Real Housewives of Salt Lake City‘s Jen Shah has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail for a telemarketing scam which targeted “vulnerable” and “elderly” victims.
Death, taxes and Real Housewives stars getting caught up in criminal activity. Real Housewives of New Jersey‘s Teresa Giudice and her 11-month prison sentence walked so Jen Shah could run.
The US Justice Department said in a statement on Friday that Shah was an “integral leader of a wide-ranging, nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme that victimised thousands of innocent people”.
From at least 2012 until her arrest in March 2021 — which happened on-camera, no less — Shah sold thousands of folks bogus services, which were promoted as money-making schemes.
Anniversary of the Insurrection, premiere of M3GAN, Jen Shah’s sentencing all in one day… this is My America
— Carey O’Donnell (@ecareyo) January 2, 2023
Jen Shah facilitated the sale of “leads” — contact details of people who were flagged as susceptible to the scheme — to sales floors which carried out the scam, the US Justice Department said.
Court documents showed that many of her victims were “elderly or vulnerable” and “suffered significant financial hardship and damage”.
“At Shah’s direction, victims were defrauded over and over again until they had nothing left,” the US Justice Department said.
“She and her co-conspirators persisted in their conduct until the victims’ bank accounts were empty, their credit cards were at their limits and there was nothing more to take.”
Jen Shah at her lush Italian dinner party acting like she didn’t just get sentenced to 6.5 years in the clink for defrauding vulnerable people pic.twitter.com/zUkf6WrJVe
— Matthew Galea (@mattygalea_) January 7, 2023
As well as copping a six-and-a-half year prison sentence, Shah was ordered to forfeit US$6.5 million (AUD$9.4 million), 30 luxury items, 78 counterfeit luxury items and pay US$6.6 million (AUD$9.6 million) in restitution.
She was also sentenced to five years of supervised release.
Shah apologised to the “innocent people” she’d hurt at her sentencing, per AP News.
“I struggled to accept responsibility for the longest time because I deluded myself into believing … that I did nothing wrong,” she said.
“For years I blamed other people for putting me in this position. I alone am responsible for my terrible decisions. It was all my fault and all my wrongdoing.
“I have no one to blame but myself … I wish I could have stood outside myself and seen the harm I was causing and changed course. I am profoundly and deeply sorry.”
I’m yelling at the level of delusion which makes you fail to realise you’re committing a vile scam.
Wasn’t the fact that Jen Shah was actively praying on vulnerable and elderly people and defrauding them for everything they’re worth not enough to make her realise that, you know, something wasn’t kosher? BFFR, please.
Heather & Lisa Barlow attending Jen’s trial today #RHOSLC #JenShah pic.twitter.com/o66m95LANV
— CM (@conormurrayTM) January 6, 2023
When Shah was arrested in March 2021, she pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The gal was so goddamn certain she hadn’t done anything wrong that in the opening credits of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Season 2, her tagline was: “The only thing I’m guilty of is being Shah-mazing.”
She changed her plea to guilty (for the conspiracy to commit wire fraud, not related to being Shah-mazing) in July 2022, per Vulture.
Jen Shah will have to surrender herself to prison on February 17 to kick off her sentence. It will not be a Shah-mazing day for her, if you will.
