Peter Thomas, 64, a former Charlotte nightclub owner and ex-husband of “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Cynthia Bailey, has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for tax fraud.
Thomas, known for his ownership of establishments such as Club One and Sports One in Charlotte, pleaded guilty to failing to pay over $2.5 million in employment taxes for his businesses operating in Charlotte, Miami, and Baltimore.
Between 2017 and 2022, Thomas’s Charlotte businesses collected more than $640,000 in trust fund taxes from employee wages but failed to remit these funds to the IRS. Similarly, from 2021 to 2023, his Miami and Baltimore establishments withheld over $1.1 million in employee taxes that were not paid to the federal government.
Instead of fulfilling his tax obligations, Thomas diverted these funds for personal use, including cash withdrawals, travel, real estate purchases, and luxury retail expenditures at high-end stores such as Neiman Marcus, Prada, Louis Vuitton, and Givenchy.
In addition to his prison sentence, Thomas has been ordered to pay $2,526,131.99 in restitution to the IRS and will undergo two years of supervised release following his incarceration.
Prior to his sentencing, Thomas addressed his actions on social media, advising young business owners to learn from his mistakes and emphasizing the serious consequences of failing to meet tax obligations.
Thomas was married to Cynthia Bailey from 2010 to 2017, during which time he became a familiar figure to viewers of the reality television series “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.”
