Daniel Morton Paradies, the Atlanta businessman who built the Paradies Shops airport concessions business into a global company but was jailed in the 1990s as part of a bribery scandal, died of natural causes Tuesday in Longboat Key, Fla. He was 92.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Friday at Ahavath Achim Synagogue, 600 Peachtree Battle Ave., Atlanta. Burial will follow at Arlington Memorial Park, 201 Mount Vernon Highway N.W., Sandy Springs. H.M. Patterson & Son funeral home is in charge of arrangements.
Following a call from Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield, Paradies started his concession business in 1960 with a small toy store at what was then Atlanta Municipal Airport. Paradies & Co., the family business, was a wholesale distributor of toys and housewares, but Paradies was intrigued by the idea of a stand-alone store, according to a company history.
The private Paradies Shops now has 550 locations in 75 airports and hotels across the U.S. and Canada, including 20 stores at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
“He built a tremendous company out of a little toy shop out of the airport,” said Paradies’ brother-in-law, U.S. District Senior Judge Marvin Shoob. “It’s amazing. It’s a story of American success.”
But Paradies, known as Dan, spent time in jail after a 1994 conviction on 83 counts of mail fraud and conspiracy. He supplied cash for payoffs delivered by another concessionaire as part of a scheme to buy influence at Atlanta City Hall in exchange for reduced rents at Hartsfield and other favorable legislation.
U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates, who was an assistant federal prosecutor at the time, said in 1998 that “Mr. Paradies committed some very serious crimes. He made illegal payments to public officials … and contributed greatly to the corruption in our city government. He has never acknowledged his guilt or expressed any contrition.”
Paradies was sentenced to 33 months in prison; the sentence was later reduced to 18 months. After the conviction, Paradies retired as president and CEO of the company, which didn’t bid on any contracts at the Atlanta airport for more than a decade.
In the latest round of airport contracts in 2012, Paradies Shops won a large retail contract. The company is now headed by Paradies’ nephew, Gregg Paradies. He was unavailable for comment Thursday, but said previously that he was proud of the way the company bounced back from the scandal.
“We tried harder to be the best,” Gregg Paradies said in 2005. “We knew we had to raise the bar to get over the cloud.”
Shoob said he thought Dan Paradies’ conviction made him better appreciate his freedom. He likely could have received a pardon, Shoob said, but Paradies said he didn’t care to seek one.
“He wasn’t bitter,” Shoob said. “He showed his mettle.”
Shoob said Paradies befriended other prisoners, and set up a fund that sent birthday and Christmas presents to their children.
A sister, Janice Paradies Shoob, said he was generous — but also so charming and likable that he could easily convince business partners to donate to his charities of choice. Paradies set up a foundation in Florida that donated to organizations in Atlanta and elsewhere.
Janice Shoob said her brother was “loving and funny.” When he chaperoned her dates when they were younger, the men always liked him. She did, too.
“I had a better time with Dan than I did with my dates,” she said. “He was wonderful, he was brash, he was interesting.”
Paradies was preceded in death by his wife, Billie. Additional survivors include a brother, James Paradies of Atlanta; a sister, Doris Haber of Houston; two sons, Major Richard Paradies of Atlanta and Jed Paradies of Tucson; and four grandchildren.
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