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Jennifer Shah, age 49, who appeared on the show beginning in 2020, was sentenced to six ½ years in prison on Friday, Jan. 6 for targeting elderly victims in the scheme and defrauding them out of their savings, according to the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams.
Beginning in 2012 and lasting until her arrest in March 2021, Shah was the leader of the scheme which ended up victimizing thousands of people. The fraud consisted of selling victims fake "business services" of little value.
Shah also participated in selling "leads," or contact information of potential victims, to sales floors perpetuating the fraud scheme, and even eventually owned one of these sales floors in Manhattan.
Many of the victims were elderly, and many suffered "significant financial hardship and damage," according to Williams. They were often defrauded multiple times until they had nothing left, often at Shah's direction.
"She and her co-conspirators persisted in their conduct until the victims’ bank accounts were empty, their credit cards were at their limits, and there was nothing more to take," Department of Justice officials said.
Shah even kept the scheme going amid investigations by the Federal Trade Commission, and when multiple co-conspirators were arrested and convicted, Williams said.
To cover up her criminal activity, Shah would tell people to lie, would use other people's names for bank accounts, require payment in cash, and tell others to delete text messages and electronic documents.
She even went as far as moving operations overseas, officials said.
Before sentencing, Shah asked for forgiveness and expressed regret in court, the New York Post reported.
"My actions have hurt innocent people. I want to apologize to all of the victims and their families,” she said, according to the news outlet.
In addition to her time in prison, Shah will also be subject to five years of supervised release. She was also ordered to give up $6.5 million, 30 luxury items, and 78 counterfeit luxury items, and to pay $6,645,251 in restitution.
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