'RHOSLC' Star Jen Shah Pleads Guilty to Fraud in Telemarketing Scandal

Mar. 15, 2025

Jen Shahis pleading guilty in hercontroversial telemarketing scheme scandal.

The Real Housewives of Salt Lake Cityappeared in a New York court on Monday to take part ina change of plea hearing. Sheswitched her original plea of not guiltyto guilty, taking responsibility for the fraud and money laundering charges.

“Ms. Shah is a good woman who crossed a line,” Priya Chaudhry, an attorney for the 48-year-old reality star told PEOPLE. “She accepts full responsibility for her actions and deeply apologizes to all who have been harmed. 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.”

Per aTwitter threadfrom Inner City Press’s Matthew Russell Lee, ShahtoldJudge Sidney H. Stein on Monday that she had committed “Wire fraud, offering services with little to no value.”

She continued, “We used interstate telephones and emails. I knew many of the purchasers were over the age of 55. I am so sorry.”

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Judge Steinthen askedthe reasoning for these things being purchased, Shah explained she had offered “misrepresentations, regarding the value of the product or service, of which it had little to none.”

“Did you know it was wrong and illegal?” asked Judge Stein, to which Shah responded, “Yes, your Honor.”

A representative for Shah did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Heidi Gutman/Bravo

Entering the guilty plea means Shah will not stand trial. She waschargedwith one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing. She faces a maximum penalty of up to 30 years in prison.

Shah is set to be sentenced on Nov. 28.

Shah wasarrested in March 2021alongside her assistant,Stuart Smith, for allegedly targeting individuals in a nationwide scheme. At the time, both Shah and Smith, 43, were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Jen Shah.Chad Kirkland/Bravo/ Getty

Shah and Smith, 43, initially pleaded not guilty in April. But her assistantchanged his plea to guiltythat November. Smith has not yet been sentenced.

Shah, on the other hand, had maintained her innocence until Monday’s court hearing. Her legal team evenattempted to get the charges dismissedin August 2021, but a judge denied the request.

“I think what people don’t understand is, here in America,you’re innocent until proven guilty. I’m innocent,” she said in September 2021 on Bravo’sSpilling Iced TeaInstagram Live. “And I believe that this is not just my test, this is everybody’s test close to me and in my corner.”

Andrew Peterson/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty

“How are my closest people around me going to respond, how are they going to show up or not show up?” she added.

Shah’s ties to the scandal became a major storyline inRHOSLC’s second season. It also became the subject of a Hulu documentary, titledThe Housewife & the Shah Shocker.

Shah is an original cast member ofRHOSLC, which premiered on Bravo in November 2020.

The reality star is married to Sharrieff Shah. The longtime pair share two sons, Sharrieff Shah Jr. and Omar.

source: people.com