Travis and Jason Kelce recently opened up about their mom Donna's early exit from season 4 of 'The Traitors.' On their 'New Heights' podcast, Travis praised Donna for having a blast and for adapting well as the show's first Secret Traitor. He shared how proud he was of her, especially seeing her stand her ground at the roundtable and bring a surprising, 'devious' side to the competition. Jason chimed in, impressed by Donna's gameplay despite her lack of reality TV experience, and both brother
00:00Why have there been so many real housewives or their husbands charged by the feds with financial crimes?
00:07I mean, have you thought about it? It's really weird.
00:10There are two more cases.
00:12You're going to hear from a man who knows the federal system from the inside out.
00:17He has a theory about why this happens.
00:20This is Uncovered.
00:30Real housewives of Potomac stars, Wendy Acefo and her husband, Eddie, are being charged by the feds with essentially insurance fraud.
00:40They say back in 2024, someone broke into their house while they were on vacation and stole a whole bunch of luxury items.
00:47The problem is, investigators say they found that the couple had actually returned some of these allegedly stolen items to a store a few days later.
00:58However, Wendy Acefo had also said that her wedding ring had been stolen and insurance had given her a whole bunch of money to make up for that loss.
01:07Well, investigators say they went on social media and they found pictures of Wendy Acefo wearing her wedding ring.
01:14The two of them are now facing serious financial crime charges by the feds.
01:20Their attorneys have fired back saying, wait a second, that first burglary, the police did not investigate that properly.
01:27And they believe they dealt with the investigation unfairly, almost like they were trying to target the Acefos.
01:34The attorneys say over the last 18 months, the Acefos have been cooperating with police.
01:39They've been waiting to hear for updates about the burglary.
01:43And then out of the blue, they're being charged with financial crimes.
01:48Here to help us sort through this is Joseph Di Gregorio.
01:51He's a federal sentencing strategist.
01:54Essentially, what that means is he helps people navigate when they're being prosecuted by the feds.
02:01So, Joseph, a statement from the Acefo's attorneys say that they're going to go to trial, that they believe strongly enough in their innocence here.
02:10If you were their attorney, what would you tell them?
02:13Path one is the plea deal.
02:15Her attorneys will likely be pushing hard for this.
02:18She could plead guilty to reduce charges, agree to pay restitution, potentially face 24 to 36 months, two, three years instead of 15.
02:26The federal government wins 95% of cases that go to trial.
02:30So her attorneys know the odds.
02:32And path two is trial.
02:34If she believes she's 100% innocent or wants to fight, we're looking at trial in early to mid-2026, followed by sentencing if convicted.
02:43But here's what most people don't understand.
02:46When you go to trial and lose, judges often give you more time that if you take in the plea deal, it's called trial penalty.
02:54And it's completely legal.
02:55My prediction is she's going to take a plea deal within the next three to six months.
02:59The pressure of living in this uncertainty with three young children watching her husband also face charges, it's unsustainable.
03:07And federal prosecutors know exactly how to exploit that pressure.
03:10Yeah, we'll have to see because prosecutors are also charging the couple with using aliases to allegedly commit some of these financial crimes.
03:20The attorneys for the SFO say these weren't aliases.
03:24These are names that the couple used for packages.
03:27They bought things legally.
03:29They put fake names on the packages because they're high-profile people and they wanted to protect their identities.
03:36So it's not an alias.
03:38But this isn't the first time that a real housewife or her husband has been charged by the feds.
03:45And, Joe, I can't take credit for this.
03:47You pointed this out to me.
03:49And I can tell you exactly why it keeps happening.
03:52There's four systemic reasons.
03:55First is the performance trap.
03:57These women get paid maybe $100,000 to $200,000 per season, but they have to look like they're making millions.
04:05Every scene requires a designer everything.
04:09And the pressure to maintain that illusion on a salary that can't afford it, that's where fraud begins.
04:15And second is the public evidence problem.
04:18Wendy Osefo handed federal prosecutors their case on a silver platter.
04:23She's wearing the stolen jewelry on Instagram.
04:25Teresa from New Jersey was flaunting assets on Bravo while claiming bankruptcy in court.
04:32The FBI doesn't need wiretaps anymore.
04:35They just need a DVR and a social media account.
04:37And third is third is the invincibility complex.
04:41Fame makes people reckless.
04:43Jen Shah literally ran from federal agents on camera while filming Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.
04:51She spent two years claiming innocence, then abruptly pleaded guilty when she realized the evidence was overwhelming.
04:59They start believing they're untouchable because they're on TV, but federal prosecutors don't care about their ratings.
05:07And fourth, and this is the real tragedy, is the family devastation.
05:12Jen Shah has two sons, six and a half years she received.
05:17And Wendy has three children and could lose both parents because her husband is also charged.
05:23You can't defraud people at hundreds of thousands of dollars and then say,
05:27but I'm a mom and expect that to erase the crime.
05:31Judges see right through that immediately.
05:34Right.
05:34As you said, it's not just the women here.
05:36The husbands have also been charged by the feds.
05:39So in this case, we have Eddie Acefo.
05:42There's also Teresa Giudice's ex-husband, Joe Giudice.
05:46He was also found guilty of financial crimes by the feds.
05:50And he got actually twice as much prison time as his wife.
05:54They're divorced now.
05:56Thomas Girardi was formerly married to Erica Jane of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
06:01He was found guilty of wire fraud and embezzling client funds.
06:06He was sentenced to 87 months in prison.
06:10And the pattern is going to keep repeating until cast members understand that federal prosecutors don't care that you're on Bravo.
06:17Your TV contract won't protect you from a federal indictment.
06:21Thank you, Joseph, for helping us sort through some of this.
06:25The Acefos say they did not commit insurance fraud.
06:29I want to take a moment to talk about why insurance fraud hurts everybody and why the feds take it so seriously.
06:37When someone commits insurance fraud and they get money from their insurance that they don't actually need or are owed,
06:45it means everybody else has to pay for their premiums to go up.
06:50So when someone commits insurance fraud, they are actually hurting all of us, everybody who pays into that policy.
07:00One of the biggest things that is causing insurance to go up for everybody is insurance fraud.
07:05It is rampant right now across every aspect of life that you can think of.
07:11And that's why the feds take these types of cases so seriously.
07:16If you want more true crime stories with depth, accountability and impact,
07:22subscribe to Us Weekly's YouTube channel or check out Uncovered with KristenThorne.com.
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