Convicted ‘Real Housewife’ Jen Shah owes lawyer $124K, say Manhattan Federal Court docs

New York Daily News, The (NY)

Imprisoned reality TV housewife Jen Shah owes her lawyer more than $124,000 in unpaid legal fees in a case about her involvement in a fraud scam, according to court papers filed Thursday.

Priya Chaudhry, who represented the convicted “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” personality in a criminal case stemming from the telemarketing scheme that targeted the elderly, itemized Shah’s unpaid fees in a Manhattan Federal Court filing.

Chaudhry filed a motion to withdraw from the case on March 24, saying Shah had failed to pay fees and expenses owed to her firm in breach of her contract. Since July, the firm says, it has tried six times to collect the money.

“Defendant and her husband repeatedly promised to pay these outstanding amounts, and the Firm continued to provide services, relying on the written engagement with Defendant and the promises of her husband,” Chaudhry wrote last month.

Shah, 49, of Park City, Utah, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in July, and was sentenced on Jan. 6 to 6 1/2 years in prison. She was arrested in March 2021 for the telemarketing scam, which went on for nine years.

Shah joined the telemarketing operation in 2012 and was initially responsible for hiring and coaching new staff in a scheme that generated and sold so-called “lead lists” detailing contact information for vulnerable potential victims in New York, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and New Jersey.

The scam primarily targeted people 55 and older with bogus investment opportunities in such tech-based businesses as tax preparation and small business website design. Prosecutors noted many of the scam’s older victims not only were not tech savvy, but didn’t even own computers.

The feds said Shah repeatedly defrauded vulnerable people until they were completely broke. On top of her sentence, which she’s serving at Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Bryan, Texas, she was ordered to pay restitution.

Judge Sidney Stein will rule on Chaudhry’s request to withdraw from the case.

Shah has been keeping a public journal about her experience behind bars, shared via her husband Sharrieff on Instagram.

“As I stare into the dark, I think this has to be a dream — but here I am,” Shah wrote in an entry published online on March 10.

“I keep thinking this is insane, completely ridiculous. Why am I here? I mean, I know why I’m here, but this just feels like someone like me doesn’t belong here. I’ve never been in trouble before.”