Ho no! Snub blocks wed proposal
‘Bahamas mistook me for sex worker’
These European bombshells weren’t cleared for takeoff in the Caribbean.
A Miami-based real estate developer’s extravagant proposal plan was ruined when an immigration official in the Bahamas erroneously assumed his Moldovan model girlfriend, 25, and her sister, 36, were sex workers, The Post has learned.
Developer Hal “Nuby” Sears had intended to pop the question to girlfriend Darina Pînzaru, who is several decades his junior, during a planned nine-day voyage on his 70-foot yacht starting on Valentine’s Day. But she was refused entry to the Bahamas, forcing him to put the proposal on ice — for now.
The decision by a female immigration official at Nassau’s Lynden Pindling International Airport scuttled the romantic trip with Darina, a model and content creator, whom Sears met last summer in Romania. She had traveled with her older sister Ina — but both were turned around and told by the official: “I know why you’re here.”
Sears told The Post: “It was so horrifying what they went through. It is beyond comprehension. They were pre-judged.”
The Pînzarus and 10 other guests were supposed to join Sears on his 70-foot, $5 million yacht, Amici, for a lavish trip, stopping throughout the Bahamas, as well as Turks and Caicos.
But those island-hopping dreams were dashed by “nefarious prejudice,” he said, when Darina and Ina landed from London. The two are natives of Moldova who also hold Romanian citizenship, and had all the necessary requirements, including hotel reservations and confirmed future itineraries, for entry to the Bahamas.
Sears had arrived at the airport to wait for Darina and her sister. Ina said she was initially granted entry into the Bahamas, even getting her passport stamped, but then Darina encountered issues.
The pair were sent to the airport’s immigration office, where they were grilled about their plans, Ina said.
“We were treated like criminals,” Darina told The Post. “They even threatened to put us in jail.” Darina told Sears what was going on by text, and he called for help from the Four Seasons’ Ocean Club resort where he was staying.
The hotel’s head of security joined Sears at the airport, where they met the head immigration officer. But she was immediately “dismissive,” he said.
“While we were sitting outside, this lady, the head of the immigration came out and she said, ‘Yeah, I know your culture, I know why you’re here,’” Ina recalled her saying in reference to Moldova. “‘We don’t want you here, and you’ll never set foot on Bahamian land.’ ”
Ina said she can only assume one thing. “My feeling is that she thought we were from Eastern Europe and we came there as sex workers,” she said. “They said they were putting us on a flight back to London and that’s all.”
Sears filed a complaint with the Bahamas Embassy in London. The trio had not received a response as of this week, he said.
Multiple messages seeking comment from the embassy and Bahamas’ Department of Immigration were not returned.
Darina and Ina flatly deny working in the sex trade. The elder sister works in the family’s business, Di Vero Atelier, which makes custom wedding gowns and evening dresses, she said.
“The only justice we want is an apology from the Bahamian government,” Sears said. “But we’re never going to get it, so we at least want others to know they’re at risk of this kind of nefarious prejudice — there’s no other way to describe this.”