Paul, David - former Centrust Bank Chairman - M...

Miami, Feb. 24, 1992--David L. Paul , former CenTrust Bank chairman, leaves federal court in Miami after surrendering on contempt of court charges.

From the Herald story:

David L. Paul , the former CenTrust Bank chairman, reported for jail Monday rather than turn over potentially damaging documents to a federal grand jury investigating him.

Though incarceration was a humbling setback for Paul , he and his attorneys contend that Monday's actions could set the stage for a greater legal victory.

By refusing to cooperate with the grand jury, Paul may now take his case to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. If he prevails there, he may be released from prison and, more significantly, be allowed to keep the potentially damaging documents from prosecutors.

"I think David feels so strongly that his constitutional rights have been violated that he is willing to pay this price to appeal to the 11th Circuit," said Aubrey Harwell, Paul 's attorney on criminal matters.

Paul , who did not have to report until 4 p.m., showed up at the U.S. marshal's office in downtown Miami at 10:30 a.m. with his son.

He was photographed, fingerprinted and assigned to a holding cell.

A bus with barred windows took him and other inmates to Metropolitan Correctional Center in South Dade on Monday evening. Going to jail on civil contempt cases, though relatively rare, isn't unheard of.

Paul's case wound through the courts and he ended up going to prison. In April 2004 the Herald's Joan Fleischmen wrote about his release after serving almost 10 years:

Former CenTrust chief David L. Paul is out of prison. The one-time multimillionaire power broker is living at Spectrum, a Miami halfway house, and working as a clerk at a graphics and design firm.

Paul , 64, walked out of Miami's Federal Correctional Institution's prison camp on April 2. He did nine years and three months of an 11-year sentence - bank and securities fraud - for spending $3.1 million from CenTrust 's coffers on a lavish lifestyle at his LaGorce Island compound.

During his first few days on the outside, Paul worked for attorney Guy Bailey Jr. - as a real estate consultant. But the Bureau of Prisons nixed that job, he says. Another work proposal: lecture college students on business ethics. The BOP shot that down, too, says Paul 's lawyer, Benson Weintraub.

``I've served my time,'' says Paul . ``To tell me that I can't use my education or my life experience in order to garner a living is crazy. I have no intention of spending my life flipping hamburgers. It isn't going to happen. It's wrong.''

His new job is at International Design & Display Group Inc. in Miami Lakes. The firm is owned by Ian Quinton and wife Debra. She was Paul 's personal assistant at CenTrust .

Miami looks different than when he entered prison on Jan. 2, 1995. Most noticeable: the building boom, the proliferation of cellphones, the widespread use of the Internet, even the colors. ``Everything in prison is either a drab beige or a drab green. There are no reds or blues or oranges.''

He says the toughest part was his separation from his children - David (``D.J.''), 36, a film producer in L.A.; Michael, 34, a real estate developer who shuttles between Miami and Boone, N.C., and Deanna, 17, who lives here. Soon, she'll be off to college - University of Pennsylvania, his alma mater, he says. Ex-wife Sandra, 54, divorced him in 1996. She is married to hotelier Stephen Muss, 75. Says Paul : ``Haven't seen her yet, but I will. I talk to her.''

The halfway house beats prison. ``The food is good, the rooms are clean.'' He expects to move into a family-owned condo in Bal Harbour by summer, and has three more years of supervised release. He owes more than $50 million in fines and restitution. He won't talk about his assets.

``People tell me I've changed,'' Paul says. ``I'm probably a little more tolerant - and a little more humble.''

The 48-story former Centrust Tower in downtown Miami, a monument to Paul's greed, is now the called Bank of America building.

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