The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City alum Jen Shah has been released from prison early, but her freedom will not buy her way back into the Bravo universe.
Shah, 52, walked free Wednesday morning from Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, after serving less than three years of her six-and-half-year sentence, her representative confirmed to People. The reality star was arrested in March 2021 for her role in a nationwide telemarketing fraud that targeted elderly people. After initially denying her involvement, Shah pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in July 2022.
“In 2012 to March 2021 in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere I agreed with others to commit wire fraud,” Shah admitted in a statement when she pleaded guilty. “I knew this was wrong. I knew many people were harmed and I’m so sorry.”
Shah was initially sentenced to 78 months in prison. Her sentence was reduced multiple times due to good behavior while behind bars, participation in prison programming, and the financial payments she has started to pay her victims, prison officials said. Shah has been ordered to pay $6.5 million total in restitution.
Now out of prison 45 months early, Shah will return to her home or be transferred to a halfway house, where she is expected to finish her sentence under supervision.
But life will not return to normal for the RHOSLC alum, who was in the middle of filming season two of the show when she was arrested.
Bravo executive producer Andy Cohen said in September that there is no chance that the disgraced entrepreneur will return to the show after her conviction, according to a video taken behind the scenes of his talk show, Watch What Happens Live.
“Jen Shah, I never want to see again,” Cohen, 57, told the audience during a Q&A at WWHL. Shah last appeared on the show during season three in 2023. RHOSLC is now airing season six on Bravo, and recently wrapped filming its highly anticipated reunion.
While Shah will not return to the beloved spinoff, her representatives told People last month that the fraudster is looking forward to spending time with her husband and two sons after her stay at the Texas prison, which also houses high-profile inmates like Elizabeth Holmes and Ghislaine Maxwell.
“Everyone's very grateful for the [Bureau of Prison’s] decision, especially because it means Jen will be able to reunite with her family for the holidays,” Shah's manager, Chris Giovanni, told the outlet at the time. “It's a gift she doesn't take for granted.”
