Inside Jen Shah’s Tearful First Moments Behind Bars ‘Please Allah Help Me’
Inside Jen Shah’s Tearful First Moments Behind Bars ‘Please Allah Help Me’
Jen Shah posted a lengthy statement from prison on Thursday, describing her final goodbyes to her family as a “horrible nightmare.”
The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star is currently serving a 6.5 year prison sentence for fraud. Jen pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for her role in a massive telemarketing scheme, largely targeting the elderly, in July 2022.
The former Bravo star recalled the moments leading up to her entry into the Bryan Federal Prison Camp (FPC), on February 17.
“Two miles from Bryan Federal Prison Camp (FPC), I could not breathe and my hands went numb,” Jen wrote in a post on Instagram.
The 49-year-old continued —”I knew I was having an anxiety attack. I made Coach pull over because our reception was poor while driving and I was not able to FaceTime my oldest baby. We finally connected, I saw his face, and I cried so hard until he reassured me that it would be OK. I didn’t think I would make it through today.”
Jen Shah, 49, wrote that “my worst fear and the unimaginable was about to happen,”as she had to say goodbye to her husband, Sharrieff “Coach” Shah, and their 19-year-old son, Omar.
Jen described arriving at the prison gates and how she felt embracing her family one more time before turning herself in. She wrote that she hugged her husband as if “holding him harder would somehow erase this horrible nightmare.”
“I wanted to remember his embrace,” she wrote in part. “His smell, his touch. I held his face in both of my hands. As I looked into his eyes, tears streaming down my face, I told him he is the love of my life and I love him more than anything.”
Jen Shah called sharing the moment with her husband alongside officers silently pushing her along “the most horrible experience.”
“It’s as if you know your world is ending and you have 30 seconds to tell the people you love how much you love them and hope they feel your love and understand its magnitude,” the fallen reality star said.
Jen revealed that she and her family members took a moment to pray to “Allah,” and also claimed that she was barred from bringing personal items into the facility, such as her Quran, contacts list and driver’s license.
“The one item that made me feel instantly isolated was not having my contacts list,” Jen shared, clarifying that she didn’t feel she had the “mental bandwidth” to memorize her personal phone numbers.
Jen described her “entire body” growing numb amid a feeling that her “life was ending.”
“I am truly scared,” Jen, who is Muslim, shared. “I feel physically sick. I feel like I don’t belong here. I thought I could do this but I’ve decided I can’t. I want to go home right now, but I know that is impossible. Please Allah help me, please.”
Jen Shah took to Instagram last month to acknowledge that she had “hurt” her victims.
Jen Shah also teased that she planned to use a new platform to tell her “true story” without “misrepresentations” while behind bars.
In 2020, Jen gained popularity for starring in The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. However, her involvement in a lengthy telemarketing scheme has recently garnered attention.
During filming for the show’s second season in 2021, Shah and her assistant, Stuart Smith, were apprehended in Utah and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
The fraud case has since progressed, and in July 2022, Jen Shah entered a guilty plea in a New York court.
“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,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss previously said in a press release.
“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.” The statement continued.
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Avigail is an Entertainment blogger at All About The Tea, who specializes in The Real Housewives of Atlanta and The Real Housewives of Potomac. Avigail has a background in marketing. She’s a Brooklynite living in the Bahamas, with a passion for travel, writing, reality TV watching, pop culture and spoken word.