Great Value Storage Founder Ordered To Report To Jail

Nate Paul, an Austin, Texas real estate developer and founder of Great Value Storage, was ordered Friday to report to the Travis County Jail this this week to serve a 10-day criminal contempt-of-court sentence.

State District Judge Jan Soifer instructed Paul to begin serving the sentence Nov. 15 for "continuously refusing" to comply with a court order in a civil case in which he is accused of defrauding a nonprofit.

The sentence had been delayed as Paul sought an appeal of Soifer's order. U.S. District Judge David Allan Ezra on Thursday cleared the way for Soifer to order Paul to jail.

The civil case is separate from federal charges against Paul, who was once featured in Forbes Magazine for building a real estate investment firm that had amassed a $1 billion portfolio in 17 states of office buildings, self-storage facilities, retail centers, apartments, and student housing. He also bought the KPMG Tower in downtown Dallas, Texas.

Paul's trial in connection with an  eight-count indictment on federal financial crimes handed up in June 2023 and a follow-up four-count indictment announced in November is scheduled to begin early next year.

In a court hearing late last month, a federal investigator testified that one of Paul's former employees had told him that he witnessed Paul alter bank documents in an effort to obtain a real estate loan.

The disclosure came during a hearing in which Paul's attorneys argued that the federal investigatory process used to build the case against the developer was flawed and should be inadmissible at trial.