In 2022, the reality star pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing.

RHOSLC star Jen Shah breaks silence in first post-prison interview: ‘I made wrong decisions’

In 2022, the reality star pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing.

By Kathleen Perricone

and Leigh Blickley

April 1, 2026 10:16 a.m. ET

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Jen Shah on 'The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City'. Credit:

Four months after she was released from prison, Jen Shah is breaking her silence.

The former *Real Housewives of Salt Lake City* star — dressed head-to-toe in Gucci — sat down with PEOPLE for an exclusive interview, opening up about her time behind bars at Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas. In 2022, she pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing.

"I was wrong," Shah, 52, tells the magazine. “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."

She adds, "I understand that people have their opinion and their feelings because they are basing it off of what they saw on the media. They're basing it off of the headlines. What I would hope is they would give me the grace to at least hear me."

In January 2023, Shah was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison, as well as five years of supervised release.

But in December 2025, she was released after serving 33 months and transferred to community confinement, which according to the Bureau of Prisons, "means the inmate is in either home confinement or a Residential Reentry Center (RRC, or halfway house)."

As part of her original sentence, Shah was also ordered to forfeit $6.5 million, 30 luxury items, and 78 counterfeit luxury items, and to pay $6,645,251 in restitution.

"I’m sorry," she tells PEOPLE. "I’m accepting responsibility, and I’ve made it my mission to make sure that people are paid back."

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Shah pleaded guilty in July 2022, telling a judge that she "agreed with others to commit wire fraud" in the alleged nationwide scheme that predominantly targeted senior citizens.

Shah, who was charged along with her assistant Stuart Smith, now understands the severity of her crimes.

"I saw for the first time that there were people who were hurt," she says. "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."

Reflecting on her decision to speak out, she tells PEOPLE, "At that point, that's when I said, 'You know what, I have to be accountable.'"

"It's a long and a very complex journey that brought me to this point," she adds. "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."

She continues, “I thought I was doing the right thing for the majority of the time. I was working under people who were running these companies."

Jen Shah leaving court in January 2023 after receiving her sentence.

Gotham/GC Images

Shah also shares her thoughts on prison with PEOPLE, admitting "it took [her] breath away."

"You hear people say it’s 'Camp Cupcake' — it’s not. It’s prison. I just thought, 'This cannot be where I'm going to be every day,'" she says.

Shah wasn't the only notable name at Federal Prison Camp. The minimum-security facility also housed Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and Ghislaine Maxwell, co-conspirator of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

During her time behind bars, the reality star bonded with Holmes "over being on this journey of positive change," Shah's rep Chris Giovanni previously told **. "Their situations brought them together, and they have a good understanding of one another. They're getting through it together."

Jen Shah was on 'RHOSLC' for three seasons.

Chad Kirkland/Bravo

Shah appeared on the first three seasons of Bravo's *Real Housewives of Salt Lake City*.

Her 2021 arrest was a major plot point of season 2. Cameras were rolling when federal agents stormed a sprinter van carrying her castmates looking for Shah, who had bailed on their planned trip to Colorado.

In her PEOPLE interview, Shah explains the whole situation happened at a very "vulnerable" time in her life.

"What's important for me to say — and I need to let people know — was at the same time, my involvement in this conspiracy overlapped with my own personal pain," Shah says. "My husband [Sharrieff "Coach" Shah] 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.

"And the reason I say all that is not as an excuse. Because it's not like I was making good business decisions and then I woke up one morning and all of a sudden it's like, 'Oh, I made a bad business decision.' This is the totality of everything that was going on and the overlapping of what I was dealing with personally. And I tried to avoid and numb all of that with alcohol and just avoid it."

Season 7 of *Real Housewives of Salt Lake City* is currently in production. No word yet if Shah will be making a special appearance.

- Real Housewives Fandom

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Source: “EW Real”