MIAMI – Peter Thomas, a Jamaican-American entrepreneur mostly known for his time on Bravo TV’s “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” was proud of Bar One Miami Beach at The Bentley Bay Condominiums.
It opened in 2019 but the venture devolved into a $505,000 eviction nightmare in a few years and it was later part of the case that will force him to surrender to federal prison before July.
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Thomas later admitted to evading $2.5 million in employment taxes. Records show federal investigators found evidence that Thomas had deducted income tax, Social Security, and Medicare from the payroll and pocketed the money.
According to federal prosecutors in North Carolina, Thomas was living in Miami when he pleaded guilty in July to failing to account for and pay over to the Internal Revenue Service the trust fund taxes due on behalf of his employees.
Instead of paying the IRS, prosecutors alleged he was “motivated by greed” to spend his employees’ payroll taxes to “prop up” his failing business ventures and to shop at Givenchy, Prada, Louis Vuitton, and Nieman Marcus.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell Sr. recently sentenced Thomas to 18 months in prison and a two-year probation. He also ordered him to pay restitution. Earlier this year, Thomas was arrested for driving under the influence in Georgia’s Cobb County.
Thomas appeared on the RHOA while married to Cynthia Bailey, a model who joined “The Real Housewives” franchise in 2010. The couple divorced in 2017 before she was on the “Ultimate Girls Trip” spinoff and described Thomas as a friend.