Photo: Nicole Weinagart/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
It’s been nearly four months since Jen Shah got out of prison, and the former Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is ready to talk about it. In her first interview since her release, Shah told People she takes “full responsibility” for participating in a telemarketing scheme. “I made wrong decisions,” she said. “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.”
In 2022, Shah pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for a telemarketing scheme that defrauded elderly people out of thousands of dollars. She was sentenced to six and a half years in prison, but her sentence was reduced multiple times for good behavior. In December, she was released from prison after 33 months behind bars, more than four years early. Per People, she is serving out the rest of her sentence in house arrest.
In the interview, which was published on Wednesday, Shah tried to explain how she ended up caught up in the scam. She said she thought she was “doing the right thing for the majority of the time,” adding that she was “working under people who were running these companies.” “I became involved in the case because I made horrible business decisions and I disregarded huge red flags,” she said. “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.”
Still, she said she takes the blame. “It can happen if you’re not careful, if you’re not being diligent and you’re not paying attention to the red flags. But you have a responsibility once you’re in that position to make sure it doesn’t,” she added.
Shah also said there were issues going on in her life in the years before her arrest that “clouded my judgement.” “My involvement in this conspiracy overlapped with my own personal pain,” Shah said. “My husband and I were separated. We were on the verge of a divorce. I was overwhelmed with immense grief from the death of my grandmother, my father and my aunt, all in a very short period of time. I was spiraling deeper into my previously diagnosed clinical depression.” Shah said she tried to “numb all of that with alcohol and just avoid it.”
Apparently, Shah began to fully grasp the severity of her crimes only shortly before her trial began, when her lawyers received a trove of evidence from prosecutors. “It was like a train hit. That was the first time I saw all of it — the communications, the interviews, the witnesses,” Shah said. “I saw for the first time that there were people who were hurt. That there were actual victims as a result of this conspiracy. I had never seen anything with my own eyes. That changed things for me.” She pleaded guilty days later.
During her home confinement, Shah said she is making it her “mission to make sure that people are paid back” the $6.6 million she owes in restitution. “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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