By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE American investigator hired by environmental group Save The Bays to investigate Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard and the two “hit men” he allegedly contracted, never had a work permit to conduct his investigations, Director of Immigration William Pratt said on Thursday.

Mr Pratt said John Joseph DiPaolo, a Fort Lauderdale investigator, entered the country as a “regular visitor”, according to the department’s records.

Mr Pratt’s comments came more than a week after Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade questioned how Mr DiPaolo was able to come into the Bahamas and conduct an investigation without the permission of the Royal Bahamas Police Force or a work permit from the Department of Immigration.

Former Assistant Commissioner of Police Paul Thompson also questioned the same on Thursday, suggesting that at the very least, Mr DiPaolo could have enlisted the services of a local security firm and have them apply for a temporary work permit for him to use.

Mr DiPaolo, along with a team of retired FBI and Scotland Yard professionals and Bahamian investigators, conducted a lengthy investigation into claims that Mr Nygard contracted two “criminals” – Livingston “Toggie” Bullard and Wisler “Bobo” Davilma – to harass, intimidate and cause physical harm and property damage to four directors of the Save The Bays organisation; Reverend CB Moss; a government official and several others.

The investigation is part of a controversy surrounding how Mr Nygard allegedly orchestrated a murderous plot against his billionaire neighbour Louis Bacon and lawyer Fred Smith, his chief opponents in an ongoing campaign against development at Nygard Cay.

On March 14, Mr Greenslade questioned how Mr DiPaolo came into the country to “work without any reference to the Royal Bahamas Police Force.”

Mr Greenslade said at the time that he would be speaking to Mr Pratt “to see if he has anything on file” regarding Mr DiPaolo’s entry into the country.

When questioned on Thursday, Mr Pratt said: “He doesn’t have a work permit, not to my knowledge.”

“According to our records he entered as a visitor,” Mr Pratt continued. “Whether he deceived the officers and pretended to be a tourist that’s another thing. But apparently he was admitted as a regular visitor. According to our records he never had a work permit.”

Mr Thompson also weighed in on the matter, suggesting that while the work Mr DiPaolo and the others conducted might not have been illegal, their “coming in and doing the work” without a permit was.

“To do it legally, and not to break the laws of The Bahamas, a security or a investigator coming in here should make contact with a firm here or a person here who can get a temp permit for him to come in,” he said. “When he comes in he’s working, he’s interviewing people, he’s taking pictures and that type of thing. Now if he’s going to do that he should get permission from immigration because he’s working. That’s my take on it. Not to just come in.”

Mr Thompson also said that the Royal Bahamas Police Force should have been engaged a lot sooner in the matter.

“I think the people who knew about this a year ago, more than a year ago, should have gone to the police,” he said. “If you have two alleged hit men living in your country, the police should know about it. If I knew that this fellow is a hit man I’m going to the police.

“This is what honest, decent citizens, law-abiding citizens should do. So if this was known, from what I’ve been reading from last year February, the police should have been in on that long time, and those men would have been picked up. But you see people don’t have faith in our police force, and politicians in particular, from all areas, do not respect the police.”

Last week, Mr Greenslade announced that he had launched an official investigation into the allegations. He said the independent investigation would determine whether there is anything of a criminal nature that the RBPF should be pursuing.