In this Jan. 18, 2011 file photo, Dr. Love Paul, left, Pearl Paul, and their son Nate Paul, right, attend the 2011 Texas Inaugural Celebration at the Palmer Events Center in Austin, Texas.
Laura Skelding/AP
An Austin real estate developer who was central to Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment case was sentenced on Wednesday to supervised release and a $1 million fine for bank fraud.
A judge allowed Nate Paul to avoid prison time after he pleaded guilty in January to lying to a lending institution as part of a deal with federal prosecutors. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop 11 other charges against him.
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U.S. District Judge David Ezra could have imposed a sentence of anywhere from zero to six months. The probation office had recommended six months. He chose to sentence Paul to a one-day sentence, but he applied 10 days that Paul served in state court as part of a separate civil case, meaning he will not have to serve any additional time.
“Mr. Paul has been a very active, and I should say, quite successful real estate developer in this community,” Ezra said. “Unfortunately, at some point, Mr. Paul lost his way. I have no evidence to indicate that Mr. Paul has been doing this all along throughout his entire career.”
Paul, whose attorneys declined to comment after court on Wednesday, was first indicted in June 2023. He was originally accused of overstating his assets and understating his liabilities to several lending institutions between March 2017 and April 2018.
He was also accused of obtaining money from business partners by falsely claiming that he would use their money only for the benefit of the partnership. Instead, prosecutors alleged, Paul used the funds to pay expenses of other companies that he controlled.
Paxton was impeached by the Texas House in 2023 for abusing the power of his office to help Paul with a number of the real estate investor’s legal problems, but the Senate acquitted him months later.
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One of Paxton’s defense attorneys had at one time speculated that the Paul case might have been federal prosecutors’ attempt to extract information on Paxton; however, case documents never publicly mentioned any connection to Paxton.
Ezra said he was moved by the words of Paul’s lawyer, Tobin Romero, who described Paul as a dedicated and humble family man who loves his kids and contributed to his community through a youth basketball league that he funded. He said he weighed that along with the fact that Paul did pay back the money that he owed to the lending institution.
He added that Paul becoming a convicted felon is, in and of itself, a “form of punishment to a businessman.”
Paul will be subject to five years of supervised release, and he will also have to submit to home confinement from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., but he will be allowed to work during the day and request exceptions for medical and other reasons. Ezra said he would not make Paul wear an ankle monitor because he found it “demeaning” for a nonviolent criminal.
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The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the sentencing. Federal prosecutors had not made any recommendation as to sentencing details, per the terms of the deal but simply asked Ezra to take into account that Paul was accused of a “serious crime.”
During the impeachment, House managers accused Paxton of improperly intervening in a separate civil case involving the nonprofit Mitte Foundation to push a resolution beneficial to Paul
Dyna Mitte, assistant director and board member of the Foundation, in a statement she had planned to read in court, said investing with Paul was “the worst mistake we ever made.”
“Mr. Paul’s dishonesty has harmed countless victims,” Mitte said. “He has never shown the slightest remorse or willingness to make things right. We urge the court to impose the harshest sentence allowable by law.”
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