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. Starting in July, the firm says, it 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 nine-year telemarketing scam.
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 — like tax prep services and website design for small business owners — with prosecutors detailing how many less tech-savvy victims who were much older didn’t 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.