The same week in which partners of a luxurious shopping center with a sea view, located on the east coast of Panama City, filed a tutela against one of the executives of a powerful real estate company in that country – for an alleged fraud exceeding 18 million dollars -, the involved firm was setting up a stand at the latest Grand Real Estate Hall in Bogotá.
In the international pavilion of Corferias, the company began promoting everything from investments in short-term rental projects in exclusive buildings with spas, rooftop bars, and pools, to residences in Playa Bonita, on the outskirts of Panama City.
Travel and business under scrutiny
It is about Empresas Bern, a Panamanian business group founded in 1978, with more than 160 real estate projects, one of the main hotel operators in the neighboring country.
Industry players assure that, alongside the search for investors in Colombia, the investigative section of the Fifth Prosecutor’s Office for crimes against economic heritage in Panama received a complaint filed by the company Costa del Este Town Center Group S.A., which triggered a complex legal battle.
Therefore, they are requesting that the matter be verified.
EL TIEMPO investigated and established that the complaint involves several members of the Bern family – company executives -, for their role in a business exceeding 18 million dollars carried out, according to the complainants, behind the board of directors of the project’s back.
The complaint was filed against Herman Bern — one of the founders of Empresas Bern — and several of his children, including José Manuel Bern Barbero, who has been vice president of the company and was summoned last Friday, July 10, to a hearing for charges of alleged fraud and aggravated theft, a proceeding which, according to Panamanian media, he did not attend.
The legal mess
The controversy arose in 2013, when they began planning the construction of the luxurious hotel and business complex. The parties signed a shareholders’ agreement and a share contract, and it was agreed that the Town Center Group would provide the land for the project, while the Empresas Bern Group, through the firm Luzeo Corporation, committed to making capital contributions through financing services, studies, and administration for the project’s development.
However, deep differences arose regarding the management of funds, the construction of the buildings, and the payment of fees.
In an arbitration award known by EL TIEMPO, dated May 24, 2024, it is stated that the most critical point was the construction of a hotel (Component H) that, according to Town Center, the Bern company carried out unilaterally and without the formal authorization required by the corporate bodies of the joint venture.
The Tribunal determined that the hotel construction did not have the approval of the board of directors or the shareholders’ meeting of the group and concluded that the Bern business group acted in “bad faith” by building on land that did not belong to them, knowingly, and therefore denied the Bern group’s claim to recognize the $19.9 million invested or to transfer ownership of the hotel.
‘Inconsistent reports’
The file also reads that, after analyzing the evidence and expert reports, the Arbitration Tribunal determined that the information provided by the Bern business group to the shareholders about the progress of the construction was not consistent with the reality of the project’s costs and timelines.
Because of these facts, the Panama Conciliation and Arbitration Center concluded that the Bern group failed in management, construction, and marketing obligations in the megaproject and ordered them to pay 78.3 million balboas in compensation (about 250 billion pesos) and an additional 7.54 million (24 billion pesos) for arbitration costs and expenses.
The defense of Empresas Bern
The plaintiff firm stated that the Panamanian procedural code imposes the obligation of confidentiality and therefore they could not make statements.
However, through authorized spokespeople, Empresas Bern sent EL TIEMPO an extensive statement beginning by clarifying that the controversy around the Town Center project originates from commercial differences between partners, and that the related processes continue their course within legal instances, without a definitive decision.
And after recalling that they have established themselves as a benchmark of solidity, responsible management, and business ethics in Panama, they add that since the beginning of the situation they have acted with total transparency and have fully cooperated with the competent authorities, exercising the mechanisms provided by law to defend their rights and reiterating their absolute respect for due process and Panamanian institutions.
‘They do not affect other projects’
“It is important to reiterate that the facts related to these cases correspond to independent companies and have no legal, administrative, financial, or operational relation with the portfolio of real estate projects, business units, or current operations of Empresas Bern. Consequently, these situations do not affect the projects that the company currently develops and markets, nor the commitments made to its clients and investors globally,” they state.
(Consult here all the articles from EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit)
And they emphasize that each of the projects promoted by Empresas Bern has an independent equity structure with the corresponding fiduciary mechanisms designed to ensure the proper management of resources and the protection of clients and investors.
Therefore, they assure that they maintain their operations with total normality, reaffirming the integrity, transparency, and development that characterize them.
Finally, they state that regarding PH Casa Bonita, the process concluded and the competent authorities determined that Empresas Bern and its representatives were absolved of responsibility, so the case is closed.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
u.investigativa@eltiempo.com
@UinvestigativaET
