rely on is

13:51

exposure.

13:53

The exposure doesn't pay our bills.

13:56

Of course, there are two sides to every story,

13:58

and Jen Shaw has her In

14:01

season two of The Real Housewives, Jen responds

14:03

to Coha's accusations he.

14:06

Took my kindness and

14:08

repaid me by making it look like

14:11

I mistreated him, which was.

14:12

Not the case at all. And

14:15

she tells people she got rid of you because you couldn't

14:17

cut it. You were no good. What's your response to

14:19

that?

14:21

She was one of the biggest liars I've ever met in

14:23

my entire life. I did not

14:25

get fired, I did not get let go.

14:27

I quit.

14:29

I sent in my resignation texts. Her

14:31

husband was a part of that text message, and

14:34

another colleague of mine was a part of that text message.

14:36

So I did not get fired. I

14:39

quit that

14:42

part where she said she was nothing but nice

14:44

to me. No, no, no, no,

14:46

no no, no.

14:47

She was not.

14:48

I was nice. I was kind to her. She

14:50

took my kindness as weakness

14:53

and weaponized.

14:55

It against me.

14:56

And I realized now that she needed me

14:58

more than I needed her. For

15:01

sure, I don't think she would have gotten that far

15:03

without what I did for her, to be.

15:05

Honest, Yeah, because on

15:07

that show looks for everything dresses

15:09

or everything, and you did some spectacular gown.

15:11

Yeah.

15:12

I proved myself and she wouldn't

15:14

admit it that what I'd done for her. Obviously,

15:17

I did my job above and.

15:19

Beyond expectations, and under

15:21

those circumstances, I'm more proud of myself

15:24

going through abuse and being

15:26

assaulted the entire time and berated

15:29

the entire time, I was still able to

15:31

do my job.

15:33

You might be asking yourself, why didn't

15:35

CoA just leave? Why

15:37

go weeks and months with no pay?

15:40

Why put up with that? The

15:42

answer is, of course complicated.

15:46

Jenshaw is tremendously charismatic.

15:49

That's attorney in Housewives Officionado

15:52

Emily D. Baker post of The Emily

15:54

Show podcast.

15:55

There are some people when you know where they're in a room

15:58

and you know where they are, even if it's a lot ar full

16:00

room. Jenshaw is one of those people, and

16:03

you can see even when people dislike her,

16:05

they forgive her. And we saw this play out

16:07

on the show. It's because they want to be around

16:09

her, because she's a lot of fun, and you see them

16:11

forgiving the shitty things she's done over

16:13

and over because they like her.

16:16

And that's a type of charisma

16:18

that can't be taught.

16:21

Emily actually witnessed firsthand

16:23

the power of persuasion. Jenshaw

16:26

wheels over everyone around

16:28

her.

16:28

I was at an after party at

16:30

Bravo Kan when Jenshaw crashed

16:33

the party.

16:34

Bravocan is exactly like

16:37

it sounds, a yearly convention for

16:39

fans of the Bravo world, where stars

16:41

of shows like vander Pump Rules

16:44

below deck and of course the Real

16:46

Housewives appear and mingle

16:48

with fans. And Jenshaw showed

16:51

up to the last Bravo Kan dressed

16:53

to the nines and ready to mix

16:55

things up.

16:56

I think she said she didn't crash the party,

16:58

that she was invited, but she invited to Bravo

17:01

Kahn after she fled, and she was

17:03

there anyway, but she

17:05

took to the dance floor. Jen's got moves. She

17:08

absolutely has moves. I'm not surprised

17:10

that she stood out as a superstar in

17:13

high school where people wanted to be liked by

17:15

her, wanted to be like her, and wanted

17:17

to be kind of in her shine

17:19

a little bit. She's absolutely charismatic,

17:22

and even though she is a petite

17:25

woman and not very tall, everyone

17:28

was just kind of drawn to her. And so even

17:30

the housewives that were having issues with her

17:32

were still kind of standing around watching gen dance

17:34

because yes, she absolutely has moves, and

17:37

we saw that time and time again on the show.

17:39

And that's exactly.

17:41

What sets her up for people wanting to please

17:43

her in scenarios like this where

17:45

they will override their own red flags

17:47

because they want to be near Genshaw.

17:50

They want to win her approval

17:53

and they want her to like them.

17:55

That's the power of any good

17:58

con artist. They

18:00

get you to love them. Yes, that's

18:03

their weapon.

18:04

Yes it is, and it takes

18:07

people in, and it certainly

18:09

took in the network execs at Bravo.

18:11

I imagine they salivated when they

18:14

saw jen Shaw's casting reel.

18:16

We live in a gaety community, my husband travels

18:18

a lot.

18:19

I really better with females that work.

18:21

The ones that just sit at home and don't do anything.

18:23

I don't stay well with girls like that.

18:26

I mean, she was exactly what they

18:28

were looking for, an uber, wealthy,

18:30

self made woman with a big personality

18:33

in Mormon country. Jen

18:35

Shaw was proof positive that

18:38

a Real Housewives incarnation based

18:40

in Salt Lake City could actually

18:43

work.

18:44

The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is an

18:46

interesting franchise because it

18:48

touches on Mormon culture,

18:50

people who have left the Mormon Church, drinking,

18:52

which is kind of taboo in Utah, and there's

18:55

a lot of drinking on this show, and

18:57

the relationships of some women who have known

18:59

each other for quite a long period of time

19:02

in a really small community, a

19:04

very very elite part

19:07

of Salt Lake society. And it's

19:09

not even really Salt Lake it seems to.

19:10

Mostly be part city.

19:12

So it's a very interesting

19:15

slice of life into how these

19:17

women live. And I think jen knew

19:19

that she wasn't going to be the

19:21

nice one that kind of brought the groups together,

19:23

because the most dynamic and some

19:26

of the fan favorite housewives tend

19:28

to be a bit polarizing. They tend to

19:30

be the ones who aren't afraid to mix

19:32

it up.

19:33

Here, my friend, and if everybody's done anything

19:35

too, I would stack to one thousands

19:37

of cents.

19:38

So she walked that line

19:40

of really lashing out against people,

19:43

but also being in almost

19:45

every single scene of all

19:47

three seasons. This was a calculated,

19:50

curated persona.

19:52

What no one knew at the time was that

19:54

in a lot of ways, jen Shaw tricked

19:56

Bravo into casting her on

19:59

their Real Housewives. She presented

20:01

a life that was actually a house

20:03

of cards ready to fall,

20:06

and conversely, Bravo had its

20:08

own spin on things coming down the pike.

20:16

Angie Harrington has left the church,

20:19

Whitney has left the church. Jen

20:21

has left the church all before

20:24

they were on the show, So they kind of

20:26

have Mormon adjacent people who

20:28

at least are somewhat aware of it.

20:31

That's Scott Pierce, a TV writer for

20:33

the Salt Lake Tribune. It's like Bravo's

20:36

whole intention of casting Salt Lake

20:38

City was to put the

20:41

Mormon angle into it. But when

20:43

you drill right down, there

20:45

are no practicing Mormons on that show,

20:48

not any.

20:49

Fully active I

20:51

don't think you could actually have them because

20:53

I'm not sure that

20:56

you could be on Real Housewives if you don't drink.

20:59

There are no I mean,

21:01

I don't want to say card carrying Mormons,

21:03

but active members

21:06

of the church have a temple recommending

21:08

can go into the temple. The only cast

21:10

member at all who apparently

21:12

still goes to church is Lisa.

21:15

Lisa Barlowe, the housewife with long

21:17

flowing brown hair who also co

21:19

owns a tequila company with her husband.

21:22

I love that, and she

21:24

clearly does not have a temple recommend because

21:27

she drinks, among other things.

21:29

She is not a fully

21:31

active member of the church.

21:34

So a temple recommend is a

21:36

certificate issued by the Church of Latter

21:38

day Saints that allows a Mormon to

21:40

actually enter the church and be a

21:43

practicing Mormon. But a

21:45

Temple recommends certificate has got

21:47

to be earned. It's kind of like a college

21:49

degree. It takes two years to

21:51

get one, and drinking is

21:53

a major disqualifier.

21:55

Heather kind of sorta was in

21:57

when it started.

21:58

Heather Gay, the blonde who owns

22:01

beauty Labin laser.

22:02

But she has all together left

22:05

and the other ones who were Mormon

22:08

aren't anymore and weren't

22:10

when the show started.

22:12

Salt Lake City is kind of a small town,

22:15

so much so that years before

22:17

Scott Pearce was writing about

22:19

Jen Shaw and the Housewives for The Tribune,

22:22

she actually lived on his block.

22:25

She did used to live a couple durs down

22:28

from me. Quite a number of years ago.

22:30

A couple of our kids played together.

22:32

My primary memory

22:35

is Jen and Sharif coming over,

22:37

and I'm sure it was at Sharif's

22:39

instigation, just to introduce themselves

22:42

because the kids were playing. You know, her

22:44

older son and my son were playing

22:46

together, and she didn't say a whole lot.

22:49

Jarif did most of the talking.

22:51

She is so outspoken and vocal. It's

22:53

hard to imagine her in

22:55

that situation not saying a lot.

22:58

I have nothing negative to say about that. It's

23:00

just when they announced the

23:02

cast, I went, well,

23:05

that's unusual.

23:07

I think.

23:08

What a lot of people don't realize who

23:10

don't live here, is that Cherif has

23:12

a much.

23:12

Bigger name than Jen. You know,

23:15

he was a star football player at the University of Utah.

23:17

He's been a coach for many years, so his

23:20

name was familiar. Hers was not.

23:22

But that all changed quick thanks

23:25

to Housewives. Back

23:27

when you were writing about Jen Shaw, when

23:29

she was on the show, What was

23:31

your understanding of what she did

23:34

for a living to make all that money.

23:36

I didn't get it.

23:37

I knew that it was something with online marketing,

23:40

and I will admit that when it started

23:42

I didn't worry about it too much. We didn't

23:44

really see her working much. I

23:46

didn't really give it a whole lot of thought, which

23:48

doesn't reflect well on me. I guess for not being

23:51

more curious about that. But I never

23:53

understood it, and even when

23:55

she would explain it on the show, I still didn't understand

23:58

it.

23:59

I mean, I can tell you I've been

24:01

investigating con artists for five years

24:03

now, and that is one

24:06

of the signs of a con.

24:09

They're vague, right about

24:11

how the money comes in, where the money comes from. It's

24:13

vague. It's this, it's that. And maybe she tells different

24:15

people different stories, but the

24:17

fact that she could never clearly explain it.

24:20

You're an educated guy. If you

24:22

didn't get it, I sure as heck didn't get it.

24:25

I guess we could say that Real Housewives has

24:28

performed somewhat of a public service

24:30

because I never thought of this stuff

24:32

before, and now I'm more aware of it.

24:35

And as you say, the vagueness.

24:38

When I look back at.

24:39

It now, it's like, well that, as

24:41

you say, that's a sign I was not aware

24:44

of that before.

24:44

I'm guessing that there are other people

24:46

who were not.

24:47

Aware of that. For the record,

24:49

this is what Jenshaw said publicly about

24:52

how she makes her money back in twenty twenty

24:54

on Access Hollywood's Housewives Nightcap.

24:57

It's funny because a lot of the ladies are like, oh

24:59

my god, where does gen get all their money? And

25:01

I think part of it is like here in Utah,

25:04

the ladies are like, oh my gosh, how does the brown girl and

25:06

the black husband have all this money?

25:08

Because that's you know what I mean.

25:09

They're like, that's weird.

25:11

No, it's not weird.

25:13

I own three different marketing companies

25:15

and we do lead generation data

25:18

monetization. The best way to describe

25:20

it is I'm the Wizard of Oz. I'm

25:23

like the one behind the curtain that nobody

25:25

knows exists, but I'm the one making everything happen.

25:27

So when ads are popping to you, guys, when you're

25:29

like, how the hell do they know I'm shopping

25:31

at Neiman Marcus, that's me. And

25:34

if you think about it, you

25:37

know how much traffic is on the internet every second,

25:40

all the people clicking. I'm making money on

25:42

every click. Every time you click

25:44

on anything, I'm getting some

25:46

money.

25:48

What Genshaw exhibits is what every con

25:50

artist exhibits. They make their

25:52

scam so complex and hard to follow

25:55

and ideally removed from themselves

25:58

that they're hard to prosecute. They're hard

26:00

to lay out for a jury because if you confuse

26:02

a jury, you're not going to get a conviction. They're just gonna

26:04

be like, oh, that's reasonable doubt, you know, not

26:07

guilty.

26:08

She had a background

26:10

in telemarketing.

26:12

That's Zach Peter again, a man who

26:15

spent time with almost every Housewife

26:17

and the Bravo universe on his No

26:19

Filter with Zach Peter podcast.

26:22

He studied the way Jenshaw rose

26:24

up in the telemarketing ranks and.

26:28

Kind of built her way up in that

26:30

channel of you know, calling up

26:32

people and saying, hey, is your student loan? Do you

26:34

owe student loan debt? And so she learned

26:36

the trick of the trade, and then eventually, it seems she

26:39

continued to build upon that until she had

26:41

her own business. It was seemingly profitable,

26:44

but not enough and I think she ended up

26:46

coming on real houses of Salt Lake City as

26:48

a way to get out of that and as a way to kind

26:50

of build herself, because she clearly

26:52

has an ego, and I think, you know, fame and

26:54

money were just her biggest motivations.

26:57

When I was eighteen years old, I

27:00

got a job in telemarketing. You

27:02

know, this is before I started waiting tables, before

27:04

I did singing telegrams. That's a whole lot of story.

27:07

And I couldn't do it longer than a week. I quit

27:09

because have you ever worked telemarketing?

27:12

Now, it's a hard effing

27:14

job. You have a computer monitor with your

27:16

script, and based on what the person

27:18

tells you is what button you pressed to read like you're

27:21

just a thankless drone

27:23

reading what you're told. And then you have to make a sale.

27:26

And then your boss is listening in and all the calls,

27:28

and there's so much pressure to make a sale, make

27:30

a sale, make a sale. Like I couldn't last a week.

27:32

I quit.

27:33

All I know about telemarketing is those are the people

27:35

I hang up on.

27:36

Yeah, I mean now me too. It's a

27:38

tough road to hoe.

27:40

But I think that's why somebody

27:42

like Genshaw was able to make it profitable is because

27:44

she ended up targeting vulnerable people, people

27:47

that you know you can essentially

27:49

con.

27:50

And the extent of her conning, the complexity

27:53

and how long it went on is something

27:56

that took the FEDS years to

27:58

fully untangle.

28:00

It was awful what she did to those people.

28:02

It really was.

28:03

She turned up their lives for what a fake

28:05

Fendi bag. Congrats girl.

28:09

Next time on Queen of the Con.

28:12

The operators they pump you for information.

28:14

They we dissect the kinds of scammy

28:16

telemarketing calls Jenshaw

28:18

used to build seniors out

28:20

of millions.

28:22

What happens if I don't make good

28:24

money at this.

28:25

At the end of thirty days, if you have not returned

28:28

on your vet Nick, we will give you a

28:30

refund back.

28:32

I think what Jenshaw was leaning into is

28:34

this is just marketing. Okay, so

28:37

we're lying in our marketing practices,

28:39

but that's not WIREFID. You don't

28:41

go to prison for that.

28:49

Queen of the Con The Unreal Housewife

28:51

is a production of AYR Media and iHeartMedia,

28:54

hosted by me Jonathan Walton. Executive

28:57

producers Jonathan Walton for Jonathan

29:00

Alton Productions and Elisa Rosen

29:02

for AYR Media. Written by

29:04

Jonathan Walton, Segment producer

29:06

Gregory Harvey, Senior Associate

29:09

producer Jill Pshesnik, Coordinator

29:12

Melena Krolyevsky. Sound

29:14

design by Tim Mulhern, Edited

29:17

and mixed by Tim Mulhern. Supervising

29:19

producer Victoria Chang, Audio

29:22

engineer Justin Mongerbean studio

29:25

engineer Maximo Abraham.

29:27

Mastered by Victoria Chang. Legal

29:30

counsel for AYR Media, Gianny

29:32

Douglas, Executive producer

29:34

for iHeartMedia, Maya Howard.

29:37

If you're enjoying Queen of the Khan, click that

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share button and send it to your friends and family.

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Also, if you can leave us a five star

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listeners find US court records,

29:48

police records, the Department of Justice,

29:51

Homeland Security, victim interviews,

29:53

interviews with investigators. ABC

29:55

News, Time Magazine, US Weekly,

29:58

TMZ, People Access,

30:00

Hollywood, and Bravo's Real Housewives

30:02

of Salt Lake City were the sources used

30:05

for this season of Queen of the Khan