Jen Shah is going to prison.
‘The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’ star has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison with an additional five years of supervised release.
In July, Jen plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for allegedly running a telemarketing scheme that defrauded elderly people out of thousands of dollars.
via ABC:
Judge Sidney Stein said Shah’s role on the RHOSLC played no role in his sentencing decision.
“The character your client plays on the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is simply a character,” Stein told the attorneys. “The Real Housewives franchise involves role playing, editing. People should not confuse, and this court is not going to confuse, the character she plays on an entertainment show with the person I have before me.”
Shah, in a camel pant suit, sat between two lawyers. Her husband, Sharieff, was seated behind her in a slate blue suit. He raised his hand when introduced by defense attorney Priyah Chaudhry.
“For the rest of Ms. Shah’s life she will remember their names,” Chaudhry said of the victims. “Ms. Shah knows she has devastated the lives of so many.”
Stein Interrupted the expression of sympathy to ask “Is she still selling ‘Free Jen’ or ‘Justice for Jen’ merchandise on her website or has that been taken down?”
Chaudhry said Shah is no longer selling the items and has saved the proceeds for restitution.
The defense insisted Shah understood the victims “had very little to begin with and now they will struggle even more,” but when Chaudhry said none of the victims had ever talked directly to Shah, Judge Stein cut in.
“Because she was too high in the conspiracy to deal with victims,” Stein said. “She was too important. She was a leader. So the fact that she never talked to a victim works against you.”
Federal prosecutors called it “preposterous” to portray Shah as a mere seller of lists for other telemarketers to defraud.
“She’s laughing over text messages talking about defrauding these people,” assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Silverman said. “It’s not as if she simply sent a computer file to someone.”
Silverman said it was “really difficult” to hear the defense cast Shah as self delusional and somehow unaware of the severity of her crimes.
“It’s a decade, day in and day out, working hard to defraud people,” the prosecutor said. “This defendant was prolific. She made a lot of money from this scheme.”
Shah conceded she “struggled to accept responsibility for the longest time” but said she now accepts responsibility for her actions.
“I am profoundly and deeply sorry,” Shah said.
Silverman doubted Shah’s expressions of remorse.
“There’s not one message that expressed remorse,” Silverman said. “It’s fair to conclude that’s not how she felt.”
Silverman spoke of the victims of the fraud.
“These are older, vulnerable women whose lives were turned upside down by the defendant’s telemarketing fraud,” he said.
The government urged the judge overseeing the case to sentence Jen to 10 years, calling that term “appropriate” for her crimes.
Jen has been ordered to surrender Feb 17, 2023 to a minimum security facility in Texas.
