April 10, 2018
Lawyers representing President Donald Trump's namesake business appealed directly to Panama's president for help in a dispute over a luxury Panama City hotel, The Associated Press reported Monday. The AP said it obtained a letter dated March 22 in which the law firm Britton & Iglesias asked Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela to intervene in the legal dispute, arguing that the courts denied the Trump Organization due process and violated a bilateral treaty. The letter also warned that there could be consequences for Panama if he didn't, the AP reported. Panama's vice president and foreign secretary, Isabel Saint Malo, said her office was copied on the letter, which she described as urging the executive branch "to interfere in an issue clearly of the judicial branch." The letter brings to the forefront issues involving Trump's businesses and potential conflicts of interest.
The dispute gained notoriety in February when Orestes Fintiklis, the majority owner of the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Panama City, arrived with associates in the lobby with the aim of ousting the Trump Organization, which has managed the hotel since its 2011 opening. The organization, however, refused to leave. Over the next few days, police were called to the property to "keep the peace," the AP reported. And after Fintiklis and his associates delivered termination notices to Trump Organization employees at the hotel, witnesses said they saw Trump executives moving files to a room to be shredded. Fintiklis claimed victory last month, saying Panamanian authorities allowed him to take over the hotel's administration. "Today, this dispute has been settled by the judges and the authorities of this country," Fintiklis said, adding that he was so impressed by Panama's legal system that he would seek citizenship in the country. The hotel has since been renamed the Bahia Grand. Instead of divesting himself of his businesses or placing them into a blind trust before taking office, Trump passed control to his two sons and a senior Trump Organization executive — a move ethics experts said did not go far enough in addressing potential conflicts of interest.
