The HAMMER has come down on RHOA alum, Peter Thomas. The Ex-husband of RHOA fave, Cynthia Bailey was found GUILTY of tax fraud and has been SENTENCED to 18 months in prison!
“All young business owner, please learn for my mistake,” Thomas wrote in an Instagram post ahead of his sentencing.
Following his sentence, Thomas will undergo two years of supervised release and pay $2.5 million in restitution.
Between 2017 and 2023, Thomas allegedly withheld over $1.7 million from employees’ paychecks at his multiple businesses — including Bar One Miami Beach, which closed in January — but failed to remit it to the IRS.
Prosecutors said that the one-time reality star was motivated by greed and used the funds to “personally enrich himself.”
“Americans can spend their money as they see fit, including on business ventures,” say court documents. “However, they cannot steal other people’s money— in this case their employees’ payroll taxes — to prop up their otherwise failing business ventures.”
The troubled business mogul is no stranger to South Florida’s nightlife scene, which he helped elevate with his various business ventures that helped transform South Beach.
In 1992, Thomas started the “How Can I Be Down?” urban music convention that brought thousands of people, the majority of them African Americans, and industry heavy hitters to South Beach to celebrate hip-hop. Soon after, the promoter and record label owner owned and operated Savannah, the first black-owned gourmet restaurant in South Beach. In 2000, Thomas moved back to Miami from Los Angeles and opened BARCODE Restaurant and Lounge, another go-to hotspot for locals and celebrities alike. His latest venture in Miami Beach was Bar One.
The day before sentencing, Thomas took to Instagram to advise his 832K followers that he was in a serious legal bind, and would have to “sit down for a while,”
“I was wrong and I have to pay my dues,” admitted the Jamaica native, who added that he just marked 50 years of being in the United States.
“I didn’t think I’d be celebrating it quite like this,” he said, half joking. “My dad is rolling over in his grave.”
He ended the clip by sending a warning to small business owners:
“Pay your payroll before you pay your rent, because the landlord can evict you, you ain’t going to jail, though.”
Thomas was also ordered to spend two years on supervised release, and to pay back the government all he owes.
If you recall, FINANCES and troubled businesses was an ongoing CRUX between he and his then wife, Cynthia Bailey during their tenure on the hit Bravo reality show, that ultimately lead to their divorce. Let’s wish Peter Thomas, well in his legal woes. One thing we did learn from his stint on reality tv is that he was indeed a good person at heart, and it appears now, he has seen the error in his ways and has done the work to get out of this latest bind.
The Gamutt Blog 