Panama condo owners reject Trump-backed fee hike amid mismanagement, bonus allegations

In May 2015, owners at the Trump-managed Trump Ocean Club condominium tower in Panama City voted down a Trump-backed proposal to recoup more than $2 million in building administration debt through a special assessment charged to unit owners. The debt had accumulated during roughly four years in which Trump Panama Condominium Management LLC -- overseen by Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump alongside Donald Trump -- ran budget deficits of about $1.1 million in both 2013 and 2014, paid its own executives undisclosed bonuses, and did not keep the separate hotel/residential accounting required under its management contract, according to an Associated Press investigation. Trump Organization general counsel Alan Garten dismissed the board's mismanagement concerns as "a complete sham," while Eric Trump attributed the overspending to factors such as a broken water main and rising local labor costs without addressing the bonus allegations. The board formally terminated Trump's management contract on July 28, 2015; the Trump Organization refused to accept the firing, framed its exit as a resignation, demanded a $5 million termination fee, and in November 2015 filed a confidential $75 million arbitration claim against the owners with the International Chamber of Commerce. Contemporaneous coverage dates the owners' vote only to May 2015 without specifying the day; this record uses a mid-month placeholder date.

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