David L. Paul

Paul was born in 1940[1] to a Jewish family, the son of Ruth (nee Goldstein) and Isadore Paul.[2] His father founded a chain of dry cleaning stores and died when he was ten.[2] His mother returned to New York City while her son remained in Florida where he was raised by a nurse and attended Catholic schools in Miami Beach, Florida[2]

He started his career in Connecticut where his company, David Paul Properties, built two controversial apartment buildings.[2] He then took control of a Massachusetts Real Estate Investment Trust called the Westport Company.[2] In 1979, Westport purchased the American Furniture Mart in Chicago for $6.5 million with plans to convert it into apartments.[3] In 1983, Paul purchased the near bankrupt Dade Savings and Loan Association through the transfer of 92% of his interest in Westport,[3] renaming it CenTrust Bank.[2] By 1988, CenTrust was the largest thrift institution in the southeastern United States with $8.2 billion in assets.[2] He built the $90 million, I.M. Pei-designed CenTrust Tower.[2] In 1989, CenTrust lost $119 million[2] and in 1990, Centrust lost $1.7 billion and was seized by the federal government[4] after "excessive and inappropriate expenses and investments."[2] Paul was ousted as chairman.[4]

On November 25, 1993, Paul was convicted of fraud in Federal Court for making personal use of CenTrust's funds while the savings and loan was failing.[4] Paul was convicted on 68 counts consisting of 47 counts of bank fraud, 9 of misapplication of Centrust funds, 5 of filing false tax returns, 4 of mail fraud, 2 of obstruction of regulators, one count of conspiracy and one count of making false entries on Centrust books.[4] Facing a maximum of 350 years in prison[4] he was sentenced to 11 years in prison and ordered to pay $65 million ($60 million in restitution and a $5 million fine).[5] He was released in 2004.[6]

Paul donated $500,000 to the University of Miami and $100,000 to Barry University.[2] Paul served as the head of the governing body of Jackson Memorial Hospital.[2] Through his CenTrust Political Action Committee, Paul donated to both Joe Biden's and Richard Gephardt's presidential campaigns as well as the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.[2]

Paul has been married three times. He had two sons with his first wife before they divorced.[2] He was introduced to his second wife, Joy Fererh Germont Simons (sister of composer Bruce Wolosoff) by fellow real estate developer and sometimes partner Sol Atlas; they divorced 2 months later.[7][8] Paul's third marriage was to Sandy Paul.[2]