Amid accusations of mismanagement, overspending, and undisclosed bonuses to executives, the directors of a Donald Trump-branded development in Panama City—Central America’s largest building—fired Trump’s company, the Associated Press reports, as the manager of the building and the hotel it contains.

The building is the Panama City Trump Ocean Club, a 70-storymixed-use luxury development. “Own Panama,” marketing materials direct. “Whoever said less is more never had more. And they’ve certainly never stayed at the Trump Ocean Club® International Hotel & Tower Panama.”

“I am proud to develop this extraordinary high rise,” Trump said in one 2007 promotional brochure, the AP reports. Except, he wasn’t actually the developer: he just licensed the Trump brand (for $75.4 million). In 2011, the developer stopped making debt payments on the money. In the bankruptcy deal that followed, the AP reports, Trump earned $20 million. That’s good business!

Trump held three contracts at the building: branding, hotel management, and building management:

Some owners feared that Trump’s management might be disproportionately spending the building’s budget in ways that benefited the hotel instead of the building’s other components. But despite repeated requests, Trump’s managers never provided a detailed breakdown of the costs generated by each of part of the building, and never established the separate bank accounts stipulated in their management contract. A senior Trump executive in New York told one owner in 2012 that maintaining five bank accounts would be too expensive.

Trump’s top employees in Panama also awarded themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses without seeking the authorization of unit owners, according to members of the board. Eric Trump said such payments were appropriately disclosed—though board members say they still don’t know the amounts of the bonuses.

Transparency concerns took on a heightened urgency given the Trumps’ failure to stay within its owner-approved budget.

“We made the budget, other than extraordinary things we can’t control,” said Eric Trump. He cited rising local costs and a broken water main as culprits for $1 million deficits in 2013 and 2014. “We had an unbelievable team, and we managed to an internationally renowned set of standards.”

Trump’s son Eric dismissed any allegations of mismanagement out of hand, saying the project is “an amazing icon and, frankly, a great testament to America.”

In late July, unit owners and representatives of the building casino and the developer organized to fire Trump. According to the AP, Trump attorney Alan Garten called the termination “a complete sham” before declaring that the Trump Organization was quitting and demanded a $5 million termination fee.


Image via Trump Hotel Collection. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.