How embarrassing! ‘TV Star Jennifer Shah Ex Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City Gets 6.5 Years In Prison For Telemarketing Fraud’ Former Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jennifer Shah will be giving up the lavish lifestyle that helped make her a reality television star in exchange for a prison cell for the next six and a half years.
TV Star Jennifer Shah Ex Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City Gets 6.5 Years In Prison For Telemarketing Fraud
On Friday, a federal judge sentenced her to a 78-month sentence for spearheading a nationwide telemarketing scheme that defrauded thousands of elderly people out of their life savings.
“The character your client plays on Real Housewives is simply a character,” Senior U.S. Judge Sidney Stein told her attorney Priya Chaudhry, taking a shot at the reality TV format.
Adding that the show involves “characters who are given scripts,” Stein added: “People shouldn’t confuse your client with the character she plays. One is acting, and one is — reality.”
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The judge stopped a pregnant pause before the punchline, sparking laughter in the gallery.
As she was during her guilty plea hearing, Shah struck a note of contrition.
“This is a crucible moment for me,” Shah said, remarking to her upbringing in the Pacific Islands.
Describing herself as “deeply sorry my actions hurt innocent people,” Shah vowed to repay her victims “every cent.”
Shah, 49, must also forfeit $6.5 million, 30 luxury items, and 78 counterfeit luxury items, and to pay more than $6.6 million in restitution.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams celebrated the verdict.
“With today’s sentence, Jennifer Shah finally faces the consequences of the many years she spent targeting vulnerable, elderly victims,” Williams wrote in a statement. “These individuals were lured in by false promises of financial security, but in reality, Shah and her co-conspirators defrauded them out of their savings and left them with nothing to show for it. This conviction and sentence demonstrate once again that we will continue to vigorously protect victims of financial fraud and hold accountable those who engage in fraudulent schemes.”
When she pleaded guilty last year, Shah admitted that the purported coaching serves for online business opportunities that she sold to the elderly and vulnerable had “little or no value.”
The judge’s sentence falls roughly halfway between the term recommended by the government and the defence. Prosecutors had recommended Shah be given a 10-year sentence. Defence attorneys had been seeking a sentence of three years.
Shah was initially arrested in July 2021 while Bravo was in the midst of taping its second season of the hit reality show.
On July 11, 2022, one week before she was scheduled to go to trial, Shah pleaded guilty to a wire fraud conspiracy aimed at bilking elderly and vulnerable people out of millions. She also entered into a $6.5 million preliminary forfeiture order that day.
“I agreed with others to commit wire fraud,” she said during her plea hearing. “Furthermore, while doing this, I knew many of the purchasers were over the age of 55.”
The telemarketing scheme involved supposed coaching services for business opportunities, which she conceded before her conviction had “little to no value.”
Shah’s sentencing hearing came at the end of a week in which her defense team and prosecutors sparred over a restraining order stemming from an alleged affair Shah had with a woman’s wife in 2019. Prosecutor’s suggested that the woman’s account of her interactions with Shah belied her claims that she was a person of high moral character.
The reality star’s attorney on Thursday hit back against the government’s assertions, describing the filing as nothing more than “unreliable, salacious” allegations with no place in federal court.
This is a developing story.
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