Jen Shah Will Serve Remainder of Prison Sentence at Home After Release from Federal Facility (Exclusive) By Dave Quinn

Jen Shah is back in Utah.

The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star has returned home, PEOPLE can exclusively reveal, after her release on Wednesday, Dec. 10 from the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas.

Shah had been at the minimum-security facility — which also houses prominent inmates including Elizabeth Holmes and Ghislaine Maxwell — since she began serving her six-and-a-half-year sentence for her role in a long-running nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme. She surrendered herself on Feb. 17, 2023, nearly a year after pleading guilty.

Since then, Shah’s sentence was reduced a number of times, thanks to good behavior, participation in prison programming and financial payments the 52-year-old reality star has been making to victims (in total, Shah has been ordered to pay $6.5 million in restitution).

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PEOPLE was the first to report both that the Bureau of Prisons had granted her an early release on of Dec. 10, and that she had officially left the Texas facility. Her husband, Sharrieff Shah, and her two sons — Sharrieff Jr, 31, and Omar, 22 — were there to pick her up.

What wasn’t know was just where the trio were going. According to BOP policy, Jen could either have been released to her home or transferred to a halfway house to complete the remaining portion of her sentence under community confinement supervision. And while a final decision was made prior to her departure, that information was kept under wraps at first “for privacy, safety, and security reasons,” according to BOP.

But PEOPLE can now reveal that the Jen will be at home for the remainder of her time. She did report to a halfway house earlier in the day on Wednesday, Dec. 10 for an orientation program, before heading back home with her family.

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“Jen Shah has demonstrated strength, accountability, and resilience throughout this process,” Jen Shah’s attorney, Candace N. Robinson (of CNR Law) tells PEOPLE. “Today represents not only a transition, but the beginning of a new chapter for her.”

“We continue to express our sincerest gratitude to the BOP for Jen’s early release,” add her manager, Chris Giovanni. “Jen Shah remains thankful for the love and prayers from her supporters. Jen is focused on reuniting with her family and friends, while embarking on this new journey of redemption to make everything right.”

Jen was arrested in March 2021 for allegedly targeting thousands of individuals, including the elderly, in a nationwide fraud scheme. She and her former assistant, Stuart Smith, were both charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

“I am sorry. My actions have hurt innocent people,” the reality star said at her sentencing on Jan. 6, 2023. “I want to apologize by saying, I am doing all I can to earn the funds to pay restitution.”

In February 2024, Jen penned a personal letter to PEOPLE reflecting on the first year of her sentence, describing the “unrelenting” pain of being away from her family. She further said she had found humility and perspective in the stories of other women at FPC Bryan and wrote that her faith, daily prayer and therapy had helped her fight despair and stay grounded through the challenges of incarceration.

“I am most grateful for the aspects of my life that have never left me: my family and faith,” she wrote, noting, “In my daily prayers, I ask God for the courage to realize I am worthy of a second chance … I am finding the courage to set my fear and guilt aside.”