Years passed between the beginning of Paxton’s office’s involvement in the federal investigation of the Austin property developer and the developer’s eventual incarceration.
TODAY IN AUSTIN, Texas — An arrest was made by the FBI on Thursday of a businessman who was at the core of the crisis that led to the unprecedented impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The arrest was made in response to fresh concerns about the men’s activities that were generated by financial documents that the Republican’s attorneys made public to clear him of bribery charges.
Nate Paul, age 36, was taken into custody by federal agents in the afternoon, as the Travis County Sheriff’s Office reported. Paul was then transported to an Austin facility for booking. According to the federal detainer placed on him, he was being held on criminal accusations; however, the nature of those allegations was not specified.
Paxton’s office was embroiled in the federal investigation of an Austin real estate developer for years before the latter’s arrest, setting in motion the events that led to his impeachment earlier this month. These events culminated in Paxton’s removal from office.
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The attorneys representing Paul did not immediately respond to requests for comment. One of Paxton’s attorneys, Dan Cogdell, said that he had not received any new information on the arrest from Paxton himself. The FBI and the federal prosecutor’s office in West Texas declined to comment via their respective spokespeople.
The Austin, Texas, house and offices of Paul were searched by FBI agents in 2019 to investigate Paul’s troublesome real estate firm. The next year, seven of Paxton’s top aides went to the FBI to accuse him of bribery and abusing his influence to help Paul, who had accused federal investigators of wrongdoing in connection with a real estate development case. These allegations were made in response to Paul’s accusations that the investigators had mishandled the matter.
The allegations that have been made by Paxton’s workers are at the core of the articles of impeachment, which were approved by a state House of Representatives that Republicans dominate. These allegations have prompted an ongoing investigation by the FBI.
Paxton’s legal team produced a bank statement on Wednesday that included a wire transfer from the year 2020. The payment suggests that Paxton, and not a contributor, spent more than 120,000 dollars on home repairs.
On October 1, 2020, the day of the wire transfer, Paxton’s subordinates signed a letter alerting the director of human resources for the Texas attorney general’s office that they had reported Paxton to the FBI. The letter was sent on the same day as the wire transfer.
The payment of $121,000 was sent to Paul’s buddy and business partner, the manager of Cupertino Builders, according to corporate and judicial papers filed with the state of California.
The company was legally formed in Texas more than three weeks after the acquisition was finalized. The identities of the people who control the company with the same name as the one formed in Delaware in April of that year are still unknown.
Cupertino Builders was used by Narsimha Raju Sagiraju, who was convicted of fraud in California in 2016, to make “fraudulent transfers” from Paul’s firm to Sagiraju’s, according to a report that was produced by a court-appointed monitor for many of Paul’s companies last year. The monitor was assigned by the court to keep an eye on Paul’s enterprises. According to the paper, Paul referred to Sagiraju as his “friend.”
Even though Paul was the one who hired the woman with whom Paxton was having an adulterous affair, Paul has maintained that he did not bribe Paxton. In a deposition, Paul referred to Sagiraju as an “independent contractor” and said that he could not recollect the circumstances surrounding the first time they met. Paul and Sagiraju had met before.
No one knew when the payment was made or who paid for the modifications at Paxton’s Austin house until Paxton’s new legal team held a news conference on Wednesday when they condemned the impeachment and displayed financial data on a projection screen. The Wall Street Journal was the first publication to make the announcement.
According to Tony Buzbee, a prominent Houston attorney Paxton hired over the weekend and who held the news conference, receipts “clearly demonstrate” that Paxton paid for the repairs. Buzbee made this statement in an email sent on Thursday. He did not answer any questions about Cupertino Builders or the schedule of payments when they were posed to him.
General Paxton was falsely accused of not paying for the improvements to his home by the lawmakers who supported this phony impeachment, even though there was no proof to back the assertion that he had not paid for the renovations. Buzbee vehemently refuted these allegations.
Paxton, who was only the third sitting official in the history of Texas to be impeached, has subsequently attacked the impeachment process, alleging that he was never given a fair chance to answer the claims against him in front of the state senate. This was Paxton’s position after he was removed from office.
On Wednesday, Buzbee assured reporters, “We have the receipts,” as photographs of the papers displayed on the screen in the background of the presentation. As soon as we became aware of this foolishness, we set out to provide them with evidence such as this.
Paxton’s trial will begin before the Texas Senate on or before August 28; meanwhile, he has been removed from office until the outcome of the problem. Paxton’s wife, Senator Angela Paxton, is one of the 31 senators who will serve on the jury; she has yet to say whether or not she would recuse herself from the case.
The Paxtons bought a house in Austin in 2018, where they reside. In the court documents, several of Paxton’s former workers said that Paul “was involved in” the refurbishment that took place two years later.
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Paxton is facing 20 counts of impeachment, one of which is the claim that he devised a complex plan to steal $200 million worth of the developer’s assets. This allegation has not been substantiated. In 2019, the FBI searched Paul’s home; nevertheless, he has not been charged, and his legal team has denied any wrongdoing on his part. The search was done in 2019.
There are no construction permits from the time period of the refurbishment on file with the city. In 2021, the FBI sent a subpoena to a different Austin construction business, not Cupertino Builders, wanting records connected to the home modifications that Paxton had completed in January of 2020 on his own property.
Cupertino Builders was formally established as a company in October 2020, and the website of the Texas Secretary of State shows that it was dissolved the following year in December 2021. In a deposition for a different case, the manager of the company, Sagiraju, said that he gave “consulting” services to Paul’s company and used an email account that was supplied by Paul’s company. Sagiraju also testified that he used an email account that was provided by Paul’s company.
According to the record of the deposition, Sagiraju confessed that, before moving to Austin, he had served time in a state prison in California for the crimes of securities fraud and grand larceny. They were acquainted to one another by a common friend before the defendant’s stay behind bars, and he indicated that he and Paul collaborated on “a few projects” after that.
The attorney for Sagiraju did not immediately respond to a message that requested a comment.
Paxton is the only defendant in a separate indictment that dates back to 2015 and charges him with securities fraud.
