Nate Paul, the Austin real estate developer central to allegations of illegal conduct by Ken Paxton, Texas’ now-suspended attorney general, was arrested by the FBI on Thursday.
Paul was booked into the Travis County Jail at 4:25 p.m. on a federal warrant, said Kristen Dark, a spokesperson for the Travis County Sheriff’s Office. The nature of the charges against him have not been publicly disclosed.
Paul’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Calls to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District and Paxton were also not immediately returned.
A spokesperson for the FBI office in San Antonio declined comment, citing Justice Department guidelines.
It’s not immediately clear whether his arrest is related to the allegations against Paxton, but Paul is at the center of the abuse-of-office complaints against the three-term Republican attorney general who was impeached by the Texas House last month. Paxton is currently suspended from his official duties and awaiting an impeachment trial in the Senate, which would require a two-thirds vote to permanently remove him from office.
Early in his career as an investor, Paul was heralded as a rising star in the real estate world and a self-made tycoon worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Through his investment firm, World Class Capital Group, Paul was one of the largest real estate owners in Austin for a time.
But in 2019, the FBI and U.S. Department of Treasury agents raided Paul’s home and business offices. Additionally, Paul filed for at least 18 bankruptcies. Soon after, Paul’s complicated history with Paxton came to light.
Before the FBI raid, Paul made a $25,000 political donation to Paxton in October 2018. Following the donation, multiple senior aides in Paxton’s office accused the attorney general of using his office to help Paul’s business interests, investigate Paul’s adversaries and to help settle a lawsuit. In filings, the former aides described Paxton’s motivations as a “bizarre, obsessive use of power.”
The former top aides said in return Paul helped Paxton fund an extensive remodel of his Austin house and gave a job to a woman with whom Paxton allegedly had an affair. Paxton is married to state Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney. These allegations sparked an FBI investigation.
Those who accused Paxton of bribery were subsequently fired, resigned or put on leave by the attorney general. In response, four of those aides sued Paxton in November 2020, claiming their firings were retaliation for reporting Paxton’s misconduct.
