The defendant failed to pay over more than $2.5 million in employment taxes for restaurants & nightclubs in Charlotte, Miami, and Baltimore Date: Dec. 17, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Peter Anthony Thomas, formerly of Charlotte and now a resident of Miami, Florida, was sentenced today to 18 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release for a tax offense, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Thomas was also ordered to pay $2,526,131.99 as restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). On July 2, 2024, Thomas pleaded guilty to failing to account for and pay over to the trust fund taxes due and owing on behalf of the employees of PT Media, LLC for the quarter ending June 30, 2021. Donald “Trey” Eakins, Special Agent in Charge of the IRS, Criminal Investigation, Charlotte Field Office (IRS-CI) joins U.S. Attorney King in making today’s announcement. According to filed court documents and today’s sentencing hearing, Thomas was the owner of Club One CLT, LLC, Sports ONE, Inc., Sports ONE CLT LLC, and PT Media, LLC, (collectively “the Charlotte businesses”) which operated as sports-themed bar/restaurant/lounges in Charlotte. Thomas also owned several other bars, restaurants, and lounges in Florida and Maryland, including Bar One Miami Beach LLC and Bar One Baltimore LLC. Thomas exercised control over the Charlotte businesses’ financial and business affairs and was responsible for collecting trust fund taxes and accounting for employment taxes by filing Forms 941 with the IRS and paying over to the IRS the employment taxes for the Charlotte businesses’ employees. Between 2017 and 2022, Thomas caused the Charlotte businesses to collect more than $640,000 in trust fund taxes from the wages of their employees, but Thomas did not pay over these taxes to the IRS. In addition, between 2021 and 2023, Thomas caused Bar One Miami Beach LLC and Bar One Baltimore LLC to collect more than $1.1 million in trust fund taxes from the wages of their employees, but Thomas did not pay over these taxes to the IRS. In total, between 2017 and 2023, Thomas caused the Charlotte businesses, Bar One Miami Beach LLC, and Bar One Baltimore LLC to fail to pay over more than $2.5 million in employment taxes, including more than $1,740,000 in trust fund taxes from the wages of their employees. Court documents show that instead of paying the trust fund taxes that were due on behalf of the Charlotte businesses, Thomas used the trust fund taxes for other purposes, including more than $2.5 million in cash withdrawals, $370,000 for travel, real estate purchases, and more than $250,000 in retail purchases, including on high-end purchases at Neiman Marcus, Prada, Louis Vuitton, and Givenchy. Thomas also caused more than $2.9 million to be transferred between the Charlotte businesses, Bar One Miami Beach, LLC, and Bar One Baltimore, LLC. Thomas will be ordered to report to the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. IRS-Criminal Investigation investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Caryn Finley and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Frick of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte prosecuted the case. IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.
