March 6 (UPI) — Police evicted the Trump Organization from the Trump International Hotel in Panama on Monday following the end of an ongoing legal battle.
Orestes Fintiklis, who obtained control over more than 200 units in the Ocean Club Trump Hotel, gained access to the tower’s main office late Monday morning after a Panamanian court ruled in his favor and moved to eject the Trump Organization.
The company run by U.S. President Donald Trump‘s sons held a long-term contract to manage the property in Panama City, its only hotel venture in Latin America.
“This is a purely commercial dispute that just spun out of control,” Fintiklis said. “And today this dispute has been settled by the judges and the authorities of this country.”
Fintiklis argued the Trump Organization had mismanaged the property in documents filed in a U.S. court in Florida.
“Operators’ gross incompetence and deficient sales organization stands in the way of [the] owner making any profit on its investment, all the while lining the [Trump Organization’s] pockets,” he said.
Police visited the property two other times before Monday, leading the Trump Organization to issue a statement accusing Fintiklis of enlisting “a rogue private security team and others” to launch “a coordinated attack to physically take over the management of the Hotel.”
The Trump organization said Fintiklis resorted to “mob style tactics” by repeatedly attempting to “infiltrate and disrupt its computer systems and threatening and intimidating any employee of the Hotel that resisted.”
Trump Organization officials believe the firm will eventually regain control over the property and the eviction only serves to place the hotel under ownership of a third party while the majority ownership dispute is settled in arbitration.
“Based upon the merits, Trump Hotels remains fully confident that it will not only prevail, but recover all of its damages, costs and attorneys’ fees, including those damages, costs and attorneys’ fees arising from today’s events,” the organization said.
The Trump name was removed from outside the hotel shortly after the eviction and Fintiklis played and sang a Greek anti-facist song on the lobby piano.
“Today Panama has made us proud,” he said.
