Piano-playing businessman wrests control of hotel from the Trump Organization

The Trump Ocean Club International Hotel.
(Image credit: RODRIGO ARANGUA/AFP/Getty Images)

The majority owner of Panama City's Trump International Hotel has managed to successfully boot out the Trump Organization after a fierce, musical tussle over the building, The Washington Post reports.

Miami-based Cypriot businessman Orestes Fintiklis had struggled in recent weeks to fire the Trump Organization, which has managed the hotel since it opened in 2011. Fintiklis argued that the Trump Organization had poorly managed the hotel and that the undesirability of the Trump brand had hurt revenue, while the Trump Organization maintained that its contract was still valid. A Panamanian legal official sided with Fintiklis, allowing him to assume control of the building Monday.

"Today this dispute has been settled by the judges and the authorities of this country," Fintiklis said, then played a victory tune on the piano in the lobby:

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Fintiklis has indicated his intention to strip the Trump name from the building. If he does so, his will be the fourth hotel to lose its Trump name since the president won the election in November 2016, The Washington Post writes. Fintiklis' victory also means the Trump Organization has lost its only hotel in Latin America. Read more about Panama City's Trump International Hotel and its incredibly shady buyers here at The Week.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.