Jen Shah Sentenced to 6.5 Years in Federal Prison in Wire Fraud Case
A Real Housewife is going away for a really long time.
On Friday morning, Jen Shah was sentenced to 78 months (6.5 years) for her role in orchestrating a nationwide fraud scheme.
The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City cast member will also need to serve five years of supervised release, according to Judge Sidney Stein … who ordered Shah to report to prison on February 17.
At the hearing in New York City, Stein bashed Shah’s actions after her lawyer Priya Chaudhry began listing the “good things” her client had done in the wake of her guilty plea this past July.
“What good things could she have been doing?
“Calling elderly people and selling them business opportunities and they would max out their credit cards and get the person to put down an additional credit card and then upsell them for other products?” Stein asked, per NBC News.
“If there is good in that I want to hear it.”
Shah and her assistant, Stuart Smith, were arrested in March 2021 for leading a phone scam to defraud people over the age of 55.
Details later emerged about how the scheme claimed to offer tutoring course to prepare the victims for a salaried sales position.
This course did not exist.
Shah would then sale any financial/personal information she received from her victims to the highest bidder.
Even after Smith entered a guilty plea in November 2021, Shah continued to emphasize her innocence … until she entered into a plea deal in July 2022 and confessed in court to her role in the scheme.
When given her own chance to speak in court on Friday, Shah said:
“I am sorry.
“My actions have hurt innocent people. I want to apologize by saying, I am doing all I can to earn the funds to pay restitution.”
Last month, Shah’s legal team submitted paperwork in which they asked for a sentence of just three years.
Judge Stein, however, stated in court that Shah “was a leader of this conspiracy,” while the Bravo personality tried to argue her side as follows:
“Longstanding untreated mental issues caused me to create my own fractured reality. This is a crucible moment for me.
“With the proper medication I can now see what happened. I wish I could have stood outside myself. I am sorry.”
According to legal documents, prosecutors were hoping for a 10-year sentence against the reality star, giving a laundry list of reasons in December why she’s the “most culpable person charged in this case.”
Referring to The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, the judge added this morning:
“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.
“The other is acting and this is reality.”
Shah’s maximum sentence for the crime was 30 years, although she previously agreed not to appeal her case if her sentence was less than 14 years.
“I am profoundly and deeply sorry,” Shah told her husband and sons in court, according to ABC reporter Aaron Katersky.
“Reality TV has nothing to do with reality.”
The star stunned followers this summer when she changed her plea ahead of her trial.
“In 2012 to March 2021 in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere I agreed with others to commit wire fraud,” she said during a June 2022 court hearing in New York City.
“I knew this was wrong. I knew many people were harmed and I’m so sorry.”
Published at Fri, 06 Jan 2023 17:51:06 +0000
