Thugs, Leeches, Shouting and Shoving at Trump Hotel in Panama
The Trump Organization declined to reveal the hotel’s occupancy rates, but in a letter to hotel unit owners, the company argued
that the hotel "continues to outperform the market by a wide margin," despite a weakening hotel market in Panama.
In a 2007 bond offering, Newland said the Trump name would be a boon to the project: "We benefit from the international prestige
and name recognition associated with the Trump brand name." The project united the Trumps with influential political figures, including Ricardo Martinelli, the president of Panama at the time.
By KIRK SEMPLE, BEN PROTESS and STEVE EDERMARCH 3, 2018
PANAMA — The Trump International Hotel and Tower here is President Trump’s only hotel property in Latin America.
Panama City was then awash with international investors
and a booming economy, earning it the nickname, "Dubai of Latin America." Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s chief legal officer, said President Trump had no role in the current dispute.
A hotel building boom over the past decade has tripled the number of hotel rooms in the
country, according to Armando Rodríguez, president of the Panamanian Hotel Association.
The Trump Organization, in turn, has accused Mr. Fintiklis of using "thug-like, mob-style tactics" in trying to force his way into the hotel’s administrative offices, which prompted the physical
and verbal altercations, and of engaging in a "fraudulent scheme" to strip the property of its Trump management and branding.
In a letter marked "Private & Confidential" to the hotel’s other owners, the businessman, Orestes Fintiklis, likened the Trumps to
leeches who had attached to the property, "draining our last drops of blood," according to a copy reviewed by The New York Times.