Jen Shah, the former “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star who pleaded guilty in 2022 to her role in a telemarketing fraud scheme, is no longer behind bars.
Her future with the reality show, though, remains in doubt.
The Bureau of Prisons confirmed that Shah, 52, was released Wednesday morning from Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas, where she’s been an inmate since 2023.
She then was transferred to a “community confinement” program that’s overseen by the bureau’s Residential Reentry Management field office in Phoenix, a bureau spokesperson said. There is no field office in Utah.
That transfer indicates she’ll either be in “home confinement” or a halfway house, the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson noted the bureau doesn’t discuss any inmate’s confinement conditions “for privacy, safety and security reasons.” The bureau also won’t specify where a former inmate is located while in community confinement.
(Heidi Gutman | Bravo) Jen Shah reacts during the Season 1 reunion of the "Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
Shah was initially sentenced in January 2023 to 6½ years in prison on one charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Her sentence was then repeatedly reduced during her time at Bryan, reportedly for good behavior.
She ultimately served about 2½ years behind bars.
Bryan is known for hosting infamous offenders. Elizabeth Holmes, the Theranos founder who was convicted for fraud, is serving her sentence there. In August, convicted sex trafficker and Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell was also moved to Bryan.
Word of Shah’s impending prison release sparked speculation earlier this year that she might return to “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” where she has been absent since Season 3.
Andy Cohen, the show’s executive producer, has tried to quash those rumors, saying she won’t be welcome back on the Bravo show.
Answering an audience question during a taping of his talk show “Watch What Happens Live” in September, Cohen said, “Jen Shah — I never want to see again.”
According to Us Weekly, Cohen repeated the sentiment this month on his SiriusXM radio show: “She’s not coming back. … I don’t know that I can see Bravo working with her again. Can we put a period on the end of that sentence?”