‘Real Housewives’ star Jen Shah has been jailed for telemarketing fraud

New York: The housewife was real. It wasn’t the deal.

Reality TV star Jen Shah has been sentenced to 6½ years in prison for running a nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme in the United States that prosecutors say targeted “vulnerable, elderly victims” and accompanied by extraordinary efforts to get her crimes committed disguise.

shah, from The Real Housewives of Salt Lake Cityharassed thousands of people from at least 2012 until her arrest in March 2021 by selling them fake online business services and causing them “significant financial hardship and harm,” the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

Shah, 49, facilitated the sale of “leads” — contact details of people who had been chosen as light brands for the program — to outlets that carried out the racket, the US said. At her direction, “victims were swindled over and over again until they had nothing left,” prosecutors said.

She was ordered to forfeit 30 luxury items and 78 counterfeit luxury items totaling $6.5 million ($9.4 million) and pay more than $6.6 million in restitution. She had previously pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy.

After learning of the US Federal Trade Commission’s investigation and the guilty pleas and convictions of fellow conspirators, Shah tried to cover up her role in the scheme by directing others to lie, deleting messages and using bank accounts under different names, the authorities said prosecutors.

Shah has starred in the Utah edition of the long-running reality show franchise, including the third season of cable TV network Bravo, which released last year.

Bloomberg