Real Housewives star Jen Shah sentenced to 6.5 years in prison

Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison for running a year-long telemarketing scheme that prosecutors said targeted the elderly and vulnerable, draining them of their savings and draining their credit cards.

Shah, 49, pleaded guilty to a count of wire fraud in a dramatic about-face by the defense in July. She is scheduled to go to jail on February 17 and will serve her sentence at a facility in Texas.

Shah was assisted in court by her husband, their two sons, other relatives – and their therapist. She wore a sleek beige outfit but had ditched the designer bags and jewelry she was known for on the Bravo TV show.

Her attorney Priya Chaudhry pleaded for clemency on her behalf, saying she would “never forgive herself” for what she had done.

Shah herself sobbed as she read a statement to the court, claiming her reality TV personality was nothing more than acting. She pledged to raise $6.5 million in compensation to bring the victims back to health and said she intends to do so from prison.

Shah ignored questions as she exited the courthouse, instead going straight into a waiting SUV.

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Shah and her husband Sharrieff emerge from court on Friday. She is due to report to the Bureau of Prisons on February 17

Real Housewives star Jen Shah appears in court today to face a fraud conviction. You face 10 years imprisonment

Jen Shah grabbed her bodyguard’s arm as she entered the courthouse on Friday morning

Reality TV star Jen Shah arrives in court in New York City to be convicted of wire fraud

“You and the world know me as Jen Shah. But reality TV has nothing to do with reality, even my slogan Shah-mazing – they wrote it. I want to talk about who I am.”

She claimed she had “long-untreated mental health issues” that led her to “create her own reality.”

But prosecutors showed no mercy, telling the court how Shah once laughed at one of her victims tearfully calling the company about losing all her money.

They read aloud a text that Shah sent to one of her colleagues, in which she said, “Did you get her to stop crying?”

Shah and her colleagues fraudulently collected lead lists and then sold them to companies.

A person on such a list would then be lured into a never-ending payment or subscription service from which they could not or would not get out.

One of the programs was business coaching, which never materialized but promised the victims, none of whom were tech-savvy, that they would reap huge profits.

Federal prosecutors sought a 10-year sentence for 49-year-old Shah, while her attorneys suggested she serve three years.

Judge Sidney Stein warned Shah at the start of today’s hearing that the verdict would fall somewhere in between.

“I think a variance of less than 130 months is reasonable. But I don’t intend to sentence Ms. Shah to 36 months either. So it will come somewhere between the two,” Judge Stein said.

At the start of the trial, the judge asked the courtroom to ignore the “role” Shah plays in the Bravo series that made her famous.

“Jen Shah’s role in ‘The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,’ and I suppose that’s why the courtroom is packed today, is just that, a role.

“People shouldn’t confuse the character she plays on an entertainment show with the person in front of me. All right,’ she said.

Shah’s lawyer Priya Chaudhry first introduced the court to who had “travelled” to assist her; her husband, two sons, cousin, mother-in-law – and her therapist.

She was struck down by the judge when she brought up the fact that Shah had never spoken to any of her victims.

“She was too important to talk to the victims. She was a leader of this conspiracy. So this is against you, not for you,” the judge joked.

Chaudhry then tried to appeal to the judge’s sympathies by saying Shah “grew up poor”.

Shah is shown in the courthouse. She added a COVID-19 mask before entering the courtroom

Once inside the courthouse, the 49-year-old kept her sunglasses on

“Jen has spent months reading the names of those she has hurt. She asked for her forgiveness. But she can’t forgive herself. Jen understands that today she can’t undo or repay the pain – but today is about justice for her. Measure the pain,” she said.

Shah, one of the most bombastic characters in her Bravo reality TV franchise, denied any wrongdoing for months.

She dramatically changed her plea in July following her former assistant Stuart Smith’s guilty plea.

As part of the case, Shah forfeited dozens of real and fake designer bags and fake jewelry.

The list included dozens of fake Chanel and Hermes bags.

Shah, who is married with two children, proudly presented herself as a spendthrift on the Bravo show.

She boasted about spending $80,000 on a friend’s birthday party and frequently referred to her “Shah squad”.

Her husband, Sharrieff Shah, is a football coach at the University of Washington. He was not with Shah when she entered the court today but was inside with her two sons for the sentencing.

In their sentencing to the court, prosecutors gave a harsh description of Shah’s crimes.

“For nearly a decade, the defendant was an integral leader of a large-scale, nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme that victimized thousands of innocent people. Many of these people were elderly or vulnerable.

“Many of these people suffered significant financial hardship and damage.

“On the orders of the defendant, the victims were duped over and over again until they had nothing.

“She and her co-conspirators persisted in their behavior until the victims’ bank accounts were empty, their credit cards were maxed out and there was nothing left to take.

“Despite the defendants’ best efforts, she was caught. She then went on a public offensive, trying to cash in on the charges by selling Justice for Jen merchandise. She pleaded guilty at the eleventh hour, only after receiving the government’s trial evidence and testimony.

“In light of her behavior and her behavior after the arrest, her belated expressions of remorse ring hollow,” wrote US Attorney Damian Williams.

The 49-year-old is one of the most bombastic characters in the Bravo series in which she stars

Police confiscated dozens of fake bags and trinkets from Shah’s home

They chided Shah for not only publicly claiming his innocence, but also “ridiculing” the case with comments like “the only thing I was guilty of was being Shah-mazing.”

She faced a maximum of 20 years per charge if the case went to trial.

If sentenced to 10 years, she can be released within five years.

Shah’s lawyers have asked for a three-year sentence.

“We contend that such a judgment is just and fair because it takes into account Ms Shah’s history and characteristics and the facts and circumstances of the offense and assumes that a court will impose a sentence that is ‘no more than is necessary’ to achieve goals of punishment,” her attorney Priya Chaudhry wrote in a December filing.

Shah is accused of running various schemes to scam her victims.

One involved the sale of fictional business coaching courses that prosecutors say were nothing more than a scam.

Victims never received the promised coaching or business gains, but were encouraged to continue spending money on tuition.

Shah is also accused of directly attacking victims by running a “sales floor”.