Report: Trump Panama Tower ‘Riddled’ With Drug, Mob Money

A Panama City condo high-rise development that carried the Trump Organization’s marketing imprimatur in the late 2000s was “riddled” with drug traffickers and international mafia figures, beset with dubious sales, and became, as one financial-crimes investigator called it, a “a vehicle for money laundering.” A joint NBC News and Reuters investigation, along with a report issued by anti-corruption watchdog Global Watch, says transactions at the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower served as a laundering operation for Colombian cartel proceeds and Russian human traffickers, and Trump Organization officials did little if anything to question where the money was coming from. One key broker, Alexandre Henrique Ventura Nogueira—now a fugitive in Europe—told interviewers that President Trump and his adult children were directly involved in the marketing, management, and even the design of the skyscraper, which opened in 2011. Ventura Nogueira said he had at least 10 direct meetings with Ivanka Trump about the sales. Ivanka Trump didn’t respond to requests for comment. The White House referred questions to the Trump Organization, who legal counsel denied involvement in sales: “No one at the Trump Organization, including the Trump family, has any recollection of ever meeting or speaking with this individual.”