Trump Building in Panama Connected to Organized Crime
According to new reports by NBC News and Reuters, customers and investors of the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower in Panama City carry deep ties to organized crime and drug trafficking.
A Brazilian real estate salesman who worked with the Trumps to attract buyers to the Trump property told NBC that the Trumps never asked any questions about who was buying these properties.
“I had some customers with questionable backgrounds,” said Alexandre Ventura Nogueira, who spoke to NBC on camera but under disguise from an undisclosed European city.
“Nobody ever asked me. Banks never asked. Developer didn’t ask and (the) Trump Organization didn’t ask. Nobody ask, ‘Who are the customers, where did the money come from?’ No, nobody ask.”
The Reuters and NBC News investigation said it found no indication that the Trump family or the Trump Organization engaged in any illegal activity or know of the backgrounds of people who did have links to organized crime.
The Trump Organization tried to distance itself from this recent news report.
“The Trump Organization was not the owner, developer or seller of the Trump Ocean Club Panama project,” the statement said. “Because of its limited role, the company was not responsible for the financing of the project and had no involvement in the sale of units or the retention of any real estate brokers.”
However, Reuters writes that Nogueira “set out to impress” Ivanka Trump. In an interview with Reuters, Nogueira said he met and spoke with Ivanka “many times” when she was handling the Trump Organization’s involvement in the Panama development. “She would remember me,” he said.
