Jen Shah Admits Fault In Telemarketing Scheme In First Interview Since Prison Release: ‘i Was Wrong’ | Video

Former “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star” Jen Shah said she takes full responsibility for the role she played in the telemarketing scheme that led to her 33-month prison sentence.

“I was wrong,” Shah said in an interview with People magazine on Wednesday. “I made wrong decisions. I should have done things differently. I should have been more diligent. And I’m deeply remorseful and sorry for my actions and for my part. I take full responsibility.” 

Back in January 2023, Shah sentenced to 6½ years in prison in her wire fraud case after she pleaded guilty to defrauding hundreds of people, with many of her victims being members of the elderly community, in a telemarketing scheme. She was arrested in March 2021 while actively filming Season 2 of the Bravo series.

“It’s a long and a very complex journey that brought me to this point,” she explained during the interview. “And without re-litigating it, I became involved in the case because I made horrible business decisions and I disregarded huge red flags. I allowed the lines to be blurred between personal friendships and ethical business practices. And in essence, I trusted the wrong people at a very vulnerable time in my life.”

Watch the clip below.

She added: “I thought I was doing the right thing for the majority of the time … I was working under people who were running these companies.”

Shah’s 6 1/2-year prison sentence came as part of a plea deal following a two-year-long legal process. She served two years and nine months at a federal prison in Bryan, Texas, and was released in December 2025. She is now serving the rest of her sentence under home confinement.

Shah, an original ‘RHOSLC’ cast member, and her assistant, Stuart Smith, were accused of committing wire fraud and money laundering, but Shah initially entered a not guilty plea in April 2021. However, Shah agreed to a plea agreement in July 2022.

The reality star pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and the money laundering charge was dropped as part of her deal. She also agreed to to forfeit $6.5 million and pay restitution up to $9.5 million. Shah will also be under supervision for five years.

Shah said she thought the people she was working were performing their roles and operating in a legitimate fashion.

“What happened was down the line, people that I worked with were working with a lot of other people,” she said. “Once that initial fulfillment was happening, things were happening beyond the point of sale with that customer that I didn’t know about.”

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the scheme — which the two operated over the course of nine years — “generated and sold ‘lead lists’ of innocent individuals for other members of their scheme to repeatedly scam.”

Despite her missteps, Shah accepted that she is completely at fault.

“It can happen if you’re not careful, if you’re not being diligent and you’re not paying attention to the red flags,” Shah shared. “But you have a responsibility once you’re in that position to make sure it doesn’t.”

Ultimately, she hopes that she may be shown grace as she moves on to the next chapters in her life.

“I understand that people have their opinions based on what they saw,” she said. “But I would hope they would give me the grace to at least hear me and understand that I’m more than just the headline.”

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