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Reality star Jen Shah was released early from prison Wednesday, Dec. 10, after serving nearly three years behind bars for federal crimes, Fox News Digital has confirmed.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a representative for the Federal Bureau of Prisons said, “We can confirm that Jennifer Shah transferred on December 10, 2025, from the Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Bryan to community confinement overseen by the Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) Phoenix Residential Reentry Management (RRM) Office. Community confinement means the inmate is in either home confinement or a Residential Reentry Center (RRC, or halfway house). For privacy, safety, and security reasons, we do not disclose an individual’s specific location while in community confinement.”
The former “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star was sentenced in 2023 to six and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to committing wire fraud in a telemarketing scheme targeting the elderly.
Shah, 52, served her sentence at FPC Bryan in Texas, a minimum-security federal prison where Ghislaine Maxwell and Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes currently serve time.
Her initial release date was set for Aug. 30, 2026, but the reality star’s initial 78-month sentence was reduced twice on good behavior.
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During the sentencing in January 2023, U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein also ruled Shah must forfeit $6.5 million and pay more than $6.6 million in restitution.
She originally faced up to 50 years in prison.
Shah and her longtime assistant, Stuart Smith, were “each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing through which they victimized 10 or more persons over the age of 55, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years,” the Department of Justice said in a release published at the time of their arrests.
The pair used third-party names for their business entities, according to the initial indictment. Shah and Smith allegedly told victims to use encrypted messages as forms of communication and instructed users to send payments to offshore accounts.
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The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York’s El Dorado Task Force with support from HSI Salt Lake.
“Shah’s fraud scheme targeted and exploited vulnerable, often elderly, working-class people. She and her co-conspirators built their publicly lavish lifestyles on the false promises of financial independence offered to their victims – victims who to them, were merely ‘leads’ to be bought and sold,” said Ivan J. Arvelo, Special Agent in Charge for Homeland Security Investigations in New York.
“Shah’s crimes have had deep, lasting impacts on the lives of her victims and today’s significant sentence and forfeiture reflects the seriousness of her crimes,” Arvelo continued. “HSI, along with our partners at the New York City Police Department & the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, remains committed to using our expertise in financial investigations to investigate and prosecute those who prey on the most vulnerable members of our society.”
She initially pleaded not guilty to the charges in 2021. One year later, Shah entered a guilty plea as part of an agreement in which the money laundering charge was dropped. She agreed to forfeit $6.5 million and also pay restitution up to $9.5 million.
Bravo cameras were rolling when authorities stepped into a “Housewives” production in search of Shah. Only minutes before Homeland Security arrived in the Beauty Lab parking lot, Shah had received a phone call from an unknown person and abruptly left the shoot.
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Shah was arrested on her way home March 30, 2021.
“Jennifer Shah, who portrays herself as a wealthy and successful businessperson on ‘reality’ television, and Stuart Smith, who is portrayed as Shah’s ‘first assistant,’ allegedly generated and sold ‘lead lists’ of innocent individuals for other members of their scheme to repeatedly scam,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss.
“In actual reality and as alleged, the so-called business opportunities pushed on the victims by Shah, Smith and their co-conspirators were just fraudulent schemes, motivated by greed, to steal victims’ money. Now, these defendants face time in prison for their alleged crimes.”
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Prior to her guilty plea, Shah spent more than one year professing her innocence on “RHOSLC,” even using “The only thing I’m guilty of is being Shah-mazing” as a tagline for her “Housewives” introduction in season 2.
Fox News Digital’s Christina Dugan Ramirez contributed to this report.
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