Peter F. Paul - The Cuban Coffee Caper

The Cuban Coffee Caper

In the 1970s, Peter Paul was a lawyer in Miami, Florida, representing foreign governments and political leaders in South America and the Caribbean. He also served as President of the Miami World Trade Center and was the original owner and operator of the largest Foreign Trade Zone in the U.S., Miami Free Zone Inc. As a result of what Paul described as anti-Communist and anti-Castro political activities, he directed a fraud on the Cuban government of $8.75 million dollars by selling agents of Cuban president Fidel Castro nonexistent coffee. The plan apparently also involved sinking the ship that was to deliver the nonexistent coffee to hide the fraud from Castro and, according to TIME Magazine, to defraud its insurer, but the conspirators neglected to bribe a port official in Santo Domingo, and the people who were supposed to scuttle the boat were not allowed on board.

Paul pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges. When his home was raided by the police in connection with this crime, they found cocaine in his garage, and Paul also pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine with intent to distribute. He was sentenced to eight years in prison for the cocaine charge, and a concurrent three years for fraud; he was paroled after three years. His license to practice law was suspended as a result of the convictions, and he claims to have been sued by the Cuban government as well.

In 1983, Paul was caught traveling to Canada using the identity of a dead man; he pleaded guilty to federal charges of making false statements to customs inspectors. This was a violation of his parole terms from the 1979 felonies, and he went back to jail.