Real Housewives Vet Jen Shah's Prison Sentence Has Been Shortened As Rep Shares Update About Time Behind Bars

Jen Shah on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City
(Image credit: Bravo)

Jen Shah has apparently received some good news, just over a month after she reported to a Texas prison to begin serving a 6.5-year sentence for wire fraud and other charges. The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star’s sentence appears to have been reduced by a full year, according to the federal prison database. This is likely welcome news for the Bravo reality star, who struggled to leave her husband and two sons when she surrendered herself to federal prison. Amidst the news of the shorter sentence, her representative has also shared an update about what Shah has been doing over the past several weeks.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ inmate database now lists Jen Shah’s release date as August 30, 2028, which is one year earlier than her original sentence. In addition to the now-5.5-year stint, the Real Housewives alum was ordered to pay $6.5 million in restitution to the victims of a national telemarketing scheme. That portion of her penalty has also already begun, as her representative reported (per People): 

I have spoken with my client Jen Shah over the phone this week — she is doing well and remains committed towards making her victims whole. She has initiated her payments towards restitution, and we hope to have her home as soon as possible so that she may resume life with her family and work, putting this chapter of her life behind her.

Fans of the Bravo star are surely glad to hear that Jen Shah is reportedly doing well in prison. Journal entries shared to her Instagram account by her husband Sharrieff Shah detailed how distraught she was when she reported to Bryan Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, on February 17. She detailed having an anxiety attack and asking her husband to pull over so she could FaceTime her older son. 

Her most recent update was posted two weeks ago, but Sharrieff Shah had explained that since mail in and out of the facility is monitored, it can take some time to receive letters from Jen Shah. He also said that she struggled to find the motivation to share what she was going through. 

The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City viewers have watched Jen Shah’s legal drama play out over Seasons 2 and 3 of the Bravo reality show, with the feds even showing up to a venue where the cast was filming. After her initial arrest in March 2021 on charges of conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering through a telemarketing scheme, Shah staunchly maintained her innocence, trying several times to get the charges against her dismissed.

Then, a week before she was set to stand trial, Jen Shah surprisingly reversed course and pleaded guilty, with a plea agreement that included a suggested prison sentence of 11-14 years. The six-and-a-half-year sentence, while still a lengthy one, was much shorter than she could have faced, and now that’s apparently been reduced another year.

The reality star has since distanced herself from the Real Housewives franchise, pulling out of the RHOSLC Season 3 reunion and also declining a one-on-one interview with Andy Cohen earlier this year — both of which she addressed in statements on her Instagram account. You can watch it all play out, with the first three seasons of the Bravo show available for streaming with a Peacock subscription

Heidi Venable
Content Producer

Heidi Venable is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend, a mom of two and a hard-core '90s kid. She started freelancing for CinemaBlend in 2020 and officially came on board in 2021. Her job entails writing news stories and TV reactions from some of her favorite prime-time shows like Grey's Anatomy and The Bachelor. She graduated from Louisiana Tech University with a degree in Journalism and worked in the newspaper industry for almost two decades in multiple roles including Sports Editor, Page Designer and Online Editor. Unprovoked, will quote Friends in any situation. Thrives on New Orleans Saints football, The West Wing and taco trucks.