Jen Shah, star of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City , has been sentencedto 6 and half years in prison for fraud. She’ll be subject to five years ofsupervised release when she’s free. It’s a harsher sentence than the three-year term the 49-year-old Bravo star was seeking. Shah pleaded guilty for herrole in a nationwide telemarketing scheme that targeted the elderly andvulnerable.
“Jen Shah deeply regrets the mistakes that she has made and is profoundlysorry to the people she has hurt. Jen has faith in our justice system,understands that anyone who breaks the law will be punished, and accepts thissentence as just,” Shah’s lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, tells Yahoo Entertainment ina statement. “Jen will pay her debt to society and when she is a free womanagain, she vows to pay her debt to the victims harmed by her mistakes.”
Shah sobbed in a New York courthouse on Friday before she learned her fate.She apologized for hurting innocent people, adding that she’s doing all shecan to earn restitution for the victims. The reality star’s husband, CoachSharrieff Shah, and the couple’s two sons, Sharrieff Shah Jr., 28, and Omar,19, were in attendance. All three wrote letters to the judge asking forleniency.
Before delivering the 78-month sentence, US District Court Judge Sidney Steinmade it clear Shah’s persona on RHOSLC was not used against her in hisdecision. Shah must surrender to prison on Feb. 17, 2023.
In July, Shah pleaded guilty to one **** count of conspiracy to commit wirefraud. The government claims she and her co-conspirators victimized “thousandsof innocent people.” The count carried a maximum sentence of 30 years inprison, but her plea deal with federal prosecutors called for a sentence ofanywhere between 11 to 14 years in prison. Per the agreement, Shah will alsoforfeit $6.5 million and pay restitution up to $9.5 million. The JusticeDepartment requested 10 years behind bars.
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When RHOSLC premiered in 2020, Shah immediately became a fan favorite. Shetouted her lavish lifestyle and over-the-top designer wardrobe, as most_Housewives_ do, but instead of bragging about her rich husband, Shah boastedhow she was the moneymaker.
“What I’ve done for the last 20 years is direct response marketing. I makemillions,” Shah said in a 2019 confessional interview, that clearly did notage well. “Hey, you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do for money. I’m like theWizard of Oz.”
Shah was arrested in March 2021 and charged with conspiracy to commit wirefraud in connection with telemarketing and conspiracy to commit moneylaundering. Prosecutors said Shah and her associates “generated and sold ‘leadlists’ of innocent individuals for other members of their scheme to repeatedlyscam.” The operation supposedly ran from 2012 up until her arrest. Shahpleaded not guilty.
Cameras were rolling when federal prosecutors stormed a van in Utah in anattempt to arrest Shah. The reality star’s legal woes have been a majorstoryline on the second and third season of the show. For over a year, viewerssaw Shah vehemently maintain her innocence, often through tears — or whilescreaming at her co-stars. Her tagline on the show was, “The only thing I’mguilty of is being Shah-mazing.” She sold “Justice for Jen” merchandise. (Incourt on Friday, Shah claimed proceeds will go to the victims.) Viewers werestunned when she changed her plea last year after filming of the show’s thirdseason wrapped.
Prosecutors called Shah “the most culpable person charged in this case” aheadof the hearing, according to documents obtained by Yahoo.
“At the defendant’s direction, victims were defrauded over and over againuntil they had nothing left. She and her co-conspirators persisted in theirconduct until the victims’ bank accounts were empty, their credit cards wereat their limits, and there was nothing more to take,” the government wrote intheir sentencing memorandum.
The document contained multiple victim impact statements from some of thepeople Shah and her associates defrauded. A widow in her mid-70s lost half ofher life savings to false business promises. The victim dreams “of a betterretirement and life,” which was “taken away” when she was coerced to give hermoney away “for false promises.” Another victim, who has serious healthconditions, ultimately “became homeless” after handing over money for businessopportunities that never materialized. The government said Shah was directlyinvolved in scamming these people.
In a letter to the judge ahead of sentencing, Shah wrote, “The terriblebusiness decisions I made and professional relationships I developed stemmedfrom some personal painful experiences that I was going through in my life.”
Lawyers for Shah said she was involved in both legitimate and fraudulent partsof the business, but maintained she was not the “mastermind” behind the schemeand did not communicate with the victims. They also blamed heavy editing onthe “semi-scripted” reality show for making her seem “intransigent, defiantand often even unrepentant about her actions here. Nothing could be furtherfrom the truth. Just as Jen Shah has never been a ‘housewife, ‘ little else isreal about her person and caricature as portrayed by the editors of RHOSLC.”
Shah’s husband pleaded for leniency in a letter to the court ahead ofsentencing. He partially blamed himself for her actions and said his busy workschedule as University of Utah’s assistant football coach caused her to “makecatastrophically bad business decisions and develop relationships with awfulpeople.” None of Shah’s RHOSLC co-stars — Lisa Barlow, Heather Gay, MeredithMarks or Whitney Rose — were among the dozen people to write letters to the