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 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.