“The Real Housewives of Potomac” drama tends to be low stakes (squabbles over seating arrangements, really?), but here's an off-screen exception: A federal grand jury this month indicted friend-of-the-cast Brynee Baylor on charges that she bilked investors in a bogus scheme that promised huge returns and little risk.

Baylor, a 42-year-old attorney who was disbarred in Maryland last year, was charged with conspiracy, securities fraud, obstruction of justice and failure to pay taxes and file timely tax returns. The charges accuse Baylor, along with a Pennsylvania man named Frank Pavlico (who committed suicide in 2012), of taking more than half of over $2 million of investors' money in 2010 and 2011.

Baylor “falsely assured investors that the purported trading program was legitimate, that it had little, if any, risk,” according to a statement from the Justice Department.

The alleged scheme also landed Baylor in hot water with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which ordered her in August to pay more than $2.7 million.

—?The Washington Post