The 'Real Housewives of Salt Lake City' star has been sentenced after pleading guilty as she was accused of preying on 'the elderly and vulnerable' through her telemarketing scheme.
- Jan 7, 2023
AceShowbiz - Jen Shah has to stay 78 months in prison following sentencing. Known for appearing on hit Bravo show "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City", the 49-year-old reality star was arrested in March 2021 on wire fraud and money laundering charges in connection with a telemarketing scheme and finally sentenced to six and a half years behind bars on Friday, January 6, 2023 after pleading guilty in July 2022, according to E! News.
Jen, who is married to football coach Sharrieff Shah and has children Sharrieff Jr., 28, and 19-year-old Omar with him, allegedly has defrauded "the elderly and vulnerable" through her telemarketing scheme, along with assistant, Stuart Smith, who is expected to be sentenced in March.
Lawyer Priya Chaudhry said, "Jen has spent a month reading the names of those she has hurt. She has prayed for their forgiveness. But she cannot forgive herself. Jen understands she cannot undo the pain or repay them today - but today is about justice for them. Measuring the pain."
On the show, Jen's tagline is, "The only thing I'm guilty of is being Shah-mazing" but, in court, Jen reportedly said through tears, "Reality TV has nothing to do with reality, even my tagline."
Jen had initially pleaded not guilty to the crime until earlier this year and, according to E! News, must now report to prison on February 17, with her legal team recommending that she be detained in a minimum-security prison in Texas although her reporting prison is yet to be decided.
Last year, Jen insisted that she has been "wrongly accused" as she protested her innocence. Speaking in a trailer for the "Real Housewives of Salt Lake City: After Show", she said, "I don't take this lightly. It's my life and more importantly, it's my family's life."
"I care about them more than anything. I don't want my kids or my husband or my mom or my family affected by this and so I have to fight. I'm representing not only my family but I'm representing everybody out there that has ever been accused, wrongly accused or wrongly convicted of a crime that they didn't do."
"And if I have the means to fight, I'm going to fight. I'm going to fight because what is happening is not right and this has not only happened to me. There are so many other people out there in America that this has happened to, that have gone to prison, they're completely innocent, their lives have been ruined."
