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On Monday, July 11, The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah pleaded guilty to the federal charges against her for organizing a telemarketing scam. According to PageSix, Shah appeared in front of Manhattan Federal Court Judge Sidney Stein to plead guilty to the charges to which she previously pleaded not guilty.
As part of the plea deal, Shah will receive a less harsh sentence. According to some reports, the US attorney’s office will drop her charge of two counts of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The 48-year-old faced a prison sentence of up to 30 years with a supervised release of five years.
Furthermore, as part of her plea deal, Shah agreed to reinstitute $9.5 million. According to ABC News, Shah has stated that she will not appeal the verdict if the prison sentence is less than 168 months or 14 years.
What did Jen Shah do?
The 48-year-old The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star was charged with the intent to launder money and wire fraud in March 2021. According to the US Attorney’s Office’s case against Jen Shah, the reality-TV star defrauded numerous people nationwide with telemarketing scams.
As per the allegations, Jen Shah and her co-conspirator Stuart Smith defrauded their victims, a significant portion of whom were beyond the age of 55. She reportedly sold consultant lists of fake business opportunities to people. As per the charges, Shah may have been involved with the telemarketing fraud since 2012.
Following the charges against her, Shah may face additional punishment of up to 30 years of imprisonment for conspiracy to launder money. Furthermore, she may also face up to 20 years in prison for the defrauding charges against her.
Shah’s assistant, Smith, has also pleaded guilty to the charges. In total, the TV star could face up to 14 years imprisonment with $16 million in penalty and restitution of the defrauded amount. The fine is expected to be around $6.5 million, and the restitution money could be up to $9.5 million. The official date for the sentencing hearing is set to be on November 28.
As per a tweet from Inner City Press’ Matthew Russel, Jen Shah was asked about her criminal wrongdoing in the courtroom. She replied:
“Wire fraud, offering services with little to no value. We used interstate telephones and emails. I knew many of the purchasers were over the age of 55. I am so sorry.”
Meanwhile, Manhattan US Attorney Audrey Strauss put out a press release where she stated:
“In actual reality and as alleged, the so-called business opportunities pushed on the victims by Shah, Smith, and their co-conspirators were just fraudulent schemes, motivated by greed, to steal victims’ money. Now, these defendants face time in prison for their alleged crimes.”
According to the allegations, Jen Shah and her co-conspirators have defrauded their victims for $5 million. In August last year, a judge rejected Shah’s motion to dismiss the case, which meant that the Manhattan prosecutors had enough evidence to charge and warrant a sentence in a trial against Shah.
The 48-year-old is currently out on bail, which was set at $1 million back in April. Back then, she had pleaded not guilty to the charges against her. Now, it remains to be seen what kind of prison sentence the reality TV personality may face in November following the verdict of her trial.
