Hip-hop promoter sentenced in fraud scheme

MEDIA Tyrone Gilliams Jr. billed himself as a man of many callings:

A skilled commodities trader specializing in gold, oil, and diamonds. A hip-hop promoter with top-shelf connections. An up-and-coming philanthropist and former starter for the University of Pennsylvania basketball team. And, should circumstances warrant, even a part-time online preacher.

But there was one job title the 46-year-old Media resident conveniently left off his resumé: Crook.

On Thursday, a federal judge in New York City sentenced Gilliams to 10 years in prison for his role in securities and wire fraud schemes that bilked investors out of more than $5 million. Instead of putting his clients' money to good use, he spent it on luxury cars, hotel stays, and lavish events, including one red-carpet affair that he paid the rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs $120,000 to attend, prosecutors said.

Gilliams maintained his innocence during a three-week jury trial this year.

Throughout the proceedings in February, prosecutors maintained that he and codefendant Everette Scott Jr., 51, solicited more than $5 million from businessmen in Florida and Ohio in purported schemes to invest in U.S. Treasury bond derivatives and a bankrupt Utah coal mine.

Within six months of those initial investments, Gilliams had wasted most of the money. According to court filings, he invested $1.6 million on another gold venture, used $200,000 to buy a warehouse in Denver, and spent $50,000 to renovate his home.

Most galling to investors, however, was the half-million dollars Gilliams spent promoting a Bahamas comedy show he dubbed the "Gatta Be Jokin' Comedy Jam" as well as a December 2010 charity fund-raiser and music festival in Philadelphia.

The latter event featured an album release soiree for the actor and musician Jamie Foxx at a Northern Liberties nightspot and a separate black-tie gala at the Ritz-Carlton headlined by Combs. The rapper's representatives declined Thursday to comment on his relationship to Gilliams.

Around the same time, Gilliams hired a team of videographers to follow him around as he prepared for the party. The video, later posted on his online channel, TLG TV, shows him mugging for cameras, posing with stacks of money in his lap, and bragging he can get Kim Kardashian to walk the red carpet at his party. She, apparently, was a no-show.

"It was an expensive party that was thrown not to help the less fortunate, but simply to self-promote Gilliams as a person of supposed wealth and importance," Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Levy wrote in a presentencing memorandum this month.

As part of his sentence Thursday, Gilliams was ordered to pay $5 million in restitution to his accusers and forfeit $5 million more.

Scott, of Sewell, was sentenced to 21/2 years in prison in September. He has appealed the judge's decision.

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