While Teresa Giudice and her husband face up to 50 years in prison for their own fraud charges, it has been revealed that Teresa's publicist has spent time behind bars for similar crimes.

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It turns out the woman representing The Real Housewives of New Jersey star, Wendy Feldman, was sentenced to more than 2 years in prison for a fraud scandal that racked in $4.1 million. Feldman was involved in a ponzi scheme from 1998 to late 2001. She was known as Wendy Feldman Purner during that time.

Based on court documents, she "breached the trust of her brokerage customers and investment advisory clients and engaged in fraud when she misappropriated $4,145,000 from their accounts....While associated with a registered broker-dealer and investment adviser, and later at her own investment advisory firm, Purner received money from her customers and clients to invest and manage."

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A complaint also stated that she reassured her clients she would invest their money in various investment avenues. She instead spent it personal things like "vacations and gambling."

She then created fake statements and account balances that she would mail to customers to keep them from catching on to her scam. However, her tactic didn't work and investors did indeed recognize what she was up to. She ended up confessing and pled guilty to 3 counts of wire fraud. She served 16 months of her complete sentence.

Feldman now heads CustodialCoaching.com to assist clients "to prepare for court, investigations, incarceration, alternative sentences, and most importantly, re-entry into society."

She has been working with Teresa as a "legal coach and crisis manager" since November of 2013.

Tags: Real Housewives of New Jersey Bravo Reality TV