RHOA Why did Sheree Whitfield’s boyfriend go to prison?

Sheree Whitfield is back on Real Housewives of Atlanta, and has some tea to serve about her love life with man who just got out of prison for stealing $5 million. Tyrone Gilliams got out of a Kentucky prison in February of 2021. He was released early because of COVID-19 concerns in the prison.

Why Sheree and her boyfriend are staying abstinent

On the premiere episode of Real Housewives of Atlanta, Sheree dished that the couple had some quick intimacy right away, but are now practicing abstinence. The other girls were shocked to hear this, but Sheree said she was taking to slow to see if he would be the same person outside of prison as he was inside. When Kenya Moore questioned whether Sheree thought he might possibly cheat, she responded “Girl, he loves this WAP!”

At the time Tyrone was living in a halfway house in Philadelphia while Sherree was in Atlanta shooting RHOA. At the time, Tyrone wasn’t allowed to visit Sherree in Atlanta as part of his early parole. In January 2022, Tyrone was released from his halfway house program.

“Tyrone has been around for a while,” Sheree says in confessional. “I put in so much time with this guy, gave him all of me, my entire heart. I set idle for many many years for Tyrone. I owe it to myself to see where it goes, and how it goes, and if love conquers all.”

Why did Tyrone Gilliams go to prison, and when did he meet Sheree?

Tyrone Gilliams was convicted of fraud, which included a $5 million + ponzi scheme. Basically, Tyrone was taking investors’ money and promising them a percentage annual return, but he only invested a small portion of their money and spent the rest on cars, homes, and putting together high-profile celebrity charity events with his name on them.

One of those events was the “Joy to the World Fest” in Philadelphia in 2010, which was attended by such high-profile celebrities as Sean “Diddy” Combs (who was paid a $120,000 appearance fee), NFL receiver DeSean Jackson, State Senator Anthony Hardy Williams, Congressman Chaka Fattah, and…The Real Housewives of Atlanta star Sherée Whitfield!

Here is a photo of Sherée at the event — notice the TLG logo behind her:

And here’s Tyrone back in his pre-prison heyday at the same event:

If you’re wanting to know more about Tyrone Gilliams’ crimes, here is an excerpt from the FBI press release after his conviction:

According to the Indictment and the evidence presented at trial:

In 2009 and 2010, Gilliams was the owner of TL Gilliams LLC, which purported to engage in transactions in commodities like oil and gold. Scott was an attorney at a small law firm in New Jersey and acted as TL Gilliams’s general counsel.

In the summer of 2010, Gilliams solicited $5 million dollars from two investors for purposes of trading in U.S. Treasury Strips, which are a derivative of U.S. Treasury Bonds. Gilliams and Scott arranged for the investors to make their investments by wiring them into an attorney trust account maintained by Scott’s law firm. Upon receiving the money, Scott—at Gilliams’ direction—misappropriated more than $700,000 to satisfy expenses stemming from an unrelated and failed venture to buy a coal mine in Utah. Scott also claimed $50,000 of the investment money for himself as purported fees. At Gilliams’ direction, Scott transferred most of the remainder to bank and brokerage accounts that he controlled.

At most, Gilliams purchased $250,000 worth of Treasury Strips with the more than $4 million in investment money transferred by Scott. Over a span of less than six months, Gilliams spent more than $1.6 million on an unrelated gold investment; more than $200,000 to purchase a commercial warehouse in Denver; at least $100,000 to buy or lease luxury cars; at least $50,000 for construction work on his home; at least $100,000 on luxury hotel and travel expenses; and more than $500,000 promoting both a festival called “Joy to the World” involving an album release party with Jamie Foxx at the Vault nightclub in Philadelphia, and culminating in a red carpet, black tie gala at the Philadelphia Ritz-Carlton, headlined for a $120,000 fee by Sean “Diddy” Combs; and a December 2010 comedy performance in Nassau, Bahamas, called the “Gatta Be Jokin’ Comedy Jam.”

Sheree sees the positives of a jailhouse romance

“The positives of dating an incarcerated man, for me is, I really feel like I got to know him on a deeper level,” she told Page Six after his release. “A lot of times relationships are built on physical and a lot of times they don’t work,” she had said. “People don’t take the time to get to know each other, or communicate, or talk. We do all of that. We don’t have anything else to do but communicate.”