Former Chicago Trump Tower board member sues, alleging financial misconduct, racketeering and retaliation
A former Trump Tower Chicago board member has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the Trump Organization of financial misconduct, racketeering, wire fraud and retaliation, including having him arrested in the tower's spa facilities.
Onisim Dorneanu, who lives in Oregon, Wisconsin, listed the Trump Organization, Inc., building management and the current condo association president as defendants in his lawsuit. He owned 16 units, including 12 in the tower's hotel, and lived there part time, the lawsuit says.
In the federal lawsuit, Dorneanu said after he joined the Board of Directors, he became aware of the condo association's "poor financial condition," the "high frequency" of losses for himself and other owners.
He said he became concerned about misallocated funds, actions to conceal financial information, misrepresentation of expenses and a practice of booking hotel units owned by the tower at a significantly higher rate than units owned by individuals. The lawsuit alleges this is pattern of racketeering to defraud Dorneanu and other investors, and that the defendants committed acts of wire fraud in pursuit of this scheme.
The suit also says hotel employees told Dorneanu that between late 2023 and early 2024 they had witnessed high-level employees "misappropriating the Association's and the room owners' funds and property for their personal use."
Dorneanu said he raised these concerns to the condo board's president, who is allegedly also a flooring vendor doing business with the hotel, who dismissed them and told him he had overstepped his bounds as a director on the board.
When he then raised those concerns further to executives at Trump Inc., he claims they flew to Chicago for an investigation his lawsuit describes as a "cover-up."
After a Trump Inc. executive denied his concerns were valid, and after once again raising the alarm about the hotel's money management, Dorneanu said he resigned from the board in August 2024.
Days later, he alleges a hotel attorney sent him a letter accusing him of not acting "to address any legitimate business concerns, but rather, to seek retribution against certain individuals." The attorney ordered him to stop his investigation into any financial misconduct and told him he would be banned from the spa, health club and other communal spaces at Trump Tower Chicago, areas the lawsuit says he "paid handsomely for."
On Feb. 2, Chicago police arrested Dorneanu in the tower's steam room and charged with misdemeanor trespass, an act which the lawsuit alleges was part of the campaign of retaliation and intimidation by the defendants.
That retaliation campaign, he said, left him with no choice but to sell all his units at the tower. The first was listed for sale in March.
The lawsuit does not ask for a specific amount of damages, instead asking for compensatory and punitive damages to be determined at trial.
