The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

POLICE Commissioner Anthony Ferguson yesterday confirmed several high profile investigations were still ongoing, but could not give an update on their status.

The police chief told reporters at a press briefing he did not have an update to probes into the missing Oban file, Junkanoo bribery claims, or the alleged Department of Immigration bribery ring uncovered by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

He maintained investigations take time and could not be completed overnight.

Commissioner Ferguson took a similar stance in March when asked to respond to public criticism over the pace of the Oban investigation.

At that time, he told reporters the police force had to be thorough, and its efforts took time to be done right.

The proposed $5.5 billion Oban project for an oil storage and refinery facility in Grand Bahama has been dogged by controversy since the government signed the Heads of Agreement on February 19 last year.

In April 2018, the Nassau Guardian revealed police were investigating the disappearance of an Oban file from the Bahamas Environment, Science and Technology (BEST) Commission. At the time, Press Secretary Anthony Newbold told press the police had been notified about a week before the matter was leaked to the press.

In the Junkanoo matter, audio recordings between a purported female judge and George “Bommer” Armbrister, a costume designer for the Genesis group, circulated earlier this year. The woman in the recording appears to solicit funds from Mr Armbrister in exchange for reducing scores of his rival groups. Last month, The Tribune reached out to the Junkanoo Corporation of New Providence for an update on the status of their internal report on the bribery claims. Seven people were appointed to the JCNP’s committee. They were initially given 14 to 28 days to investigate and report their findings.

Yesterday, a representative from the JCNP said its report on the matter is ready and the group is deciding when to hold a press conference on the issue.

Additionally, Commissioner Ferguson told The Tribune in February police were still reviewing the information provided by the FBI concerning its two-year sting operation into visa fraud at the US Embassy in Nassau.

The FBI’s operation uncovered an alleged bribery ring between senior Bahamas immigration officials and a purported justice of the peace for fraudulent long-term work permits. These permits were used to get visas to enter the United States.

A team of investigators from the Royal Bahamas Police Force and an attorney from the Department of Public Prosecutions were briefed on the findings of the undercover investigation in November 2018.