David L. Paul

Paul was born in on May 1, 1939, in Miami[1][2] to a Jewish family, the son of Ruth (née Goldstein) and Isadore Paul.[3] His father founded a chain of dry cleaning stores and died when he was ten.[3] His mother took her sons David L and Robert A. Paul first to Scranton, Pennsylvania where they stayed with her mother while Ruth was finding a place in New York for her and her two sons. Paul graduated from the Cheshire Academy in Cheshire, Connecticut and then the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.[4]

He started his career in Connecticut where his company, Paul Properties, built two controversial apartment buildings.[3] He then took control of a Massachusetts Real Estate Investment Trust called the Westport Company.[3] In 1979, Westport purchased the American Furniture Mart in Chicago for $6.5 million with plans to convert it into apartments.[5] In 1983, Paul purchased the near bankrupt Dade Savings and Loan Association through the transfer of 92% of his interest in Westport,[5] renaming it CenTrust Bank.[3] By 1988, CenTrust was the largest thrift institution in the southeastern United States with $8.2 billion in assets.[3] He built the $90 million, I.M. Pei-designed CenTrust Tower.[3] In 1989, CenTrust lost $119 million[3] and in 1990, Centrust lost $1.7 billion and was seized by the federal government[6] after "excessive and inappropriate expenses and investments."[3] Paul was ousted as chairman.[6]

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.[6] 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.[6] Facing a maximum of 350 years in prison[6] he was sentenced to 11 years in prison and ordered to pay $65 million ($60 million in restitution and a $5 million fine).[7] He was released in 2004.[8]

Paul donated $500,000 to the University of Miami and $100,000 to Barry University.[3] Paul served as the head of the governing body of Jackson Memorial Hospital.[3] 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.[3]

Paul was married three times. In 1965, he married Lynn Pamela Goelet of the influential Huguenot Goelet family in a Jewish ceremony at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan;[9] they had two sons, Michael and David,[1] before they divorced.[3] 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.[10][11] Paul's third marriage was to Sandy Paul;[3] they had one daughter, Deanna, before divorcing and she remarried real estate developer Stephen Muss.[12]

Paul died from COVID-19-related causes on the morning of January 18, 2022, at Mt. Sinai hospital in New York City.[1]