Austin developer in Texas AG scandal jailed

Nate Paul, the big-ticket Austin developer who is a primary character in the impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, is being detained in jail by the FBI as of Thursday, according to jail records reviewed by the Dallas Morning News.

The founder and CEO of World Class Holdings, who at his zenith controlled a billion-dollar property empire, was booked into Travis County Jail on “undetermined” felony charges, according to the newspaper.

Dan Cogdell, one of Paxton’s impeachment attorneys, speculated to the publication that the FBI would get Paul to turn on his client.

“You don’t have to be Nostradamus to assume that they’re going to try to flip Nate Paul to testify against Ken [Paxton]. I don’t know that for a fact. But I’d be very surprised if that wasn’t the case,” Cogdell said. “Because otherwise, you know, logically [the FBI] would have arrested them both at the same time.”

Paul has been in the FBI’s crosshairs since at least 2019. That summer, agents raided his home and office, and the fallout from the raid left his business “severely compromised,” he later told a Texas court.

Meanwhile, he’s been fighting foreclosure wars on multiple fronts. He was forced to give up prime sites such as the 3M campus and a six-acre assemblage in South Congress. In court filings, he’s claimed that he still has lenders willing to extend him debt for deals.