RHOSLC’s Jen Shah ‘Vows to Pay Her Debt’ as She’s Sentenced to 6.5 Years in Federal Jail for Fraud Arrangement

Jen Shah has been sentenced to 78 months (6.5 years) for her role in orchestrating a fraud diagram.

The Actual Housewives of Salt Lake Metropolis star regarded in a Unusual York courtroom on Friday after pleading guilty to her role in the telemarketing conspiracy.

Shah’s husband Sharrieff and their sons, Sharrieff Jr. and Omar, were in the courtroom as the chance became as soon as handed down.

Shah’s approved professional Priya Chaudhry issued a assertion to PEOPLE after the chance: “Jen Shah deeply regrets the errors that she has made and is profoundly sorry to the folks she has disaster. Jen has faith in our justice procedure, understands that anybody who breaks the legislation will be punished, and accepts this sentence as ethical. Jen pays her debt to society and when she is a free lady any other time, she vows to pay her debt to the victims harmed by her errors.”

Earlier Friday morning, Mediate Sidney Stein spoke to the packed courtroom. In accordance with Internal Metropolis Press’s Matthew Russell Lee, Mediate Stein instructed attendees: “Jen Shah’s role on The Actual Housewives of Salt Lake Metropolis, which I assume is why the courtroom is so beefy on the brand new time, is ethical that, a job. Other folks ought to now not confuse the persona she plays on an entertainment demonstrate to the person earlier than me.”

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When given her include chance to talk, Lee reported that Shah acknowledged, “I am sorry. My actions savor disaster harmless folks. I desire to make an apology by asserting, I am doing all I will to originate the funds to pay restitution.”

Sooner than Shah became as soon as sentenced, Assistant U.S. Felony professional Robert Sobelman known as her crimes “brazen fraud.” Per Lee, Sobelman added, “Every cooperator instructed us, ‘Jen Shah is the boss.’ They all knew who she became as soon as.”

Jen Shah sentencing.
NBC Data

Sooner than that, Mediate Stein had instructed Chaudhry that her shopper “became as soon as a frontrunner of this conspiracy,” in step with Lee. Mediate Stein endured, “So this cuts in opposition to you, now not for you.”

Chaudhry later answered, “Jen has spent month reading the names of those she has disaster. She has prayed for their forgiveness. Nevertheless she can be able to now not forgive herself. Jen understands she can be able to now not undo the disaster or repay them on the brand new time — but on the brand new time is set justice for them. Measuring the disaster.”

Explaining her shopper’s motives, she later acknowledged, “Jen hoped that the TV spotlight would cowl her disaster. She spent years attempting to cowl her feeling, to fraudulent it except she make it. She tried now not to scrutinize the folks who misplaced money. Her approved fraud became as soon as on herself.”

Stein countered, “Her exercise in this crime took deliver years earlier than The Actual Housewives of Salt Lake Metropolis started. So that which that you just would possibly well perchance perhaps very successfully be asserting her starvation for trinkets predates the demonstrate?”

Chris Haston/Bravo by strategy of Getty

Chaudhry acknowledged, in phase: “Elders, her victims, are teaching her. She regrets the errors she has made. She is sorry. She had faith in our justice procedure. Jen pays her debt to society.”

Chaudhry closed, “Ms. Shah will celebrate her Fiftieth birthday in a federal detention center. … Then she’s going to strive to make entire those who misplaced money. She will be able to any other time make her elders proud.”

She acknowledged later, “Longstanding untreated psychological points led to me to form my include fractured actuality. Right here’s a crucible second for me. With the valid medication I will now scrutinize what took deliver. I wish I might perhaps well well savor stood outside myself. I am sorry.”

Shah addressed her youthful son and her father: “To my toddler Omar, Mommy is so sorry you were woken up at gunpoint. My leisurely father, I desire to advise him I am sorry. I am humbled by your like for me.”

With out a additional phrases from Shah, Mediate Stein declared, “My intention is to impose a sentence of 78 months of incarceration, and various prerequisites.”

Shah’s sentence will open up on Feb. 17. Though Mediate Stein would now not specify the power on Friday, Shah will back out her sentence someplace in the “Texas position.”

After she leaves detention center, Mediate Stein additionally ordered Shah to back 5 years of supervised liberate “to be definite that you just don’t discontinue up committing any other crime,” acknowledged Stein.

After the sentencing, Sharrieff walked up to Jen to give her a kiss and a hug. Exhibiting no emotion, she then walked into the stands and hugged her mother and her sons. Soon after, the Shahs left the courthouse.

Shah, 49, and her assistant, Stuart Smith, were arrested in March 2021 for spearheading a cellular phone scam to defraud folks over the age of 55. Microscopic print later emerged about how the diagram claimed to offer tutoring path to prepare the victims for a salaried gross sales diagram.

Even after Smith entered a guilty plea in November 2021, Shah endured to proclaim her innocence — except she entered exact into a plea deal in July 2022 and admitted in courtroom to her role in the diagram.

Heidi Gutman/Bravo

This plea deal suggested Shah would be sentenced between 11 and 14 years in detention center, despite the undeniable truth that the U.S. govt advocated for 10 years. On the different hand, Shah asked for a reduced sentence of ethical three years in a December request to the courtroom.

“The dreadful industry choices I made and professional relationships I developed stemmed from some deepest painful experiences that I became as soon as going by in my life,” she wrote in the request, as reported by CNN.

Shah’s maximum sentence for the crime became as soon as 30 years — despite the undeniable truth that she beforehand agreed now not to attraction her case if her sentence became as soon as now not up to 14 years.

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Court paperwork obtained by PEOPLE showed victim affect statements for Shah’s alleged wrongdoings. One man acknowledged he “wasted about $40,000 attempting to achieve ethical for my family,” whereas any other acknowledged they paid $100,000. Two of the victims who gave statements acknowledged the scam drove them to homelessness.

Chaudhry instructed PEOPLE on the time: “Ms. Shah is devastated by the suffering she has led to these folks. She vows to devote her life to attempting to make each one entire.”

Shah did film some episodes of RHOSLC between her arrest and sentencing — despite the undeniable truth that she didn’t film the demonstrate’s upcoming season 3 reunion.

With reporting by Mary S. Park