[Source: AP]

Jennifer Shah, a tearful member of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” who insisted she is not the character she plays on the show, was sentenced Friday to 6 1/2 years in prison for defrauding thousands of people, many of them vulnerable or older, in a telemarketing scam that stretched nearly a decade.

Shah, 49, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein as a leader of a nationwide fraud that targeted people who were often unsophisticated electronically and could least afford to lose their money.

Shah pleaded guilty in July to a conspiracy charge. Prosecutors sought a 10-year prison term, which would have been a year under the federal sentencing guidelines’ minimum recommendation but well above the three years in prison that Shah’s lawyer suggested.

At the outset of Friday’s heaShe apologized to the “innocent people” she said she’d hurt and pledged to pay $6.5 million in restitution and forfeiture when she gets out of prison.

“I struggled to accept responsibility for the longest time because I deluded myself into believing … that I did nothing wrong,” Shah said, calling it her “own fractured reality.”

“For years I blamed other people for putting me in this position,” believing she was duped and manipulated, she said.

“I alone am responsible for my terrible decisions. It was all my fault and all my wrongdoing,” Shah said. “I have no one to blame but myself. … I wish I could have stood outside myself and seen the harm I was causing and changed course. I am profoundly and deeply sorry.”

During the hearing, defense lawyer Priya Chaudhry said her client has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent months.

“Remorse can be genuine even if it shows up late. … Her apology is real,” she said.

After the sentencing, Shah left the courthouse without speaking to reporters. She will report to prison at a later date.

ring, Stein cautioned a courtroom packed with Shah’s family and friends and members of the media that he was not sentencing the person people see on television.

Stein said that person was “simply a character. It’s acting.” And he added that the housewives program “involves role playing. … It’s a heavily scripted operation.”

His words were echoed by Shah, who told the judge: “Reality TV has nothing to do with reality.”

She apologized to the “innocent people” she said she’d hurt and pledged to pay $6.5 million in restitution and forfeiture when she gets out of prison.

“I struggled to accept responsibility for the longest time because I deluded myself into believing … that I did nothing wrong,” Shah said, calling it her “own fractured reality.”

“For years I blamed other people for putting me in this position,” believing she was duped and manipulated, she said.

“I alone am responsible for my terrible decisions. It was all my fault and all my wrongdoing,” Shah said. “I have no one to blame but myself. … I wish I could have stood outside myself and seen the harm I was causing and changed course. I am profoundly and deeply sorry.”

During the hearing, defense lawyer Priya Chaudhry said her client has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent months.

“Remorse can be genuine even if it shows up late. … Her apology is real,” she said.

After the sentencing, Shah left the courthouse without speaking to reporters. She will report to prison at a later date.