Reality TV twin who went on ‘sugar daddy date’ with man who died says she thought he was drunk

A reality television show veteran has said she thought the man she went on a paid date with was drunk when she left him and stole his debit card, and had no idea he would overdose and die that night.

Shannade Clermont, 25, who starred alongside her twin sister Shannon in ‘Bad Girls Club’ on Oxygen in 2015, will report to jail on June 4 in Los Angeles after pleading guilty to wire fraud related to the theft and being sentenced to one year behind bars.

The social media influencer, who rakes in likes and adoration on an Instagram account she runs with her twin Shannon, went on a $20,000 spending spree after real estate professional James Alesi, 42, died. 

She used his stolen information to pay rent and buy designer items, but claimed she didn’t know he had died until later.

Shannade acknowledged that the situation looked bad, but told Page Six that Alesi was her ‘sugar daddy’ who ‘took care of her.’

‘From the outside looking in, it looks like I knew he was dead and was like “haha,”‘ Shannade said. ‘And that’s really sick.’

Reality TV veteran Shannade Clermont, 25 (pictured), has said she thought her ‘sugar daddy’ James Alesi, 42, was drunk when she left him a this New York City apartment and stole his debit card, and had no idea he would overdose and die that night

Shannade said Alesi had a reputation that preceded him as paying for the attention of women.

‘The thing was, he was known as a sugar daddy. Very known,’ Shannade said. ‘He’s not, like, an innocent person.’

Shannade didn’t elaborate on exactly what she meant by claiming Alesi wasn’t ‘innocent,’ but her lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, said at her sentencing that Shannade’s facade of a luxurious life was not something she could pay for on her own, even with lucrative endorsement deals stemming from her and her sister’s popular Instagram page.

Lichtman said the model with fashion design aspirations had been ‘reduced to trolling the Internet for prostitution dates’ in order to pay for her lavish lifestyle. 

It was on one such date with Alesi on January 31 that Shannade stole his debit card and ran off after she said ‘he was a drunk mess’ and she thought he ‘was playing games’ so she left. 

Shannade used James Alesi’s (pictured) debit card to pay for $20,000 worth of luxury items, including plane tickets, designer clothes and rent

Shannade said she only later found out he was dead and that she hadn’t spent time around people with hard drugs so she had no idea that he would die on the night of January 31, 2017. Shannade is pictured with her twin, Shannon Clermont

Prosecutors said Shannade was paid $400 to hang out with him at his home, and Shannade said when she left him at his East 53rd Street apartment in New York City she had no idea what kind of condition he was in.

‘He wasn’t asleep when I left. He was just drunk,’ Shannade said. ‘I have never been around people who have been on heavy drugs, so I didn’t really know.’ 

The next day Alesi was found dead from an overdose of cocaine mixed with fentanyl.

The victim’s sister said at Shannade’s sentencing in April that the what the social media influencer did ‘was all calculated in advance, done out of greed and with malicious intent’

She added, ‘My brother died, and [Shannade] went shopping.’ 

Shannade said Alesi (left and right) had a reputation that preceded him as paying for the attention of women. ‘The thing was, he was known as a sugar daddy. Very known,’ Shannade said. ‘He’s not, like, an innocent person’

Shannade didn’t elaborate on exactly what she meant by claiming Alesi wasn’t ‘innocent,’ but her lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, said at her sentencing that Shannade’s facade of a luxurious life was not something she could pay for on her own, even with lucrative endorsement deals and stemming from her and her sister’s popular Instagram page. Shannade and Shannon are pictured in Hollywood on February 8

Shannade said Alesi’s family ‘don’t really know his lifestyle’ and she shouldn’t be the one blamed for his death.

‘I mean, he’s been in and out of rehab for years,’ she said. ‘Like, you knew he had a drug problem, why am I the one to blame for that?’

Describing her relationship with Alesia, Shannade said, ‘I mean, I didn’t love him; I liked him. [He] was just someone who took care of me.’

Shannade does have a love for fine things, though, which was apparent in the items she bought with the deceased man’s card, including flights, Valentino shoes, a Philipp Plein jacket and Beats headphones. 

The lengths she was willing to go to obtain the objects of her affection have ultimately led to her downfall, at least for the next 12 months.

‘We actually felt blindsided, because [the lawyer] told me [Shannade] was not going to serve any time,’ Shannon told the New York Post.

It was on a paid ‘sugar daddy’ date with Alesi on January 31 that Shannade stole his debit card and ran off after she said ‘he was a drunk mess’ shoe she thought ‘was playing games’ so she left. Alesi died that night from a cocaine and fentanyl overdose. Shannade and Shannon are pictured

However, the judge who sentenced Shannade chose to look past a foundation the twins started to raise awareness about mental health following her arrest, and instead focused on the twins’ continued social media posting while the trial carried on, according to Shannade.

‘I just feel like the judge had her mind made up,’ Shannon said. ‘She kept talking about our social following. She said, “We need to use you as an example to your followers.”‘ 

The judge’s disdain didn’t make sense to Shannade, who said, ‘I don’t know what they expect us to post — like, us crying or looking sad? We don’t post our daily struggles or how I feel every day.’

The judge said at her sentencing, ‘When faced with a real test of character, Ms. Clermont chose to leave [the victim’s] apartment with his debit-card information without calling 911. 

‘No foundation, established after her arrest, can account for that lack of character.’

Shannade has accepted that her immediate future will be much less glamorous than she’s used to, and has plans to make the most of it.   

While Shannade is in jail, she plans to educate herself and write a memoir while building her fashion brand with her sister.

‘I think I want to actually learn some law, because I feel like I was misinformed about this whole process,’ Shannade said.

Her sister’s life will also be stalled in the public eye during Shannade’s incarceration.

‘I’m not posting by myself,’ Shannon said, referring to their joint Instagram account. ‘Now if it’s just one of us, we don’t post: That’s our brand.’

Shannade has high aspirations following her release from the low-security correctional facility in Los Angeles that she will call home for the next year.

‘In five to 10 years, we want to be a huge fashion house,’ Shannade said. ‘We want to be the next Mary-Kate and Ashley ­[Olsen].’ 

Shannade (third from right) reports to a low-security correctional facility in Los Angeles on June 4. She starred on Oxygen’s Bad Girls Club with her twin sister Shannon (fourth from right) in 2015. The twins are shown with the cast of the show