Jen Shah Breaks Her Silence in First Interview Since Prison Release and Addresses Her Crimes: ‘I Was Wrong’ (Exclusive)

Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE, the former ‘Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’ star apologizes to the victims of her crimes

By
Dave Quinn

Published on April 1, 2026 09:00AM EDT

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NEED TO KNOW

Jen Shah, in an exclusive PEOPLE interview, reflects on her crimes and expresses deep remorse, taking full responsibility for her role in the scheme that sent her to prison
Shah served over two years for a telemarketing operation that defrauded vulnerable victims nationwide
She is now focused on paying $6.6 million in restitution and hopes for grace as she rebuilds her life

Jen Shah is speaking out for the first time since her release from prison — and taking responsibility for the crimes that sent her there.

“I was wrong,” the former Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star, 52, tells PEOPLE in a wide-ranging interview in this week’s issue. “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.”

Shah, who was arrested in March 2021 and later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, was sentenced to prison for her role in a yearslong telemarketing scheme that the government said defrauded innocent people across the country. After serving two years and nine months at a federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas, she was released in December 2025 and is now serving the remainder of her sentence under home confinement.

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Jenn Shah in a photo for PEOPLE snapped on March 22, 2026 in Salt Lake City.Chad Kirkland

According to federal prosecutors, Shah was a central figure in the operation, which ran they say from approximately 2012 through 2021 and targeted thousands of victims — many of them older or financially vulnerable — through the sale of so-called business services tied to online ventures. Those services, prosecutors said, often delivered little or no value.

At the heart of the scheme were “lead lists,” collections of potential customers whose information was bought, sold and reused among telemarketing sales floors. Prosecutors alleged Shah helped generate and sell those leads, which were then used to repeatedly contact individuals and pressure them into purchasing additional services.

They further claimed Shah played an active role in how those leads were used — including determining which sales teams could access them, what products were offered and how much victims were charged.

Prosecutors also alleged that Shah and her co-conspirators took steps to conceal the operation, including using encrypted messaging platforms, routing money through offshore accounts and structuring transactions to avoid detection.

Victim impact statements submitted to the court detailed the toll of the scheme, with individuals describing financial devastation, emotional distress and long-term hardship.

Jenn Shah in a photo for PEOPLE snapped on March 22, 2026 in Salt Lake City.Chad Kirkland

Shah, however, says her understanding of what was happening evolved over time.

“It’s a long and a very complex journey that brought me to this point,” she says. “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.”

“I thought I was doing the right thing for the majority of the time,” she adds, describing her work in direct response marketing. “I was working under people who were running these companies.”

Jenn Shah in a photo for PEOPLE snapped on March 22, 2026 in Salt Lake City.Chad Kirkland

The reality star and mother of two maintains that she believed the companies she worked with were operating legitimately — particularly when it came to what she describes as “fulfillment,” or delivering initial services to customers.

“What happened was down the line, people that I worked with were working with a lot of other people,” she says. “Once that initial fulfillment was happening, things were happening beyond the point of sale with that customer that I didn’t know about.”

Still, Shah acknowledges she bears responsibility. “It can happen if you’re not careful, if you’re not being diligent and you’re not paying attention to the red flags,” she says. “But you have a responsibility once you’re in that position to make sure it doesn’t.”

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She also reveals that there were external factors happening at her life during the years leading up to her arrest that “clouded my judgement.”

“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.”

” I trusted the wrong people at a very vulnerable time in my life,” she says.

Jenn Shah in a photo for PEOPLE snapped on March 22, 2026 in Salt Lake City.Chad Kirkland

It took a while for Shah to have that perspective. For a year after her arrest, the Bravo star was insistent she was innocent.

The turning point came in July 2022, when her legal team received a large volume of evidence from prosecutors just weeks before trial. “It was like a train hit,” Shah says. “That was the first time I saw all of it — the communications, the interviews, the witnesses.”

“I saw for the first time that there were people who were hurt,” she continues. “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.”

Jen Shah and her bodyguard are seen leaving Manhattan federal court after receiving a 6.5 year sentence for conspiracy to commit wire fraud on Jan. 6, 2023 in New York City.Gotham/GC Images)

Days later, Shah pleaded guilty.

In her interview with PEOPLE, Shah describes her first day behind bars. “When I walked in, it took my breath away,” she says. “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.’ “

Now, she says, she is focused on making amends — including paying back the more than $6.6 million in restitution she owes. “I’m sorry,” she says. “I’m accepting responsibility, and I’ve made it my mission to make sure that people are paid back.”

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At the same time, Shah says she hopes people will allow her the opportunity to move forward.     

“I understand that people have their opinions based on what they saw,” she says. “But I would hope they would give me the grace to at least hear me and understand that I’m more than just the headline.”