Who is Jen Shah? If you’re asking yourself this after seeing the past arrest news about the Bravo star, we’re here to answer that. In March 2021, she was charged with “conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing and conspiracy to commit money laundering,” per a press release from New York prosecutors. The news came just over a month after Jen finished filming her first season of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.
Later that day, Jen was seen being taken into custody and later leaving a federal courthouse. She was eventually sentenced to serve more than 6 years in prison but was released early in December 2025.
IT’S A WRAP! Thank you all for supporting us during this wild and crazy journey! CHEERS to #RHOSLC season one🥂 pic.twitter.com/7VmqdfG3zP
— Jen Shah (@TheRealJenShah) February 25, 2021
Jen made her Bravo debut, along with her other Utah-based “Real Housewives,” in the inaugural season of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City that premiered in Nov. 2020. Not only did Jen make history as one of the first RHOSLC cast members, but she also became the first ever person of Polynesian descent to join the Real Housewives franchise (she is Hawaiian and Tongan).
Jen, along with her assistant Stuart Smith, were specifically accused of carrying out a “wide-ranging telemarketing scheme that defrauded hundreds of victims” throughout the United States between 2012-March 2021. The prosecutors alleged that Jen and her assistant sold these victims, mostly over the age of 55, “so-called ‘business services’” as part of the scam.
Jen’s Bravo bio states that she’s the “CEO of three marketing businesses,” which she explained further during the Season 1 reunion for RHOSLC that aired in Feb. 2021.
“I run a lot of different companies and businesses, and a lot of them have different roles in the companies,” Jen told Andy Cohen, since she was also explaining why she needs four assistants. She further elaborated, “My background is in direct-response marketing for about 20 years, so our company does advertising. We have a platform that helps people acquire customers, so when you’re shopping online or on the Internet, and something pops, we have the algorithm behind why you’re getting served that ad.”
