CRE Leader Nate Paul's $1B Real Estate Portfolio In Distress After FBI Probe

Austin real estate investor Nate Paul, who has been facing a whirlwind of bad publicity about his interactions with Attorney General Ken Paxton in the wake of an FBI raid of Paul's home and business last year, is now facing the prospect of losing properties that made up his firm's $1B-plus real estate portfolio, KXAN out of Austin reports.

Both men have been caught up in a yearlong saga involving federal authorities investigating a laundry list of criminal complaints, including bribery and corruption. You can read more about the case in Bisnow's breakdown.

Texas Attorney General Paxton ended up in the fray when assistant attorneys general complained of how Paxton handled a complaint from Paul regarding the FBI raid. Both men have continued to deny any wrongdoing.

The newest claim entangling the attorney general is a report that Paxton at one point intervened in a civil case related to Paul's properties and received a campaign donation from the real estate executive after his alleged intervention, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Now, in the wake of the publicity storm, Paul's firm is facing signs of financial distress.

The real estate investor, who was named to the Forbes "30 Under 30" list back in 2016, amassed a $1B-plus real estate empire under his World Class Capital Group firm, including the 717 Harwood skyscraper in Downtown Dallas. 

As recently as this week, a firm controlled by World Class that used an Austin shopping center to collateralize a loan landed in a lawsuit over the borrower's failure to make loan obligations, KXAN reports. 

The lawsuit follows on the heels of news reports from the Austin American-Statesman that assert Austin properties owned by Paul and World Class were recently sold in a Travis County foreclosure auction, according to KVUE. Paul's firm reportedly defaulted on more than $250M in debt by the end of October, according to the Austin American-Statesman.