Ex-reality show star Jen Shah to report to prison for defrauding elderly people

Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Jen Shah, a performer on "Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" convicted of defrauding elderly people out of thousands of dollars, will report to prison Friday to begin serving a six-and-a-half-year sentence.

Shah pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in July 2022.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement at the time that she was a key participant in a nationwide telemarketing scheme that targeted "elderly, vulnerable victims."

Williams said Shah lied to victims about how much they would allegedly make by buying fraudulent "business services." He said she profited by defrauding the victims of their life savings.

Shah was sentenced to 78 months in prison. Prosecutors said Shah defrauded the victims "until their bank accounts were drained and their credit cards were maxed out."

According to the entertainment news website radaronline.com, Shah will report to FPC Bryan, a minimum security federal prison camp, Friday morning.

As part of her guilty plea, the ex-reality show felon will forfeit $6.5 million and pay restitution up to $9.5 million, according to the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

According to her lawyer, Shah wants to be in a residential drug abuse program. Those programs are intensive, taking up half of each day for nine months, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

While in those programs inmates like Shah can live in units separate from the general population. If they successfully finish the program they can get up to a year off their sentences.

To get into that program at FCP Bryan, according to that prison's handbook, inmate applicants are screened to make sure there is actual evidence of a history of substance abuse.