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'Real Housewives' star Jen Shah sentenced to 78 months in prison

The reality TV star pled guilty to participating in a telemarketing scheme.
/ Source: TODAY

Jen Shah, star of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” was sentenced to 78 months, or over six years, in prison as part of a plea deal created after she pleaded guilty to defrauding hundreds of people in a telemarketing scheme that started in 2012, per documents from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York.

Shah was ordered to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on Feb. 17, NBC News reported, where she will serve her six and a half year sentence at a prison in Texas. Upon release, Shah will be under supervision for five years.

Shah addressed the court before she was sentenced, saying she is not the "carefully created and edited" reality TV star fans see on "RHOSLC," according to NBC News.

Jen Shah, The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City - Season 3.
Jen Shah, The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City - Season 3.Chris Haston / Bravo

"I have to come to terms that I have gone against these core values and I am deeply sorry for what I have done," Shah said. "I want to apologize to all the victims and families and I take full responsibility for the harm I caused and will pay full restitution to all of the victims."

Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement released Jan. 6 that Shah "finally faces the consequences of the many years she spent targeting vulnerable, elderly victims."

"These individuals were lured in by false promises of financial security, but in reality, Shah and her co-conspirators defrauded them out of their savings and left them with nothing to show for it," Williams said. "This conviction and sentence demonstrate once again that we will continue to vigorously protect victims of financial fraud and hold accountable those who engage in fraudulent schemes."

Shah and her assistant, Stuart Smith, were accused of committing wire fraud and money laundering in a scheme that "generated and sold 'lead lists' of innocent individuals for other members of their scheme to repeatedly scam," the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said in March 2021.

In short, the scheme — which spanned from 2012 to 2021 — involved operating telemarking and in-person sales teams selling "essentially non-existent services," according to an indictment

Shah initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, but entered a plea agreement with prosecutors in July 2022.

As part of the plea deal, Shah pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, while the money laundering charge was dropped. As part of her guilty plea, she also agreed to forfeit $6.5 million and to pay $6.6 million in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

During her stunning courtroom reversal during which she changed her plea from not guilty to guilty, Shah said the services she had sold to the victims “had little to no value,” NBC News reported.

When the judge asked if Shah knew what she was doing was wrong and illegal, Shah said, "Yes, your honor." Shah added she "knew it was wrong, many people were harmed and I’m so sorry."

“Ms. Shah is a good woman who crossed a line. She accepts full responsibility for her actions and deeply apologizes to all who have been harmed," Priya Chaudhry, an attorney for Shah, said in a statement given to TODAY in July 2022. "Ms. Shah is also sorry for disappointing her husband, children, family, friends, and supporters. Jen pled guilty because she wants to pay her debt to society and put this ordeal behind her and her family."

Smith, Shah's assistant, pled guilty to both counts in November 2021, according to court documents.

Shah was arrested in March 2021 when she was filming Season Two of "RHOSLC." An episode of the show that aired in November 2021 showed the aftermath of the arrest, but did not show her being handcuffed on camera.

On the show, she was supposed to go on a trip to Vail, Colorado, with her castmates, but she abruptly left the scene before her arrest. Bravo, part of NBCUniversal, TODAY’s parent company, declined to comment.