Bravo
An interview from “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star Jen Shah’s early years show her bragging about her millions ahead of her wire fraud arrest.
Here’s what you need to know:
Shah Bragged About How Her Job Made Her Rich: ‘Hey, You’ve Gotta Do What You’ve Gotta Do for Money’
Bravo shared an old interview of Shah in the first episode of RHOSLC in which she brags about how much money she’s made at her job.
“What I’ve done for the last 20 years is direct response marketing. I make millions,” Shah says in the interview, which Bravo indicated was filmed on December 9, 2019. “Hey, you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do for money. I’m like the Wizard of Oz.”
The interview was shared during the September 28 premiere of RHOSLC season 3, which will feature Shah shortly before she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud on July 11, 2022.
In the teaser clip for the season Shah is seen describing how the arrest and charges have affected her life since.
“I want to f****** kill myself and just not be here,” she says. In a separate clip, she says, “Everything’s been taken away from me. Everything!”
Shah’s arrest was featured in season 2 of RHOSLC in a now infamous bus trip that went awry.
Initially, Shah had pleaded not guilty to the charges but after all of the others arrested alongside her changed their pleas to guilty, she did too.
“Jennifer Shah, who portrays herself as a wealthy and successful businessperson on ‘reality’ television, and Stuart Smith, who is portrayed as Shah’s ‘first assistant,’ allegedly generated and sold ‘lead lists’ of innocent individuals for other members of their scheme to repeatedly scam,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss stated in a press release. “In actual reality and as alleged, the so-called business opportunities pushed on the victims by Shah, Smith, and their co-conspirators were just fraudulent schemes, motivated by greed, to steal victims’ money. Now, these defendants face time in prison for their alleged crimes.”
As part of the plea “She agreed to forfeit $6.5 million and to pay restitution up to $9.5 million and faces a sentence of up to 14 years in prison,” NBC News reported at the time.
“From 2012 to March 2021, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, I agreed with others to commit wire fraud,” Shah said in court according to Time Magazine. “I did this by knowingly providing customer names to people who were marketing business services that had little or no value… I knew this was wrong. I know many people were harmed and I am so sorry.”
Shah’s Instagram bio still reads, “Direct Response Marketing” and “Entrepreneur.” Her sentencing is set for November 28.
Heather Gay Still Supports Her Co-Star: ‘I Will Never Shut the Door on Jen Shah’
While talking with Today in a September 29, 2022, interview, Shah’s fried and co-star Heather Gay talked about her undying support of Shah following her arrest.
“That’s what a good friend does. Even if every cell in my body was like, ‘something’s not right.’ That’s not what you do when your friend is in trouble,” she told the outlet.
She also said that support won’t stop, no matter what happens with her.
“I wasn’t supporting Jen and her innocence as much as I was just supporting Jen in her journey,” Gay told the outlet. “If I’m going to be Jen’s friend when she’s up and Queen and MVP, I’m going to be her friend when she’s down, pleading guilty and facing sentencing. I will never shut the door on Jen Shah.”
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