After two seasons of drama, The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City spiced things up with an on-screen criminal investigation. In March 2021, Jennifer Shah, the wife of a prominent University of Utah football coach, was arrested, indicted, and arraigned on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud via telemarketing and conspiracy to commit money laundering. She was a housewife by day, but by night she was a major player in a nationwide scheme to identify elderly people vulnerable to the sale of “business services,” who would subsequently be defrauded until their bank accounts were empty.

“I invested more than half of the savings I had for retirement,” one victim told ABC. “I gave them directly about $47,000.” Other victims (mostly 55-plus) described falling behind on bills, facing eviction, and declaring bankruptcy.

Shah, who pleaded guilty after months of adamant denial — her tagline for season two of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City was “The only thing I’m guilty of is being Shah-mazing!” — is currently serving five and a half years at Federal Prison Camp, Bryan, for her participation in the fraud; she also had to forfeit $6.5 million and 108 luxury items (78 of which were counterfeit) and pay an additional $6.6 million in restitution. According to her manager, she is in the midst of producing a play called “The Real Housewives of Bryan” with her fellow inmates and leading weekly abs, Pilates, and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workout classes.