Anna Nicole Denied Residency in Bahamas?

NASSAU, Bahamas (October 25, 2006) — An opposition leader called on the government Wednesday to investigate whether Anna Nicole Smith has legal residency status in the Bahamas, where her baby daughter was born and her son died three days later.

Hubert Ingraham, head of the main opposition Free National Movement, said he has learned that another person owns the waterfront mansion that Smith claimed was hers in an application for permanent residency.

“Clearly, Anna Nicole Smith is not a fit and proper person to become a permanent resident of the Bahamas,” said Ingraham, a former prime minister. “Her general character and reputation don’t commend her for such status.”

“I expect the government of the Bahamas to make a determination in accordance with the law,” he told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Earlier this month, an attorney for Smith said concerns about her conduct contributed to his withdrawal as her counsel.

Michael Scott cited Smith’s decision to exchange vows with her boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, and sell photographs of the informal ceremony to People magazine before burying her 20-year-old son, Daniel Smith.

Gaither B. Thompson of Myrtle Beach, S.C., has told The Associated Press that he owns the home where Smith moved while pregnant with her daughter, but declined further comment.

A lawyer for Smith dismissed reports that the 38-year-old former Playboy Playmate doesn’t own the home.

“I’ve physically seen the document that showed the property being conveyed to her,” Bahamian attorney Wayne Munroe told the AP.

The law says a person owning a house in the Bahamas valued at more than $500,000, having the means to reside without being employed and being of good character can be eligible for Bahamian residency.

Immigration Minister Shane Gibson did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Ingraham said he has been told by several people that the owner bought the home in his own name with the intention of selling it to Smith.

“If she doesn’t own the house, then she would not have met the policy conditions which the government of the Bahamas has with respect to the grant of permanent residence,” Ingraham said.

On Oct. 19, Smith buried her son, Daniel, who died while visiting Smith in a Nassau hospital where her daughter, Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern, was born Sept. 7.

A private examiner said Daniel Smith died of an accidental lethal combination of methadone and two antidepressants. The results of official toxicology tests and a police investigation have not been publicly released.

Bahamas Chief Magistrate Roger Gomez has said authorities would soon decide whether a jury inquest into the death is necessary.