Another anticlimactic end to an ongoing saga.
Nate Paul, a prominent Austin real estate developer and head of World Class Holdings, has pleaded guilty to a single count of making false statements to a lending institution. The plea, entered Wednesday, concludes an 18-month federal investigation into allegations of bank and wire fraud related to Paul’s business dealings.
Federal prosecutors have recommended a sentence that includes no more than six months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $1 million. However, the final sentence will be determined following a pre-sentencing evaluation by the U.S. Probation Office. The plea agreement also stipulates the dismissal of 11 additional charges against Paul.
Paul initially faced a jury trial scheduled for February 18 and was confronting charges that carried severe penalties. He had been indicted in June 2023 on eight counts of bank fraud for allegedly providing false information to secure over $172 million in loans. A superseding indictment in November added four wire fraud charges.
Each of the eight bank fraud counts carried a potential sentence of up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine, while the wire fraud counts each carried a maximum of 20 years and a $250,000 fine. The plea agreement, which remains under seal, caps Paul’s prison time at six months if accepted by the court.
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Paul’s legal troubles also intersected with political controversy, notably involving Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paul was accused of receiving improper assistance from Paxton, who allegedly used his office to intervene in legal matters to Paul’s benefit. These allegations contributed to Paxton’s impeachment in 2023, although he was later acquitted in a State Senate trial.
The plea deal emerged shortly after Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra denied a joint motion from prosecutors and Paul’s defense team to delay the trial until April. Judge Ezra expressed frustration at the protracted timeline, declaring the case had “gone on way too long.”
The agreement spares Paul from a lengthy trial that was expected to involve 10-14 days of testimony from the prosecution alone, not including the defense’s arguments and rebuttals.
Beyond the federal charges, Paul faced legal repercussions in a separate civil case. In November, he was sentenced to 10 days in jail for contempt of court, perjury, and violating an injunction in a lawsuit involving a charity. This case also highlighted Paul’s ties to Paxton, with allegations that the attorney general improperly intervened to assist Paul in avoiding foreclosures.
As with pretty much everything related to the Ken Paxton Scandalmatic Universe, there’s a bunch of lore here, with a bit of Remember Some Guys thrown in for extra effect. We were first introduced to our buddy Nate shortly before the 2020 election. Remember that we heard about Nate Paul because a bunch of now-former top lieutenants of Paxton accused him of using the AG’s office to butt into a civil dispute between Paul and the Mitte Foundation on Paul’s behalf. That included interfering with a federal subpoena, which those senior staff members correctly saw as an abuse of the office and its powers. It also led to the allegations that Paxton’s actions on Paul’s behalf constituted a bribe, which in turn led to an FBI investigation of Paxton and the ill-fated impeachment by the Legislature.
And then that’s pretty much it. Paxton skated on the impeachment, and whatever the FBI may have found about his relationship with Nate Paul – there were rumors about forthcoming federal charges against Paxton, ones that never quite made it across the finish line, as recently as a few months ago – it is a sure thing that they’ll never see the light of day now. Paul served a few days for contempt relating to that still-ongoing civil case, and he’ll do a bit more time as a result of this plea deal, and that will be that. I have dozens if not hundreds of posts with the Nate Paul tag, and I won’t even get a lousy T-shirt out of it. Maybe something will happen with the whistleblower litigation, but I think we’ve all learned by now to keep our expectations at ground level.
So that’s it, more or less. Time to turn yet another damn page. Ken Paxton is the most undeservedly lucky bastard in the state. KVUE, the Statesman, and KXAN have more.
In the civil cases, the conviction acts as an admission of the truth of the facts underlying that charge. That is not a cromulent situation for a civil defendant.