These European bombshells were not approved for flight in the Caribbean.
The Post has learned that a Miami-based real estate developer’s extravagant proposal plan was ruined when an immigration official in the Bahamas mistakenly assumed his Moldovan model girlfriend, 25, and her sister, 36, were sex workers.
Hal “Nuby” Sears had planned to propose to girlfriend Darina Pînzaru during a nine-day cruise on his 70-foot yacht beginning on Valentine’s Day.
But then she was denied entry to the Bahamas, forcing him to put the proposal on hold — for the time being.
The decision by a female immigration official at Nassau’s Lynden Pindling International Airport to cancel the romantic trip with Darina, a model and content creator whom Sears met last summer in Romania, was made by a female immigration official.
She had travelled with her older sister Ina, but both were turned around and told, “I know why you’re here,” by the official.
“It was so horrifying what they went through,” Sears told The Washington Post. It is incomprehensible. They had already made up their minds.”
The Pînzarus and ten other guests were supposed to join Sears on his 70-foot, $5 million yacht, Amici, for a lavish trip that would stop in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos.
Those island-hopping fantasies, however, were dashed by “nefarious prejudice,” he said when Darina and Ina arrived from London.
The two are Moldovans with Romanian citizenship who had met all of the requirements for entry to the Bahamas, including hotel reservations and confirmed future itineraries.
Darina and her sister were waiting for Sears at the airport.
Ina stated that she was initially granted entry into the Bahamas, even having her passport stamped, but Darina ran into problems.
According to Ina, the couple was taken to the airport’s immigration office and questioned about their plans.
“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 had been 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.
“‘They’re not in, they are out,’” Sears recalled the official declaring.
“I have information, they’re not coming in.”
Immigration officials confiscated Darina and Ina’s cell phones and detained them for hours on the other side of the gate.
Their phones, laptops, and luggage were all searched, and their fingerprints were collected.
“‘Do you have the financial means to stay in the Bahamas?’” Ina recalled being asked. “I said, ‘Yes, of course, we do, we have cash, cards, no problem.’”
The staffer finally consulted with her female supervisor.
“She talked apparently to this lady, the head of the immigration office,” Ina said.
“And she came outside, shot a glance at us, and said, ‘They’re not going in.’ That’s all.”
The immigration officials gave “zero” explanation for the barred entry, said Ina.
“Up until this point, nobody explained a thing to us,” said Ina.
“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 to you here, and you’ll never set foot on Bahamian land.’”
Ina stated that she can only make one assumption.
“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 then filed a complaint with the Bahamas embassy in London on Darina and Ina’s behalf.
He said the trio had not received a response as of this week.
Messages sent to the embassy and the Bahamas’ Department of Immigration for comment were not returned.
Darina and Ina categorically deny any involvement in the sex trade.
The elder sister works at the family business, Di Vero Atelier, which creates custom wedding gowns and evening gowns in Moldova’s capital, Chişinău.
Moldova, a landlocked country located between Romania and Ukraine, declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Despite strong economic performance over the last two decades, it remains one of Europe’s poorest countries, according to the World Bank.
Stereotypes of young Eastern European women working as prostitutes have long been fueled by legitimate government concerns that some countries fail to combat sex trafficking.
The State Department has expressed concern about Moldova’s ability to prevent trafficking, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime identified the country, along with Romania, Russia, and Bulgaria, as one of the major sources of trafficked women in Western Europe.
Sears said the ordeal tanked his plan to propose to Darina, but he intends to rectify the nightmare next month in Amsterdam, where he plans to put a 2.5-carat rock on her finger.”
“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.”
