The 49-year-old Bravo personality, who was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing, is expected to be sentenced in January 2023.
- Dec 19, 2022
AceShowbiz - "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" star Jen Shah is asking for a reduced prison sentence after pleading guilty in a telemarketing scheme. According to her sentencing submission, the reality TV star is requesting a three-year sentence, instead of the advisory sentencing of 11 to 14 years in prison.
"Many of these co-defendants neither received their leads from Ms. Shah, had any contact with her, nor even knew her," the submission, obtained by PEOPLE, claimed. "While it is true that Ms. Shah provided the 'leads' to many of the people involved in this crime, she certainly did not create, organize, control, or run this multi-pronged/multi-state conspiracy."
Her attorney also asked the judge to ignore how she's portrayed on television, adding that the program "misleadingly suggest[s] that Ms. Shah's statements and actions in these episodes match the posture of Ms. Shah's case or reflect her accurate sentiments about this matter." They went on to claim that the show was "semi-scripted" and "heavily edited", adding that it made her seem "intransigent, defiant, and often even unrepentant, about her actions here."
"Nothing could be further from the truth. Just as Jen Shah has never been a 'housewife,' little else is real about her persona and caricature as portrayed by the editors of RHOSLC," the document read. "The effigy of Jen Shah portrayed in the RHOSLC has no bearing on who she is, whatsoever, and should not enter this Court's calculus in fashioning an appropriate sentence for the real Jen Shah."
The legal documents also included 30 letters from her family and friends. One of them was written by her husband Sharrieff, who wrote about his wife's "sincere desire to correct her past wrongs."
It was also said that one of Jen's sonsis "having nightmares" after police "pointed an assault rifle at his head and heart" and forced him "out of bed at gunpoint" when he was 15, as his mother was escorted away in handcuffs during her arrest. It added, "This is part of the tremendous guilt and shame Jen feels, as her actions have harmed her family in many ways."
Meanwhile, Jen wrote to the judge in a four-page letter, which was obtained by CNN, "The terrible business decisions I made and professional relationships I developed stemmed from some personal painful experiences that I was going through in my life."
Titled "How I got involved in the situation?", the note additionally revealed that the Bravo personality is hoping to get a prison sentence of three years. Her legal team argued that Jen Shah was not the "kingpin" behind the telemarketing scheme, and that other co-defendants allegedly involved in the scam did not get their "leads" from Jen.
Jen was initially arrested in March 2021 alongside her assistant Stuart Smith after they were accused of targeting people in a nationwide phone scam to defraud those over the age of 55. She was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing.
Jen maintained her innocence by entering a not guilty plea in April 2021. The reality TV star, however, changed her tune as she pleaded guilty in July. She is expected to be sentenced in January 2023 and faces a potential maximum of up to 30 years in prison.
