Shah will immediately forfeit $6.5 million after admitting to wire fraud; she faces $3 million more in fines and up to 30 years prison in November.
Rick Bowmer/AP
"Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" star Jen Shah must immediately pay $6.5 million back to the elderly victims of a decade-long telemarketing scheme, federal prosecutors said after Shah pleaded guilty to wire fraud in Manhattan on Monday.
Shah's problems will only get worse, though.
When she is sentenced by a federal judge on November 28, Shah could also be ordered to pay as much as $3 million in additional restitution to her victims. And she faces up to 30 years in prison, though it is likely she will be sentenced to less prison time.
The 48-year-old reality TV star from Park City, Utah, had called the wire fraud charges "bullshit" in a season two trailer for the reality show that aired last August.
But on Monday, she admitted to her role in the multi-state scam, which ripped off hundreds of victims, telling US District Judge Sidney Stein, "I knew this was wrong."
Shah participated in the national scheme by helping to sell lists of "leads," or potential telemarketing victims, prosecutors alleged.
Shah did so knowing that the leads were vulnerable, often elderly people, many of whom were then scammed out of their life savings, prosecutors said.
"Shah often controlled each aspect of the frauds," said Damian Williams, the US Attorney in Manhattan.
Between 2018 and 2020, Shah controlled the scheme's Manhattan operations, Williams alleged, saying that at one point she moved some operations to Kosovo to avoid law enforcement.
"From 2012 to March 2021, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, I agreed with others to commit wire fraud," Shah told the judge, according to the New York Post.
"I did this by knowingly providing customer names to people who were marketing business services that had little or no value," she said.
She remains free on $1 million bail that was set when she initially pleaded not guilty in April 2021.
