What is it with the shady characters on these Real Housewives shows? Do those shows just attract morally bankrupt social-climbers who will do whatever it takes to live extravagant lifestyles off other people’s backs? Joe and Teresa Giudice of The Real Housewives of NJ are facing steep jail sentences on multiple federal fraud charges. Their sentencing date has been moved to September due to the death of Joe’s father last month.

Now Apollo Nida, the husband of Real Housewives of Atlanta’s Phaedra Parks, has received a federal sentence of 8 years after pleading guilty to various counts of fraud. He will have to serve 5 years of probation following his sentence and pay some form of restitution, which is to be determined. Nida reportedly gave information to the feds that reduced his sentence to a fourth of what he was facing. He ran a huge identity theft and money laundering scheme. Nida would target victims, cash their government checks and take out fake car loans in their names from his own shell company. It sounds like a sophisticated operation that hurt countless people:

According to reports from HLN news correspondents, the star will serve nearly eight years in prison with voluntary surrender at a later date.

Nida’s troubles first came to light in January, when he was charged with bank fraud and identity theft. According to a written affidavit, Nida created fake companies, enabling him to access databases to find individuals to rip off. He opened fake bank accounts under those real names and funneled stolen U.S. Treasury checks and auto loan proceeds into those accounts.

He also allegedly opened a fake auto dealership and applied for auto loans in the names of stolen identities.

After months of talking with prosecutors, Nida entered a guilty plea in May, paving the way for his sentencing today.

In multiple exclusive interviews over the past few months, Nida told Radar he was staying positive despite his legal struggles.

“I appreciate everyone [reaching out],” he said just days before the sentencing.

But Nida isn’t exactly out of the woods just yet. As Radar reported, one of his homes was recently sold at public auction after he failed to pay the bills.

[From Radar Online]

Radar also reports that Nida and Phaedra are predictably having trouble in their marriage, and that they haven’t been seen together in weeks. When he pled guilty in May, Nida claimed that he felt pressure to keep up with his wife, who as a reality star was earning more than he was. He said “I was doing it to sustain a lifestyle.” No kidding.

I doubt that whatever restitution this guy has to pay will put a dent in the damage that he did to his victims. From what I’ve heard it’s very difficult to recover from identity theft and it can be a frustrating process trying to clear a damaged credit report. Identity theft can devastate people’s lives. So can other financial forces beyond their control. I wish that the government would have gone after the executives and companies responsible for the financial crisis like they’re prosecuting these mid level career criminals. Of course these type of cases are much more cut and dried and limited in scope.

Images credit: Getty. Frontpage image via Love B Scott