Credit: Bravo
Penny Puketone of the many victims of Mr. Shah‘s crimes of fraud, spoke out about her experience with The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star.
Weeks after Jen was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison for her role in a telemarketing scheme targeting elderly victims, Penny discussed the shame she felt and the “dark days” she endured in response to Jen’s sentencing and revealed what she had to say. reality star if given the chance.
“I thought, ‘How stupid,’ you know, ‘You stupid idiot.’ I’m embarrassed,” Penny admitted on the January 29 episode of Behind the Velvet Rope With David Yontef. “He knows how to trick you.”
While Penny initially keeps the failed business dealings between her and her husband, she eventually confides in one of her children, who wishes she had come sooner. Looking back, Penny says she can handle the scheme herself.
“I thought, you know, ‘I’m a big girl, I can handle this.’ … I thought, ‘Wow… People are going to think I’m stupid because I let them take advantage of me like that,'” she explained. “I had a lot of dark days. There were days when I cried all day thinking, ‘How can I get this money back?'”
Even today, Penny is scared by what she has been through.
“I don’t trust anyone. They took that away. It takes a lot for me to let people in,” she said.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever have complete closure because it’ll always be behind me. You know, cruel people. A lot of these people have ulterior motives and you have to know if they’re really blue or have ulterior motives. And I always think that I’m a judge that’s good about the character and that’s why I asked, you know, all my questions, everything … It left a deep impact,” he said.
According to Penny, she didn’t know who Jen was before she appeared on the ABC News Studio Housewives and Shah Shockerwhich premieres on Hulu in 2021.
“I didn’t watch that Housewife shows… It’s just kind of stupid to me… I’ve never heard of one in Salt Lake City. And I had never heard of Jen Shah,” he said.
Penny then expressed her frustration at the idea that Jen would not have to pay her $6.6 million in damages immediately.
“Why didn’t they make him liquidate his assets to pay all those people?” Penny was amazed. “He said he’d pay it all back after he got out. Well, he can get rid of some of that stuff. He doesn’t need a big fancy house. He can live in a regular house like the rest of us.”
“I don’t think they’ll follow through. They won’t do without,” he added.
Penny also noted that she was not satisfied with Jen’s sentence, saying that ROSLC cast members “probably need more time for what they’ve done.”
“I’m angry because here he has this big house, he lives off all the money, he has all the stuff and he has to keep it all. And there are people who even lost their homes from his fraud and [were] not having a home. So where is the real justice, where is the justice in everything?” she asked, as she and her husband had to “finance our house” to pay off credit card debt.
“I would be more angry because here they are living in pigs and everyone else is not being taken advantage of. They are struggling,” continued Penny.
Although Jen will soon begin her sentence, potentially in Texas, Penny doesn’t believe the sentence is “long enough.”
“I would have thought it would have been more, especially if he’s been doing it and over the years, at least double the number of years he’s been cheating on people. for,” Penny explained.
And he wasn’t sure he’d ever learn either.
“I’d like to think so. They’re not going to have Gucci and stuff, so I don’t think it’s going to be a very luxurious life,” said Penny. that he has and may have compassion for the one he cheated on. You can always hope, you know, you can always hope for a change of heart.
Whether or not Jen has truly come to terms with the crimes she’s committed over the years, Penny isn’t sure.
“She’s used to being a drama queen, you know, the Housewife … So I have trouble thinking that he empathizes with what he’s going through,” Penny noted. “I think it’s all a show.”
Also during the podcast, when asked what Jen would say if she called her, Penny said, “I would ask her, ‘What are you thinking? You know, don’t you know that you’re going to hurt these people? Do you will it affect their livelihood at some point? Because they don’t have money to spend. They’re making money, not spending it.'”
Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Season three of Reunion ends Wednesday, February 1 at 8/7c on Bravo.