CRIME, POLICE + COURTS

Real Housewives star Jen Shah sentenced to 6+ years in prison

Jan 6, 2023, 10:15 AM | Updated: 1:11 pm

“The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star Jen Shah, center, leaves the U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, March 30, 2021. Shah, who is married to an assistant football coach at the University of Utah, faces federal fraud charges in New York. (Spenser Heaps, Deseret News)

(Spenser Heaps, Deseret News)

BY SIMONE SEIKALY

Digital Content Producer

SALT LAKE CITY — Jen Shah, one of the stars of the reality television program The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, has been sentenced to 6.5 years in prison. Shah’s sentence also includes five years of supervised release.

#BREAKING Real Housewives of Salt Lake City @TheRealJenShah is going to prison for 6.5 years. https://t.co/SjeLnVPAl4

— Lindsay Aerts (@LindsayOnAir) January 6, 2023

Shah was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. She and her assistant Stuart Smith were arrested in Salt Lake City in March of 2021.

According to Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss, Shah sold ‘lead lists’ which were reportedly used by other people involved in the scam.

Those people on the lists, most of them elderly, were repeatedly scammed in a telemarketing scheme, Strauss said.

Shah pled not guilty to the charges in July 2022, but later changed her plea to guilty. A that time she had to pay $6.5 million, as well as restitution to victims of the fraud.

“In 2012 to March 2021 in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere I agreed with others to commit wire fraud,” Shah told Judge Sidney Stein in a statement at the time, according to yahoo! entertainment.

NBC News reports that Shah won’t begin her prison term until Feb. 17, 2023. She has requested a prison location in Texas.

This story will be updated.