Over the course of Ken Paxton’s decade-long rise to prominence, through scandal and turmoil, questions about his finances have followed him. Opponents scrutinized his real estate holdings and suggested that he has used his public office to enrich himself personally — allegations that have never been proven.
With Mr. Paxton locked in a close, contentious race for U.S. Senate in Texas, his Democratic opponent has questioned how Mr. Paxton, the state attorney general, has amassed a multimillion dollar real estate portfolio on a public servant’s salary.
Now, Mr. Paxton’s federal financial disclosure forms and additional records obtained by The New York Times shed light on one unusual source of his income: a cellular tower company from which Mr. Paxton made between $100,000 and $1 million about every 18 months.
The company controls at least one tower in a city north of Dallas that was erected around 20 years ago on the property of a hospital where Mr. Paxton was a board member.
Mr. Paxton co-founded the company, Premier Vertical Properties, in 2005; he reported serving on the board of the hospital, Centennial Medical Center, from 2003 to 2013. Records show that Premier signed a deal to lease space on the tower to T-Mobile in 2006; the hospital’s parent company at the time, Tenet Hospitals, was mentioned in the lease agreements.
The terms of any agreement that may have been struck between Mr. Paxton’s company and the hospital are not clear. Tenet did not respond to questions, and the hospital’s current administration said it could not provide information about a deal made before its tenure.
Industry experts said a hospital’s board would need to review and approve a decision to lease land to a cell tower company such as Premier. It is not clear whether Mr. Paxton, as a board member, voted on any contract between the hospital and his company, or whether he had participated in any such discussions.
In a statement provided to The Times, Nick Maddux, Mr. Paxton’s campaign spokesman, did not address questions about Premier’s dealings with the hospital during Mr. Paxton’s time on the board.
“This week, every major publication in Texas covered the overflow crowds at Attorney General Paxton’s Protect the Texas Promise tour, and the Times spent that same week combing through twenty-year-old lease paperwork on a cell tower that Ken Paxton has disclosed publicly for many years,” Mr. Maddux said in the statement. “That is not journalism; it’s a search for a story that does not exist.”
Industry experts expressed surprise that a cell tower in a prime spot — near a highway and a hospital in a busy area — would be snapped up by a cell tower company like Mr. Paxton’s, which had been created only the year before, and not by a larger, more established firm.
“It’s basically like the guy that steps to bat and hits a home run off one swing,” said Hugh Odom, who runs a cell tower consulting firm that exclusively represents landowners.
Mr. Paxton formed Premier Vertical Properties with Richard Sine in 2005, state business records show. The company listed Mr. Paxton’s then-private practice law office in McKinney as the company’s address.
Less than a year later, Premier signed a 10-year agreement with T-Mobile for the wireless network operator to lease space on a cell tower the company controlled in Frisco, according to property records filed in Collin County. The hospital property, owned by Tenet Hospitals at the time, is listed as the location for the cell tower in the T-Mobile agreement, as well as for agreements with Verizon and DISH Wireless that were signed later, after Mr. Paxton left the hospital’s board.
Mr. Sine’s signature is on all three lease agreements. While Mr. Paxton’s is not, the site name on the T-Mobile paperwork is called “Paxton MP.”
Mr. Sine, who has a background in the telecommunications industry, did not respond to multiple inquiries about Premier.
Cell tower companies typically make money by renting property from a landowner, erecting a tower and then leasing space on the tower to mobile network providers. The less the tower company pays to lease the land and the more it gets from the providers, the bigger its profits.
It’s unclear if Premier Vertical Properties operates just this one tower. The company is not listed in a federal tower database that mostly includes towers over 200 feet or in potential aircraft pathways.
Mr. Paxton did not disclose the site of this or any other tower on his state or federal financial forms. The Times located the Frisco tower in county deed records.
Mr. Paxton first disclosed his interest in Premier Vertical Properties on his state ethics form filed in 2006. That year, he reported that the company had assets of less than $5,000. This year, his state ethics form showed that the company had assets of “at least $55,610 or more,” but did not mention the company’s profits.
Last year, Mr. Paxton filed detailed federal candidacy paperwork as part of his Senate run. In these documents, he reported income between $100,001 and $1 million from a cell tower affiliated with Premier Vertical Properties. The cell tower’s value was listed as between $250,001 and $500,000.
Mr. Paxton makes $153,750 as the attorney general of Texas.
Margaret Dylus-Yukins, senior legal council in ethics with the Campaign Legal Center, a watchdog group, said it is difficult to ascertain Mr. Paxton’s total wealth from his federal disclosure because the value of some of his investments is shielded in a trust. But she said the cell tower appears to be an important asset.
“It does look like Mr. Paxton’s investment in the Premier Vertical Properties is one of his top sources of income,” she said.
Industry experts said the value of the cell tower is likely even higher. If income was at the low end of the range, around $100,000, the value of the tower should be closer to $2 million, said Ken Schmidt, a cell tower expert.
“The asset valuation seems odd to me,” he said. “There’s a disconnect.”
Mr. Paxton’s assets and investments have come under repeated scrutiny during his decade as the state’s top lawyer. He has been the subject of a bribery investigation over a $100,000 gift he took from a man with business before his agency, and a grand jury investigated his role in a land deal in McKinney. In 2015, months after he assumed statewide office, he was charged with felony securities fraud when he was accused of failing to disclose that he was making commission for recommending a friend’s business.
Those cases were all closed or settled without Mr. Paxton admitting fault or being convicted of a crime.
In 2023, Mr. Paxton was impeached on corruption charges in which he was accused of accepting a bribe from a campaign donor, among other allegations of malfeasance. He was acquitted of the impeachment charges after a trial in the Texas Senate, and has long denied any wrongdoing while in office.
Mr. Paxton’s assets, including a growing real estate portfolio, were investigated during the impeachment proceedings. Last month, The Times reported that he had added three additional condos to that portfolio.
Pooja Salhotra contributed reporting.