'Shell-Shocked' Victim of Jen Shah Opens Up About Racking Up Nearly $50K in Debt from Telemarketing Scheme
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Less than two weeks after Jen Shah was sentenced to 6.5 years in federal prison for a far-reaching telemarketing scheme, one of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star's victims has stepped forward to detail the devastating impact the fraudulent enterprise had on real people's live.
In an exclusive clip from Thursday's episode of ABC News Studios' IMPACT x Nightline, a 75-year-old North Carolina retiree named Trisha details how she became ensnared by the scheme.
"My daughter had just purchased this property. And I don't think she realized that it takes a lot of cash flow to maintain a property this size," Trisha explains the events leading up to her involvement in 2016. "I went online, did a webpage, just a standard, normal webpage. I was fairly decent in working with computers."
She continues, "About three weeks later, I got a phone call saying, 'We noticed that you have a new website. [They] did a sales speech about all of the perks if I went with them that they could teach me."
Chris Haston/Bravo via Getty
Trisha says she paid about $12,000 for the first program, but surprising additional costs kept adding up. Looking back now, she says she handed over $47,000 — or half of her retirement savings — to the scam.
She knew she'd been swindled but admits she didn't fully understand how to report the crime against her until she was approached by the Federal Trade Commission with information about the full scope of Shah and her associates' operation.
"I mean, I was shell-shocked," Trisha says later in the interview, "But it turned out to be true."
RELATED: Everything to Know About Real Housewives Star Jen Shah's Fraud Case
Also in Thursday's episode, Shah's former stylist and designer Koa Johnson speaks about his experience with Shah — and why he turned on the reality star.
"I would describe our relationship [as] very close because it was a business relationship, but at the same time [it was a] personal relationship because I had to work so closely with her," he says of their dynamic.
"When I first created a look for her based off what she wanted to portray [on RHOSLC], which was being a very glamorous, strong Polynesian woman, fierce, inviting, pretty much a badass," he recalls.
But Shah was a different person away when cameras stopped rolling, says Johnson: "Jennifer Shah is a very difficult person to get to do anything. She's self-sabotaging. She will stay at home all day in bed, in her pajamas or in the clothes she's been wearing for the last three days."
Eventually after seeing both sides of the reality star, he tells Nightline: "I did submit some information that may have helped lead them in a direction to convict her in her federal trial."
Knowing the role he played in her imprisonment, Johnson adds that he will not "feel safe" again until Shah begins her prison sentence on Feb. 17.
Following her sentencing earlier this month, Shah's attorney Priya Chaudhry issued a statement to PEOPLE after the decision: "Jen Shah deeply regrets the mistakes that she has made and is profoundly sorry to the people she has hurt. Jen has faith in our justice system, understands that anyone who breaks the law will be punished, and accepts this sentence as just. Jen will pay her debt to society and when she is a free woman again, she vows to pay her debt to the victims harmed by her mistakes."
Shah was initially arrested in March 2021 alongside assistant Stuart Smith for targeting people in a nationwide phone scam to defraud those over the age of 55. She was then charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Though Smith entered a guilty plea in November 2021, Shah continued to proclaim her innocence and even entered a not guilty plea in April 2021 before ultimately switching her plea to guilty last summer.
Court documents obtained by PEOPLE showed victim impact statements for Shah's alleged wrongdoings. One man said he "wasted about $40,000 trying to do good for my family," while another said they paid $100,000. Two of the victims who gave statements said the scam drove them to homelessness.
Chaudhry told PEOPLE: "Ms. Shah is devastated by the suffering she has caused these people. She vows to dedicate her life to trying to make each one whole."
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ABC News Studios' IMPACT x Nightline airs Thursday on Hulu.
