Actual Housewives of Salt Lake Metropolis’s Jen Shah sentenced to 6 and a half years in jail: Actuality star sobbed in courtroom as she advised choose she was ‘deeply sorry’ for fraud scheme that focused the aged

Actual Housewives of Salt Lake Metropolis star Jen Shah has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail for operating a years-long telemarketing scheme that prosecutors say focused the aged and weak, stripping them of their financial savings and maxing out their bank cards. 

Shah, 49, pleaded responsible to at least one rely of wire fraud in July in a dramatic protection U-Flip. She should current herself to be taken to jail on February 17, and can serve her time period in a facility in Texas.

Shah was supported in courtroom by her husband, their two sons, different family – and her therapist. She wore a wise, beige outfit however had ditched the designer baggage and jewellery she was identified for on the Bravo TV present. 

Her lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, begged for mercy on her behalf, saying she would ‘by no means forgive herself’ for what she’d completed. 

Shah herself sobbed as she learn a press release to the courtroom, claiming her actuality TV persona was nothing greater than an act. She vowed to boost $6.5million in restitution to make victims’ entire, and stated she meant to take action from jail. 

Shah ignored questions as she left the courthouse, as a substitute heading straight right into a ready SUV.  

Scroll down for video 

Actual Housewives star Jen Shah arrives in courtroom to be sentenced in the present day for fraud. She is dealing with 10 years in jail 

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

Actuality TV star Jen Shah arrives at courtroom in New York Metropolis to be sentenced for wire fraud 

‘You and the world know me as Jen Shah. However actuality TV has nothing to do with actuality, even my tagline, Shah-mazing – they wrote it. I need to talk about who I’m.’ 

She claimed she had ‘longstanding untreated psychological points’ that triggered her to ‘create her personal actuality’. 

However prosecutors confirmed no mercy, telling the courtroom how Shah had as soon as laughed about the truth that certainly one of her victims had known as the corporate in tears over the truth that she was dropping all her cash. 

They learn aloud a textual content Shah despatched to certainly one of her colleagues by which she stated: ‘Did you get her to cease crying?’ 

Shah and her colleagues fraudulently collated after which offered lead lists’ to corporations. 

An individual on such an inventory would then be lured right into a endless funds or subscriptions service which they could not, or did not know how you can, get out of. 

One of many schemes was enterprise teaching which by no means materialized however promised the victims, none of whom had been technologically savvy, that they’d reap enormous income.  

Federal prosecutors sought a jail time period of 10 years for Shah, 49, whereas her attorneys instructed she ought to serve three. 

Choose Sidney Stein warned Shah firstly of in the present day’s listening to that the sentence can be someplace in between the 2.  

‘I believe a variance beneath 130 months will probably be applicable. However I don’t intend to condemn Ms. Shah to 36 months, both. So will probably be someday between the 2,’ Choose Stein stated. 

On the high of the proceedings, the choose advised the courtroom to disregard the ‘position’ Shah performs on the Bravo sequence that made her well-known. 

‘Jen Shah’s position on the Actual Housewives of Salt Lake Metropolis, which I suppose is why the courtroom is so full in the present day, is simply that, a job. 

‘Individuals shouldn’t confuse the character she performs on an leisure present to the particular person earlier than me. Alright,’ she stated. 

Shah’s lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, began by introducing the courtroom to who had ‘traveled’ to help her; her husband, two sons, cousin, mother-in-law – and her therapist. 

She was slapped down by the choose when she talked about the truth that Shah by no means spoke to any of her victims. 

‘She was too essential to speak to the victims. She was a pacesetter of this conspiracy. So this cuts towards you, not for you,’ the choose quipped. 

Chaudhry then tried to attraction to the choose’s sympathies, saying Shah ‘grew up poor’. 

Shah is proven contained in the courthouse. She added a COVID-19 masks earlier than coming into the courtroom

The 49-year-old saved her sun shades on as soon as contained in the courthouse 

‘Jen has spent months studying the names of these she has harm. She has prayed for his or her forgiveness. However she can’t forgive herself. Jen understands she can’t undo the ache or repay them in the present day – however in the present day is about justice for them. Measuring the ache,’ she stated. 

Shah, some of the bombastic characters in her franchise of the Bravo actuality TV sequence, denied any wrongdoing for months.

She dramatically modified her plea in July following the responsible plea of her former assistant, Stuart Smith. 

As a part of the case, Shah forfeited dozens of real and counterfeit designer baggage and counterfeit jewellery. 

There have been dozens of faux Chanel and Hermes baggage on the record. 

Shah, who’s married with two youngsters, proudly introduced herself as a spendthrift on the Bravo present. 

She boasted about spending $80,000 on a pal’s celebration and would incessantly consult with her ‘Shah squad’. 

Her husband, Sharrieff Shah, is a soccer coach for the College of Washington. He was not with Shah as she entered courtroom in the present day, however was inside with their two sons for the sentencing. 

Of their sentencing movement to the courtroom, prosecutors gave a blistering description of Shah’s crimes. 

‘For almost a decade, the defendant was an integral chief of a wide-ranging, nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme that victimized hundreds of harmless folks. A lot of these folks had been aged or weak. 

‘A lot of these folks suffered vital monetary hardship and harm. 

‘On the defendant’s route, victims had been defrauded time and again till they’d nothing left. 

‘She and her co-conspirators persevered of their conduct till the victims’ financial institution accounts had been empty, their bank cards had been at their limits, and there was nothing extra to take. 

‘Regardless of the defendant’s finest efforts, she obtained caught. She then went on a public offensive and tried to revenue off the fees by promoting “Justice for Jen” merchandise. She pled responsible on the eleventh hour, solely after receiving the Authorities’s trial displays and witness statements. 

‘In gentle of her conduct and her post-arrest conduct, her belated expressions of regret ring hole,’ US Lawyer Damian Williams wrote. 

The 49-year-old is likely one of the most bombastic characters within the Bravo sequence she stars in 

Police seized dozens of counterfeit baggage and items of jewellery from Shah’s residence 

They slammed Shah for not solely claiming publicly to be harmless, however for additionally ‘mocking’ the case with feedback reminiscent of ‘the one factor I am responsible of is being Shah-mazing.’ 

She had been dealing with a most of 20 years per cost if the case had gone to trial. 

If sentenced to 10 years, she could also be launched inside 5. 

Shah’s attorneys has requested for a time period of three years. 

‘We submit that such a sentence is simply and honest as a result of it takes under consideration Ms. Shah’s historical past and traits, the info and circumstances of the offense, and meets {that a} courtroom impose a sentence that’s ‘not better than needed’ to attain the objectives of punishment,’ her lawyer Priya Chaudhry wrote in a December submitting. 

Shah is accused of operating varied schemes to defraud her victims. 

One included promoting them fictitious enterprise teaching courses, which prosecutors say was nothing greater than a rip-off. 

The victims by no means ended up receiving the teaching or enterprise positive aspects that was promised, however had been advised to maintain coughing up cash for courses. 

Shah can also be accused of concentrating on victims instantly herself by operating a ‘gross sales flooring’.