Chad Kirkland/Bravo (2)
Heather Gay is coming to Jen Shah‘s defense.
During the June 2 episode of the So Bad It’s Good With Ryan Bailey podcast, Gay, 38, defended her Real Housewives of Salt Lake City costar Shah, 47, after she was arrested and charged in a telemarketing fraud scheme earlier this year.
“I think that good people can do bad things, and she is claiming she is innocent,” Gay said. “Even if she gets … wrongfully convicted, she can make things right.”
“She can redeem herself,” the Beauty Lab co-founder continued.
She said elsewhere during the candid chat, “I guess I am passionate about second chances because … when I got divorced, I didn’t have a second chance,” and added: “And that sucks, you know?”
RELATED: Real Housewives of Salt Lake City‘s Jen Shah Arrested, Charged in Telemarketing Fraud Scheme
Chad Kirkland/Bravo/ Getty Jen Shah
Shah was arrested alongside Stuart Smith, one of her assistants who has also appeared on the reality show, in late March. The pair were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
“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 members of their scheme to repeatedly scam,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a press release. “In actual reality and as alleged, the so-called business opportunities pushed on the victims by Shah, Smith, and their co-conspirators were just fraudulent schemes, motivated by greed, to steal victims’ money. Now, these defendants face time in prison for their alleged crimes.”
Shah and Smith, 43, allegedly carried out a nationwide telemarketing scheme with the help of others between 2012 and March of this year, according to the indictment. They are accused of having “defrauded hundreds of victims” with purported business services.
Prosecutors claim that Shah and Smith’s scheme was a “coordinated effort to traffic in lists of potential victims,” referred to as “leads.” From there, they allegedly sold those leads to telemarketing companies that would attempt to sell business services to the targeted individuals. The pair “received as profit a share of the fraudulent revenue per the terms of their agreement with those participants,” according to the indictment.
Never miss a story – sign up for PEOPLE‘s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Shah and Smith were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing through which they allegedly victimized 10 or more persons over the age of 55, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
At their arraignment in April, both Shah and Smith pleaded not guilty to the charges leveled against them. Shah currently awaits her trial, which is set to take place later this year in October.
Previously, Shah was not asked to put up a specific amount of bond in the form of cash or property, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Kiersten Fletcher requested during the arraignment to update Shah’s bail conditions.
As ordered by the U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein, she had to put up a $1 million personal recognizance bond secured by $250,000 in cash or property, which had to be co-signed by “two financially responsible persons.” She had two weeks to comply with the new conditions and also had to hand over any travel documents, such as a passport, to the government, he added.
RELATED VIDEO: Jen Shah ‘Was Filming’ Real Housewives of Salt Lake City the Day She Got Arrested, Says Source
A source previously told PEOPLE that Shah was filming her hit Bravo series on the same day she was arrested.
“The cast left for a trip to Vail on Tuesday, including Jen. She was filming,” a source said, though a spokesperson for Bravo declined to comment when reached by PEOPLE.
