Jen Shah, the former cast member of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” will be ending her home confinement this week — the conclusion of a five-year legal odyssey that began with her 2021 arrest on federal fraud charges.
Shah is scheduled to end her eight-month confinement at the Phoenix Residential Reentry Management (RRM) field office in Arizona on Aug. 30, according to the Bureau of Prisons’ inmate database.
Because that date falls on a Sunday, according to federal regulations, Shah will be released on the last weekday before that date — which is Friday.
Shah’s home confinement — which required her to wear an ankle monitor — started when she was released from Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas last December. Shah served 33 months at Bryan, where she reportedly befriended Elizabeth Holmes, the tech executive convicted of fraud in the Theranos blood-testing scandal.
Holmes is still being held at Bryan, with a scheduled release date in 2030, according to the Bureau of Prisons database. Also being held at Bryan is Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein; she’s serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.
Shah was arrested in March 2021, accused of running a fraudulent telemarketing scheme that prosecutors said took advantage of hundreds of “vulnerable, often elderly, working-class people.” The arrest was chronicled on the second season of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” and the buildup to her trial took up much of Season 3.
After professing her innocence for months, Shah pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in July 2022. She was sentenced in January 2023 to 6½ years in prison, and her term was later reduced for good behavior.
Season 7 of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” is scheduled to premiere on Sept. 16 on Bravo. Shah has not appeared on the show since Season 3, which was filmed before she went to prison. Andy Cohen, the franchise’s creator and executive producer, has said in interviews that he doesn’t want Shah back on the show.
Jen Shah’s husband, Sharrieff Shah, remains an associate head football coach for the University of Utah Utes, specializing in cornerbacks and special teams. The Utes open their season Thursday, Sept. 3, home at Rice-Eccles Stadium against the Idaho Vandals.
Shah’s imminent release was first reported Friday afternoon by Page Six.
Sean P. Means