Former “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star Jen Shah is expected to be released from prison before the year is over.
Shah was originally sentenced in January 2023 to 6½ years in prison for her role in a telemarketing fraud scheme. That came after she pleaded guilty in 2022 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
But People magazine reported Friday that the Federal Bureau of Prisons has moved Shah’s release date up to Dec. 10 — meaning she will have served 2 years and 9 months, less than half of her initial sentence.
People cited the Federal Bureau of Prisons in its report. The agency’s website on Friday still reflected a 2026 release date for Shah.
A spokesperson for Bravo, the network that airs “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” declined to comment Friday.
Shah, 52, has been serving her time at the Bryan Federal Prison Camp in Texas, the same minimum-security facility where Elizabeth Holmes is incarcerated for fraud involving the blood-testing company she founded, Theranos. In August, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell was also moved to Bryan.
Shah’s assistant, Stuart Smith, also pleaded guilty to fraud charges, Law360 reported, and cooperated with prosecutors in Shah’s case. Smith was sentenced in December to nine months in prison, but he was released on Aug. 29, after less than eight months, according to a federal prison inmate roster.
(Bravo) Jen Shah and Stuart Smith on "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
Shah’s arrest was highlighted on the second season of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.” She has been absent from the show the last four seasons, though cast members evoke her name from time to time.
In the Season 6 premiere in September, for instance, Whitney Rose played a prank on the other cast members in the Murray parking lot of Beauty Lab + Laser, where authorities famously approached the Housewives’ Sprinter van in Season 2, searching for Shah.
This time, Rose had male strippers dressed as police swarm the cast’s RV before it departed from the lot for a group camping trip.
In the same Season 6 premiere, Angie Katsanevas asserted that Lisa Barlow’s lawsuits were similar to Shah’s legal troubles. Barlow said she was offended by the comparison — and later staged a lunch where she proclaimed that most of the lawsuits had been dismissed.
There’s no indication that Shah would return to “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” though one superfan — comedian John Oliver — said he expects her to come back. On an appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” in September, Oliver said, “If [Shah] does not get to go back on the show, [Bravo executive] Andy Cohen is not the super-producer I think he is.”