Jen Shah of ‘Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’ Sentenced to 6.5 Years in Prison

Jen Shah, known for starring on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, was sentenced to six years and six months in prison Friday for her role in a telemarketing scam, NBC News reports.

Along with the 78-month sentence, which was less time than prosecutors were seeking, U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein also ordered Shah to forfeit $6.5 million and 30 luxury goods, and pay more than $6.6 million in restitution, according to the outlet. Additionally, Shah will be subject to five years of supervised release after leaving prison.

Prior to announcing the decision, Stein warned those in the courtroom that the Shah they see on Bravo involves “acting” and role-playing, and added about the series, “It’s a heavily scripted operation.”

Shah’s attorney Priya Chaudhry told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement that her client “deeply regrets the mistakes that she has made” and apologizes to the victims. “Jen has faith in our justice system, understands that anyone who breaks the law will be punished and accepts this sentence as just,” Chaudhry continued. “Jen will pay her debt to society and when she is a free woman again, she vows to pay her debt to the victims harmed by her mistakes.”

Prosecutor Damian Williams told the court Friday that the sentencing means Shah will finally face “the consequences of the many years she spent targeting vulnerable, elderly victims.”

During the trial, Shah’s defense team had emphasized that there were many others involved in the long-lasting scheme. Her team referred to the fraud as “a mistake that has not only ruined her own life, but has broken her heart as she has watched the damage that her actions have caused.”

Shah, 49, of Park City, Utah, pleaded guilty in July in Manhattan federal court to a single count of conspiracy after signing a plea agreement the day prior. Shah, who was arrested March 30, 2021, previously told a judge she was part of a massive telemarketing fraud for close to a decade that prosecutors say impacted thousands of people nationwide, a number of whom were over age 55.

Noah Samton, senior vp of current programming for Bravo Media, told THR on Thursday that no official decision had yet been made regarding Shah’s show status ahead of the sentencing, and that the network’s team had not been in recent contact with her. His comments echoed Andy Cohen’s to THR late last year.

The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is not currently in production.

“We really have not made decisions, and we’re discussing it all the time and trying figure out what the best course of action is moving forward,” Samton said. “Whatever we hear, we’ll then take a minute to process and figure out. We always reevaluate. There are people we stop filming with and then start filming with again. It’s not math — it’s not a simple equation. We try to take into account as many different aspects of what’s going on as we can.”

Shah has been a main castmember of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City throughout its run that began when the show launched in November 2020, with the season three finale set to air Wednesday. Her legal case was the subject of the Hulu documentary Housewife and the Shah Shocker.